Good afternoon, here’s what we’re following at SBJ Today:
- UConn AD David Benedict on the Big East’s strength, basketball’s value
- Sources: Fubo makes surprise pitch to the 13 NBA teams that fled Main Street
- CBS draws best Masters final round in 11 years with McIlroy’s repeat
- Plus: WNBA players to receive financial education from JPMorganChase; Prime Video feed cuts out during OT of Hornets-Heat play-in game; UCLA baseball debuts Jackie Robinson tribute uniforms; and more.
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Joe Lemire: The Masters garners the best viewership in 11 years and a timeline into the resignation of The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. Also, Lemire is joined by Austin Karp, Ben Fischer, and Chris Smith for a preview of the CAA World Congress of Sports. Listen >>
THE BIG STORY
UConn AD David Benedict on Big East’s strength, basketball’s value
The college basketball season didn’t end with a national title, as UConn AD David Benedict might’ve hoped, but the school’s positioning hasn’t been better in some time.
The Huskies are winners of two of the last four national championships, and their return to the Big East has been a boon for the conference and school. Considering the fascinating place the Big East occupies in the college sports ecosystem — a basketball stalwart sans football — it puts a school like UConn in a unique situation.
SBJ’s Ben Portnoy caught up with Benedict at the Men’s Final Four to talk about the league and UConn’s run of success amid a complex and increasingly pricey ecosystem.
5 STORIES WE’RE WATCHING
1. Sources: Fubo makes surprise pitch to the 13 NBA teams that fled Main Street: Fubo has become an 11th-hour suitor of the 13 NBA teams that have just exited Main Street Sports Group, multiple sources told SBJ, with a hybrid direct-to-distributer and direct-to-consumer model that would include rights fees likely in the vicinity of $10M or slightly below.
2. CBS draws best Masters final round in 11 years with McIlroy’s repeat: CBS averaged 14 million viewers on Sunday for Rory McIlroy’s win in the Masters, the best viewership total for the final round in 11 years, dating to the same figure for Jordan Spieth’s win in 2015.
3. As salaries soar, WNBA players to receive financial education from JPMorganChase: With as many as 23 free agents already earning million-dollar contracts, the WNBPA has partnered with JPMorganChase to launch a year-round financial education initiative for its player membership.
4. Prime Video feed cuts out during OT of Hornets-Heat play-in game: Tuesday night’s Prime Video broadcast of the Hornets-Heat play-in tournament game “cut out for nearly two minutes with less than a minute left in OT” due to technical difficulties.
5. UCLA baseball debuts Jackie Robinson tribute uniforms: UCLA on Tuesday tapped late Baseball HOFer Jackie Robinson’s granddaughter, Sonya Pankey Robinson, to unveil the uniforms the team is wearing to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day, which is celebrated throughout baseball today.
ON THE MOVE
- The NFL named Brian Flinn as its SVP/Global Flag Football. In the newly created role, Flinn will lead the NFL’s global flag football strategy. He will be based in N.Y. (NFL).
- Elevate has appointed Willie DiBlasi as Chief Operating Officer, while continuing his role as Chief Financial Officer. DiBlasi has served as Elevate’s CFO since 2024 (Grace Kut, SBJ).
- One of the PGA of America’s top officials is taking a new sponsorship job with GSE Worldwide. Bryan Karns, a senior official at the PGA who ran last year’s Ryder Cup as well as prior PGA Championships, is joining GSE as a VP of golf sponsorship sales (Josh Carpenter, SBJ).
NAMES IN THE NEWS
- Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi finds himself in a lawsuit filed in Florida after “no-showing for a pair of friendlies last year with the Argentina national football team.” TMZ reported that VID, a company that promotes large-scale sporting and music events based in Miami, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Messi and the Argentine Football Association for “fraud and breach of contract” (N.Y. Post).
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was at the Ottawa Charge practice Tuesday wearing a Charge hoodie and “sporting rainbow tape on his stick, skated a few laps with the team, joined in on some drills and even snuck a few pucks past Charge goaltenders” (Toronto Sun).
- The Pistons’ basketball communications team has won the 2025-26 Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award. The Pistons staff is led by Chief Communications Officer Kevin Grigg, along with VP/Public Relations Cletus Lewis; Senior Dir/Communications Michael Horan; Senior Manager/Public Relations Corey Moore and Coordinator/Public Relations Savannah Strawther (Professional Basketball Writers Association).
HOT READS
The WALL STREET JOURNAL went with the header, “The Major-League Team Being Run Entirely by Millennials.” This winter, the Nationals “took a bold step in an effort to fix their problems.” They became the “first baseball team to put its fate in the hands” of the millennial generation. This “unprecedented infestation of 30-somethings” began when the Nationals hired Paul Toboni as their president of baseball operations at age 36. And they “didn’t stop there.”
Also:
- The untold stories of Mike Borgonzi’s journey to the Tennessee Titans.
- The Minnesota Star Tribune writes that Tony Sanneh is a Soccer Hall of Famer whose most important contribution is off the pitch.
- The Blazers are going to need a head coach. Will Tom Dundon pay for one?