SBJ Unpacks: The winners and losers of more March Madness

Tonight in Unpacks: More teams. More TV slots. More media money. But expanding the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament isn’t a win-win for everyone involved, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.

Also tonight:

• WNBA eyeing significant commercial growth in 30th season
• Cosm to show 40 of Fox’s FIFA World Cup games
• Chicago mayor’s Hail Mary to keep Bears
• Op-ed: The next wave of fan engagement

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Austin Karp wraps up the week breaking down the changes coming with more March Madness, Netflix’s NFL haul, Cosm’s plans for the FIFA World Cup and more.

After months of deliberation, the NCAA’s varying committees have agreed to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams.

The change comes amid plenty of outside backlash, but announcements and comments from varying NCAA stakeholders were designed to quell some of the uneasiness about the dramatic changes.

“There are 32 conferences in the NCAA and not one of them is opposed to expansion at any level -- that’s a pretty powerful statement,” NCAA VP/Basketball Dan Gavitt said. “While I know that there’s not excitement in some corners of the media and fan base, our schools and conferences are saying, ‘We need this.’ Things are changing. And this is being responsive to their needs and keeping what’s special about March Madness special for many years to come.”

Responsiveness aside, there’s no doubt some who came out on top and others who didn’t with this week’s determinations.

So who won and who lost in all of this? I tried to pick a couple answers here.

Winners

The Power Four Conferences

It’s no secret the Power Four have been looking to increasingly lord over college sports.

The NCAA changed its entire governance structure, yes, in part, to expedite the decision making process. It also did so to appease the powers that be -- the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC -- by granting them weighted voting power on those new-look committees.

As it relates to the tournament, recent history shows the expansion will almost certainly benefit these leagues and their increasingly bloated size. The Power Four accounted for 13 of 20 teams in the “first four out” of the bracket over the past five years. All of those teams now would make it into the field.

There is at least some conversation to be had about the benefits smaller conferences will get from seeing six automatic qualifiers playing at least two tournament games each year, guaranteeing those leagues one additional unit (only two automatic qualifiers had that chance in the 68-team format). That’s not nothing.

It’s also worth noting initial fears about the Power Four pushing for new looks to automatic qualifiers and other variations of expansion that would’ve inherently hurt smaller conferences are not part of this. But let’s not kid ourselves, this is being done, at least on some level, to appease the richest and most powerful leagues in the country.

The NCAA’s sponsorship revenue

As Sports Business Journal has reported for months, a major piece to the expansion discussion was the opening of new sponsorship categories in exchange for a bigger bracket.

Now that’s coming to fruition.

As part of shifting the field to 76 teams, beer, wine, spirits, and hard seltzers will be made available within the NCAA’s Corporate Champions and Partners Program. That’s a major shift for an organization that has been admittedly conservative in how it sells sponsorships and what categories it offers up.

The sentiment among industry insiders in recent months has been that CBS/TNT would not up their rights fees if the tournament expanded, so the money had to come from elsewhere. Adding eight teams to the field, after all, isn’t a cheap proposition. New sponsorship categories allow, in part, for everyone to be made whole.

Those involved are betting there are big dollars to be made here annually. They’re probably right.

Losers

Potential bidders on the next NCAA media rights deal

You could argue this going either way, but, long term, I’m guessing this “trial run” is going to cost CBS/TNT or whoever decides to bid on the tournament when the current deal is up in 2032 billions.

Sources I spoke with in the lead up to expansion characterized adding a handful of games to the early rounds now as a sampling of sorts for the TV networks. If they rate well -- and the NCAA is betting they will -- that’s a bargaining chip come extension/new deal time.

The college sports media market is in a fascinating place and seemingly ready to spark another round realignment with a slew of deals expiring in a three-year window between 2029 and 2032.

The NFL is going to go after every dollar it can with its current discussions. Next up? College football and college basketball, depending how they might be packaged.

The NCAA’s hope that people will watch feels like a logical thought. Just don’t tell the execs at the major networks, because this expansion sure feels like it’s going to cost them more money in the long run.

The fans

Plenty of corners of the internet and within the college basketball ecosystem have been critical of the NCAA’s efforts to expand the tournament.

The prevailing sentiment? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

They may have a point.

Being a college sports fan these days is genuinely hard. Player movement makes keeping up with rosters more complicated. The postseason -- the College Football Playoff and NCAA tournament -- are in seemingly weekly discussions about completely overhauling their structure to the point some can’t keep up. That’s all also not to mention the price of attending games has never been higher.

Chalk up NCAA tournament expansion as another bullet point on the growing list of things fans aren’t asking for or would prefer not happen that decision makers have moved ahead with.

The WNBA heads into its fourth decade with labor peace following the negotiation of a transformative CBA, two expansion teams (with more to come) and a record media deal.

Add increased sponsor interest to the growth indicators heading into season 30. The league tips off play Friday with several new sponsors, including Amazon Web Services as a Changemaker, and more commercial growth expected.

“There’s no better time to be a fan of the WNBA, so there’s really no better time to be a partner of the WNBA, and we’re really excited,” Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison told SBJ this week.

The WNBA saw a 40% increase in sponsorship revenue from 2024 to 2025, and it expects similar year-over-year growth from 2025 to 2026. Edison said that has come in part due to the growth of the league’s WNBA sponsors that don’t also have deals with the NBA. When Edison started five years ago, just one (Deloitte) fit that category. It now has 13, including Ally, State Street Investment Management, Delta, Bumble and Reebok.

“It’s just a way that we can help expand their reach to a much younger, more diverse and more engaged audience,” Edison said. “I think what we’ve really seen is a shift from a partnership with the WNBA being experiential like an experiment for your organization to it now being a core part of your marketing strategy.”

That’s included a handful of new sponsorships coming into the season. In addition to AWS, the WNBA has added Skechers and Mars as sponsors.

Building on its Mielle sponsorship, parent company Proctor & Gamble joined as a sponsor in a multiyear deal that will tie six of its brands (Secret, Olay, Tampax, Venus, Downy, and Tide) to the league.

The additions come as the league negotiated its new collective bargaining agreement with the WNBPA, a lengthy process that ended in March with a deal that not only includes significant pay increases but also establishes a 20% revenue share.

Edison said she focused on ensuring sponsors that a deal would get done.

“The fact that we were able to drive incremental revenue during a time of such great uncertainty, I think really shows you the value of our property,” she said. “When you bring on blue chip brands like that, you are really building confidence in the entire market of what your league is. And I think it’s showing that we are a true growth property that businesses believe in.”

That growth comes with celebration this season as the WNBA marks its 30th year. Its sponsors are part of the recognition for the milestone year, with Nike launching a merchandise line while La Crema has created a WNBA wine.

The league’s sponsors will also have a bigger place in its All-Star Weekend. The league first launched WNBA Live with the 2022 game in Chicago, with just six sponsors activating in the fan-fest. As the tentpole event returns to the Windy City in July, Edison said the league will have more than 30 brands activating there, a record topping the 25 in Indianapolis last year.

That expansion comes as the league is enjoying record valuations, with CNBC calculations showing teams averaging $460M with the Valkyries becoming women’s sports’ first $1B team.

“When we look at partnerships, it’s really about we are a serious asset class now. We’ve changed the game,” Edison said. “It’s no longer potential, it’s proven value. And that is a level of confidence that blue chip brands are looking for.”

Cosm and Fox Sports have deal to bring 40 FIFA World Cup matches to Cosm’s three shared-reality facilities in L.A., Dallas and Atlanta, which opens the day before the World Cup starts. That will include 11 group stage matches -- including all three USMNT matches and two of three Mexico matches -- as well as the majority of initial knockout matches, followed by the full slate of remaining matches in the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final.

Like it’s done for a number of Fox Sports telecasts in football, NASCAR and other sports, Cosm will capture and produce the World Cup at various host venues and distribute live matches back to its 87-foot-diameter, 12K+ LED domes, while also offering Fox a feed to use on TV.

“We see this space exploding right now,” said Michael Bucklin, Fox Sports’ SVP/Digital. “This is quite literally the best seat in the house at any event you ever want to go to. ... We want to make big events feel bigger. We want to give fans access, and this is a great combination of both of those things.”

Fox last summer struck a multiyear deal to bring games from college football, MLB, the NFL and the Daytona 500 into Cosm facilities, and an area that has proven particularly fruitful for Fox as part of the deal is content from watch parties. Cosm facilities can fit around 1,200 fans, with 350 in the reserved dome areas in Dallas and L.A., while Atlanta’s reserved area is expected to hold closer to 500.

“Fans like to see the fandom around major events,” Bucklin said. “So just like we had a live camera when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in the World Series showing the local L.A. audience and how crazy they went during that moment in the Cosm venue, we’ll have that exact camera … for the World Cup for the 40 matches that we’re doing together so we can show those live reactions from those venues on replay on linear and on digital.”

Cosm SVP/Content & Media Peter Murphy noted FIFA officials have been able to easily check out the Cosm venues since they’re so close to several hubs this summer. The USMNT plays its first match at SoFi Stadium right next to a Cosm, while the Dallas facility is close to the World Cup’s International Broadcast Center and Cosm Atlanta is adjacent to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will host eight matches.

“We’ve benefited from them visiting those cities, coming to Cosm, experiencing it themselves. … They’ve got a strong desire and enthusiasm toward innovation, and so this allows them, along with their partner Fox, to exploit that and do something new that hasn’t been done before, because we didn’t exist for the last World Cup.”

The Bears have seen signs of progress with the Illinois legislation they want to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, Ill., rather than relocate to Indiana, which rolled out the financial and political red carpet. But a legislative win in Illinois is far from certain, and this week a strong statement of opposition from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson raised fresh doubts about their path.

Johnson spoke out against the so-called “megaprojects” deal now in front of the Illinois Senate, promising to use, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, “whatever political muscle he has” to block the bill. “I don’t know why any Chicago legislator would vote for anything that doesn’t benefit the people they represent,” Johnson said.

On Wednesday, there were signs he’d had success. Chicago Democratic Senator Willie Preston, who is also senate chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, said he’s with the mayor and opposes the legislation, which would enable major developers across the state, including the Bears, to negotiate long-term property tax breaks with local jurisdictions.

If true, Preston’s opposition could be curtains for the Illinois stadium plan. But then Preston later said he was misinterpreted, and it’s not clear where the Senate Democrats or the Black Caucus stands.

The thing about Johnson’s desire to keep the team in Chicago is that it seems far too little, too late. Unless the Bears are playing a very elaborate word game, the choice now is Indiana or the suburbs — Chicago’s simply not in the mix. If Johnson’s successful, the result would be to start construction in Indiana, not more negotiations.

The Bears have been clear that, while they have a viable option across the state line, they are giving Illinois legislators a chance to develop their own offer, and that they intend to make a decision before the start of training camp. Furthermore, the notion that the Bears have options to build inside Chicago city limits is a year out of date.

To sincerely play this hand, Johnson must believe at least one of three things: 1) The Bears aren’t serious about moving to Hammond; 2) That moving to Hammond would be better for Chicagoans than a move to Arlington Heights (it is closer to the city); or 3) The Bears aren’t serious about deciding by this summer.

Early on, there had been speculation that the Indiana option is just a “stalking horse,” but by now the Bears are repeatedly on record about their plans. It would be quite a bet for Johnson to gamble on them backtracking. Then again, perhaps Johnson knows Chicago has lost the Bears and he’s just trying to save face.

If there’s good news for the Bears and the Illinois cause, it’s that being mayor of Chicago isn’t what it used to be. When it comes twisting arms in the state government, Brandon Johnson is no Mayor Richard J. Daley. But he doesn’t have to be. If his view of the world holds sway with even a few Chicago Democrats in the state house and Senate, then the vote counting gets that much harder.

For the past three decades, the sports industry has focused on one core objective: building better ways to watch. Bigger broadcast deals, richer streaming packages and more statistics on the second screen have all improved the viewing experience. The model worked because audiences kept growing and the quality of the broadcast kept improving.

But the way fans behave during live matches has quietly moved ahead of the products built around it. Walk into any stadium or living room on match day and observe what is actually happening. Fans debate formations before kickoff, call substitutions minutes before they occur and sometimes sense a red card coming before the referee reaches for his pocket. This behavior is not passive. It is active, continuous and social. Yet most sports products still treat it as background noise.

Research from Deloitte estimates that roughly 85% of sports fans use a second screen during live matches. What fans actually do on that screen is revealing. The dominant activities are not highlight viewing or statistics browsing. They are group messaging and informal prediction. Fans constantly anticipate what will happen next, debate decisions and try to read the momentum of the match before events unfold.

The football group chat has effectively become an accidental prototype. Predictions appear before moments occur. Arguments open and resolve in real time. By the final whistle, an informal record exists of who read the game correctly. Then it disappears.

The behavior already exists at massive scale. What is missing is the product layer that structures it. Across sports and markets, billions of fans repeat this pattern every match day. These interactions sit next to the broadcast but rarely inside the products surrounding it. That gap points toward what could become the next layer of live sports: structured participation.

Other industries have already moved in this direction. Media evolved from passive consumption toward comment sections, polls and creator ecosystems. Gaming shifted from single-player experiences to social competition that keeps players engaged for years. Streaming platforms discovered that communities built around content often drive deeper engagement than the content itself. In each case, participation unlocked new forms of value that consumption alone could not deliver. Live sports are particularly suited to this transition because they contain something most media formats cannot replicate: genuine real-time uncertainty. The outcome is unknown and every moment carries stakes. Fans do not simply watch that uncertainty unfold. They interpret it. Every moment creates pressure to anticipate what happens next.

A participation layer would not replace the broadcast. It would sit on top of it. Fans could engage with the match as it unfolds by committing to predictions around key moments, competing with friends and communities in real time and building a persistent record of how accurately they read the game. The informal social currency that already exists, calling the tactical shift or predicting the turning point before others see it, would become something structured and measurable.

For the sports industry, the implications are significant. Leagues that enable structured participation during live matches can build deeper relationships with their audiences. A fan who has actively engaged across a full season is far more invested than one who simply watched the same games.

Broadcasters that integrate participation into live coverage gain a mechanism for holding younger audiences, who have repeatedly shown that passive viewing alone is not enough to keep their attention. Sponsors operating inside a participatory environment gain access to a level of fan focus that passive viewing rarely delivers.

The technical conditions required to support this shift now exist. Real-time match data, systems capable of interpreting events during live play and mobile platforms that can deliver interactions instantly have reached the necessary scale.

Over the past 30 years, the sports industry solved distribution. The next phase may be about structuring what fans already do while watching the game. Because the behavior already exists. “Every’” match day. In every group chat.

Cristian Plop is the founder of Pulse, a startup exploring participatory experiences around live sports.

• Longtime GMR Marketing exec Todd Fischer is moving to fellow Omnicom sports/experiential agency Optimum Sports as chief strategy and property officer, a new position at the firm, reports SBJ’s Terry Lefton.
• The Sabres signed a five-year deal making Buffalo-based Stark Tech their first-ever jersey patch sponsor, capitalizing on renewed fan and commercial momentum amid the franchise’s first playoff appearance in 14 years, writes SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• Silverman also notes that the Leagues Cup will continue to be held in late summer when MLS adopts its new summer-to-spring calendar in 2027.
• The largest renovation in Delta Center’s 35-year history will resume this offseason, notes SBJ’s Bret McCormick, which includes reshaping its seating bowl to better accommodate Salt Lake City’s basketball and hockey crowds.
• In this week’s Talent Pool agency roundup, SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario reports that Heat G Davion Mitchell returned to CAA Sports.
• Luxury watch retailer Fourtané Jewelers signed the dominant NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou to a new endorsement deal, notes SBJ’s Adam Stern.
• SBJ’s Mary Gaughan recaps the latest episode of SBJ Live, which focuses on the ways women’s sports properties are using social media to build younger fandoms.
• The NBA and AWS revamped the way fans can follow along with the NBA Draft Combine, which starts on Sunday and runs throughout next week, notes SBJ’s Ethan Joyce.