We're measuring NFL speed all wrong
Plus: A special day in Canada, an NFL/X mystery, and a Nobel betting scandal
Back by popular demand, here are six sports business items that caught our eyes to start your week.
Sportico Story of the Week ⚽: Valuations for National Women’s Soccer League teams have gone up 50x. The league is expanding. Women’s sports are finally getting their due. And yet, Eben and Scott reported Friday, there has not been unanimous support for commissioner Jessica Berman within the league’s highest circles. She ended up signing a three-year deal to stay on. All I know is that women’s soccer in America is going to look radically different by the end of that term, one way or another.
Non-Sportico Story of the Week 💰: The college football world is still buzzing about the firing of Penn State head coach James Franklin, who is due a $50 million buyout to exit stage left. His contract was signed during a different time in college sports (2021, though that phrase could apply to basically any time I guess). I thought Alex Kirshner of
had a succinct breakdown…What Needs to Change 👟: We’re measuring the speed of NFL players all wrong. This is something I didn’t think about for a second until some user named Noswagjones posted on the r/billsimmons subreddit and now I can’t stop thinking about. They’re right, goddamit! MPH is totally devoid of context on an NFL football field—and frankly not that impressive when the range is like 18 to 22. Now yards-per-second, on the other hand…
Mr. Goodell, it’s time to right this wrong.
What I’m Jealous of 🇨🇦: Monday is a great day to be a Canadian sports fan. It’s Thanksgiving up north, and they’ve got NHL games starting at 12:30 p.m. ET, the Blue Jays starring in the MLB ALCS at 5:03 p.m, plus CFL action at 1 pm ET. The Ottawa Redblacks and Montreal Alouettes play on CBSSN in the U.S., if you’re stuck at work in the States and looking to throw something on. Out of respect.
What Confused Me 🧮: Something is going on with the X account tracking NFL Scorigamis (the occurrence of a specific score for the first time in league history). Long reliable, it has recently neglected to highlight new instances of Scorigami, such as the Packers/Cowboys’ 40-40 tie, while claiming common score lines, like 30-27 on Sunday, have happened 0 times before. It seems like some combination of limitations on X bots, neglect from the owner, and general web enshittification has struck once again.
May we all remember the good times…
What Made Me Laugh (Ruefully) 🏅: The Nobel peace prize had its first(?) betting scandal last week, as online bets for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spiked on Polymarket shortly before she was awarded the honor. The head of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told Bloomberg: “It seems we have been prey to a criminal actor who wants to earn money on our information.” It seems like a bit of website code snooping was the more likely cause here, rather than some form of direct insider trading.
This officially makes the Nobel Prize a sport, right?
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.