Ted Lasso's Extended Cut

((HT: NBC Sports))

We all fell out when it was revealed that Tottenham Hotspurs brought in an American to be their new coach manager...

Here's the extended cut with Ted Lasso...

ICYMI: Jason Sudekis vs The Premiere League NBC Promo Style (funny)

We aren't going to do a lot of set up here, mostly because it doesn't need it.

If you haven't seen this, it's funny. Very funny.

NBC Sports, who recently won the rights to televise England's Premiere League soccer, created their first advance promo for their coverage.

That promo features Jason Sudeikis, and yes, it's pretty funny. As Brother Jon said, "Think Kenny Powers meets the Premiere League...only it's Sudeikis". Well, okay, you get the idea anyway.

NASCAR Heading Back To NBC, Leaving ESPN and Turner

The last time we saw NASCAR on NBC was this...


Tripp Mickle and John Ourand over at Sports Business Journal started this story this morning...

ESPN and Turner Sports will be out of the NASCAR business after next season, according to several sources. NASCAR is planning a press conference later today to announce that Fox and NBC will share rights to the sport starting in 2015. Financial terms of NBC’s deal and its broadcast plans aren’t known, but the network had been pitching NASCAR on returning the Sprint Cup series to broadcast TV and could air races on Sunday afternoons on NBC prior to "Sunday Night Football." NBC also picked up rights to the second half of the Nationwide Series. It’s unclear if those races will be on NBC or NBC Sports Network

NBC has now, officially, signed a 10-year deal with NASCAR through the 2024 season for 20 Sprint Cup races and 19 Nationwide events. It's not known where the remaining "Summer Series" 6-race grouping will air since that negotiation is still in play. The exclusivity window for negotiation ended July 14th, so it was all hands on deck for spending (what is reported in some circles) as up to 50-percent more in fees than what went down in the last deal...

Seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events will be carried on NBC annually, with the remaining 13 airing on NBC Sports Network... or "NBCSN" as branding calls it these days...

ESPN threw in the towel this afternoon and will stop after 34 years of covering the sport live:

Statement from John Skipper, President of ESPN:

“ESPN has enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with NASCAR. We have tremendous respect for the France family, the drivers and all in the sport and wish them well. We will continue to serve NASCAR fans through SportsCenter and our other news platforms as we continue to enhance our industry-leading collection of quality assets.
“We are looking forward to the start of our Sprint Cup season and will continue with our deep commitment to the highest quality coverage.”

Turner Broadcasting President of Sales, Distribution & Sports David Levy said in another press release: "Turner Sports is proud of the partnership we've built with NASCAR over the past 31 years and the role our company has played in helping to grow the sport. We think NASCAR is an attractive property, but we are disciplined in our approach to negotiating sports rights and could not come up with a business model that was financially prudent for our company."

NBC can now pair the NASCAR package with their five-ringed circus coverage complete with cross-promotion and all the bells and whistles that go with it- which could justify their rate increase for the rights fees...

NBC will find ways to make their money back, but the larger issue could be the ratings- which were the lowest in their era for broadcast

NBC Sports Network Has Inked A Collegiate Conference, The Colonial Athletic Association

Now that the NBC Sports Network, which was launched January 2, 2012, is up and running they need programming.

You can only show so much of hockey and hunting and fishing shows.

Monday NBCSN and the Colonial Athletic Association announced an new five year agreement to air CAA games.

“We are thrilled to be associated with the NBC Sports Group,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said in a press release by the conference. “The NBC Sports Network now provides a national platform to elevate the conference in conjunction with the relationship we’ve had with the Comcast SportsNets, which have been the foundation of our television package for almost three decades.”

The five year agreement calls for 12 national telecasts of CAA men’s basketball games, including national television coverage of the semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time. Five national telecasts of CAA Football games for the first time in conference history and other CAA games and championships on NBCSports.com.

How much of a financial windfall this is for the CAA is not known, no financial numbers were released.

The CAA is the best football conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. Since 1998 the CAA has produced five NCAA national championships in football.

How that will translate nationally remains to be seen. The FCS is the old 1-AA and not on the big time scale for football.

As for college basketball the CAA has become the darlings of the mid-majors with George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth making memorable NCAA Final Four runs the last six years.

The member institutions in the CAA are: Delaware, Drexel, George Mason, Georgia State, Hofstra, James Madison, UNC Wilmington, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Old Dominion, Rhode Island, Towson University, Virginia Commonwealth and the College of William & Mary. The football only schools in the CAA are Villanova, Maine, Rhode Island and Richmond.

Keep in mind cable networks only care about size of TV markets and the CAA does deliver some major ones. With Georgia State you have the Atlanta market. Towson the Baltimore, Maryland market. Northeastern delivers the Boston market. Drexel the Philadelphia market and George Mason the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. market. That's impressive.

Congrats to the CAA for inking a big time cable deal.