Michael Jordan has taken a major loss off the racetrack.

Jordan’s 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports, are now at risk of losing their NASCAR charter status—the sport’s version of franchises—as the entities’ legal battles continue.

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction, ordered in December by a U.S. District Court in North Carolina, that required NASCAR to treat 23XI and Front Row as chartered teams for the 2025 season.

Charter status gives teams automatic spots in races and guarantees them larger prize-money payouts. 

The attorney representing both 23XI and Front Row, Jeffrey Kessler, issued a statement responding to the court decision.

“We are disappointed by today’s ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and are reviewing the decision to determine our next step,” Kessler said. “This ruling is based on a very narrow consideration of whether a release of claims in the charter agreements is anti-competitive and does not impact our chances of winning at a trial scheduled for December 1. We remain confident in our case and committed to racing for the entirety of this season as we continue our fight to create a fair and just economic system for stock car racing that is free of anticompetitive, monopolistic conduct.”

The teams can appeal the latest ruling, so the earliest they would potentially have to run a NASCAR Cup Series race without charter status would be June 28 in Atlanta.

Front Row and 23XI initially sued NASCAR in October, calling the France family who owns the organization “monopolistic bullies,” in an effort to get a larger share of media-rights revenue. In March, a lawyer representing NASCAR said he had “no idea” what the suing teams thought a fair split would be, because it had “never been articulated in any filing.”

Tyler Reddick, 23XI’s top driver this season, is currently sixth in the Cup Series standings, while Bubba Wallace is 10th and Riley Herbst is 35th. Front Row’s Todd Gilliland is 23rd, Zane Smith is 25th, and Noah Gragson is 31st.

As TNT Sports said goodbye to the NBA, it welcomed the French Open. That’s not exactly an apples-to-apples exchange, but the Grand Slam is one of the company’s new sports properties that can cushion the blow of losing the rights to one of the major U.S. sports leagues.

Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to a 10-year, $650 million media deal for the French Open last June, taking it away from NBC (and the Tennis Channel) a month before Comcast would swoop in and take back the rights to the NBA. 

The first eight days of WBD’s coverage of the 2025 French Open have been ostensibly strong, averaging 292,000 viewers on TNT, a 23% increase from last year. When adding truTV and Max, WBD announced it saw a 53% increase in total hours watched.

Viewership peaked at 840,000 viewers during Sunday’s match between world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and American Ben Shelton.

Despite the increase, the numbers aren’t exactly eye-popping compared to the millions drawn by the NBA. But the first week still brought more viewers to the cable channel, as Roland-Garros coverage through the first week was up 67% versus comparable broadcast windows last year. Given that most matches in Paris air in the morning and early afternoon in the U.S., TNT’s comparison was mostly against reruns of TV shows or movies. 

Year 1 Gift

Expect WBD to post an even better week of ratings after being gifted with some strong matchups and U.S. representation. Four Americans advanced to the quarterfinals, including Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, the first time multiple men have made the final eight at the French Open since 1995.

American and world No. 2 Coco Gauff also advanced to the women’s singles final and has a chance to be the first U.S. player to win the French Open since Serena Williams accomplished it in 2015. She will face a tough test battling top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka.

The men’s semifinals are Friday, but the final could also feature the top two players, as both Jannik Sinner (No. 1) and Carlos Alcaraz (No. 2) are still in contention. The two have a budding rivalry that should bring in many viewers. Sinner could lose in the semis to Novak Djokovic, in which case the Serbian would be chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title at the finale Sunday.

The disconnect about the future of the College Football Playoff among the sport’s leaders continues to grow by the day.

While the CFP is moving to a straight-seeding format this coming season, a decision on further expansion in 2026 and a new structure for a potential 16-team field appears likely to bleed into this fall.

The biggest hurdle for CFP leaders to clear on the road to expansion is how teams will qualify for the Playoff. The Big 12 supports a 5+11 model that would see the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next 11 highest-ranked teams make a 16-team Playoff. 

There is also discussion about giving the Big Ten and SEC more guaranteed CFP spots. Ohio State coach Ryan Day told ESPN on Wednesday that the Big Ten deserves “at least four automatic qualifiers.” That would seem to fall in line with suggested models that give the Big Ten and SEC four CFP bids apiece, while potentially giving the ACC and Big 12 only two each, with at-large spots filling out the rest.

However, Day doesn’t appear ready to give the SEC the same privilege, even as the leagues discuss a scheduling partnership, because they play one less conference game per season. “If you don’t have those automatic qualifiers, you’re less likely to play a game like we’re playing this year against Texas, because it just won’t make sense,” he said. “If we do, then you’re more likely to do that, because we play nine conference games in the Big Ten. The SEC doesn’t. So it’s not equal.”

Big Decisions

Whenever the CFP decides on its format for 2026 and beyond, it will be the Big Ten and SEC that have the largest say. But will they only be looking out for themselves, or college football at large?

“Yes, they have the pen. But with that pen comes responsibility to do the right thing,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Front Office Sports last month. “It’s not written anywhere in the Memorandum of Understanding that they can take the CFP and create a format or make a decision that only benefits their two conferences.”

The CFP has a Dec. 1 deadline to notify its media-rights holder, ESPN, of any expansion or changes for the 2026 season.