The blockbuster ESPN-NFL deal could bring one of the league’s most popular products to college: RedZone.

On Tuesday, ESPN and the NFL announced the agreement, giving the NFL a 10% stake in ESPN (worth an estimated $2.5 billion) in exchange for many of the league’s key media assets, including NFL Network and its RedZone brand. As part of the deal, ESPN has acquired not only distribution rights to RedZone, but also its trademark name—opening up the possibility of a college football version of the show.

“We have the opportunity to expand the RedZone brand to other sports, other leagues,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro told Front Office Sports this week. “We would do that in partnership, and in concert, with the NFL. Of course, the other leagues would need to agree to it. We’re starting to think about what we can do. We are very passionate about the RedZone brand. We think it’s very compelling and there’s a lot of value there.”

Trying to monetize the fervent enthusiasm around RedZone in college football makes strategic sense for ESPN. But the logistics could be challenging, especially licensing highlights from broadcasts for games not owned by ESPN.

The sports media giant is the clear leader in the space, boasting an exclusive media-rights agreement with the SEC, rights to most ACC games as well as extensive rights to the Big 12, American, Sun Belt, Mid-American conferences, and more. This year, ESPN will show approximately 1,000 regular-season games across its platforms before the College Football Playoff national championship on Jan. 19, 2026. 

But ESPN doesn’t control all of college football’s big-time TV inventory. ESPN and the Big Ten Conference ended their four-decade-long relationship in 2022; as a result of a $7 billion deal forged in 2023, the Big Ten’s TV rights are now split between Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and CBS Sports. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame have had their own TV deal with NBC since 1991. If the proposed ESPN-NFL deal goes through, ESPN will have the rights to all NFL games for use on NFL RedZone—but may only have the rights to its own games for a potential College Football RedZone. 

“Yes, ESPN could create its own kick-ass version of RedZone with SEC games. Or the SEC, ACC, and other games. But what if it can’t show Ohio State or Michigan?” noted one source. “Will fans watch that? That’s the question.”

There are ways ESPN can try to get around the thorny issue of who owns rights to which games. Sports networks typically have in-progress, highlight exchange agreements with other broadcasters. These highlights typically range in length from 30 to 45 seconds. But there’s a difference between that and the more extensive live game “look-ins” viewers are accustomed to on NFL RedZone.

ESPN can try to negotiate more highlights/look-ins. But that would probably require all-new deals in a complicated process that would likely involve rival networks and conferences that may or may not cooperate with ESPN.

“Maybe ESPN gets there, maybe they don’t, maybe ESPN just does it with their own games,” said another source. “But these conferences don’t just let you do whatever you want with their content. Yes, ESPN would be able to show a lot of games. But they’d miss some marquee ones, too.”

Then, too, there’s the future of the ESPN-NFL deal itself. When FOS talked to Pitaro this week, he was confident the proposed deal would pass muster with the feds. But antitrust regulators, or President Donald Trump himself, could intervene. Gaining regulatory approval from the federal government will likely take a year or more, with Disney’s CFO saying Wednesday that he didn’t expect the deal to close until the end of 2026. 

Also, while NFL RedZone is a phenomenon, the format would not be exclusive to ESPN. Any network or sports league can create a whip-around highlight show. NBC Sports, for example, had a monster hit during the Paris Olympics with its Gold Zone show on the Peacock streaming platform, with Hanson hosting the Olympic knockoff. The reaction was so positive that Hanson and Gold Zone will be back for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games. 

ESPN has attempted college sports whip-around shows before. It produced a show called ESPN Goal Line for football and ESPN Buzzer Beater for basketball; both shows have been discontinued. One reason, say sources, was that they didn’t get enough access to games spread across dueling networks. The Big East first broadcast men’s basketball whip-around coverage to kick off its season in 2021, and both CBS and ESPN have attempted similar coverage for both men’s and women’s March Madness. (ESPN still does college baseball and softball whip-around shows during the baseball and softball College World Series, called Squeeze Play and 7Innings Live, respectively.)

But if the ESPN-NFL deal gets approved, only ESPN will have the rights to the RedZone trademark. If ESPN wants to create line extensions off that powerful brand around college football, the NBA, or the NHL, it’ll have the backing of the NFL.

“Certainly you could see different RedZones with different sports,” NFL chief operating officer Hans Schroeder told FOS. “They could certainly build out the RedZone channel to be more than seven hours a week if they wanted to.” 

LAFC is making a massive investment in Son Heung-min, but there are already early signs to support the team’s move.

The MLS club announced the signing of the South Korean star at a press conference Wednesday, less than a week after he announced he was leaving Tottenham Hotspur. He spent 10 years with the English Premier League club.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though multiple reports have indicated the transfer fee paid to Tottenham could be as high as $26.5 million (£20 million)—which would smash the MLS record of $22 million that Atlanta United paid to acquire Emmanuel Latte Lath from Middlesbrough FC.

The team revealed that his deal runs through 2027 and has options for 2028 and 2029.

The South Korean star—who led Tottenham to the 2024 UEFA Europa League title—is expected to bring a ton of fanfare to the club due to his heritage.

Son said Thursday that it’s a “dream come true” to play in the city of Los Angeles. The city boasts the largest population of Koreans in the U.S., and, according to L.A. mayor Karen Bass, the largest outside of Seoul, the capital city of South Korea.

“As a Korean, to know that Koreatown here in Los Angeles has so many Koreans, I’m very proud to be a part of the club and this city here,” Son said Wednesday in Korean.

From Seoul to SoCal

Fanatics tells FOS that since Son’s official LAFC announcement was made Wednesday, his merchandise is tops among any athlete across all sports.

He is No. 2 in sales all-time for any MLS player that has joined a new team, only behind Lionel Messi when he joined Inter Miami in August 2023.

His intro video and press conference have both drawn more than 170,000 views on LAFC’s YouTube account, which are both more than 90 times the team average, according to sports and entertainment firm Two Circles.

Among all MLS teams, LAFC has the sixth-largest percentage of Asian social media followers (5.6% on Instagram, TikTok, and X). They are also second in the league in percentage of Hispanic followers (27.6%) while having the second-lowest percentage of white followers (35%) behind only their crosstown rivals, the LA Galaxy.

Son will be sixth among all MLS players in social media followers (20 million), behind the likes of Lionel Messi (637 million), Luis Suárez (85 million), and Thomas Müller (43 million), who just signed with Vancouver FC.

On-Field Help

While the 33-year-old is already at the back end of his career, he’s still expected to provide an on-field jolt for LAFC when he makes his debut, which could come as soon as Saturday against the Chicago Fire if he’s able to receive his P-1 visa. 

Son scored 127 goals during his decade-long EPL career, the most of any Asian player in league history. In 2021, Son won the Premier League Golden Boot—which is awarded to the league’s leading goal-scorer—after scoring 23 goals.

He scored just seven goals last season as Tottenham finished 17th in the EPL table, but still finished top 10 in the league in assists.

“Performance-wise, I can’t guarantee because football, as a performance, you will have ups and downs. But for sure I can guarantee that I will give everything when I wear these shirts and I will make them proud,” Son said.

The Black and Gold, which first joined MLS in 2018, are currently in sixth place in the Western Conference.

Bill Chisholm is expected to assume control of the Celtics within the next two weeks.

The $6.1 billion sale of the Celtics, announced in March, will be voted on by the NBA Board of Governors either late next week or early the following week, two sources familiar with the deal confirmed to Front Office Sports. The timing of the anticipated vote was first reported by Sportico.

The deal did not receive a vote during the most recent board meeting, although team sales don’t need to be voted on during scheduled meetings, a source familiar with the process previously told FOS. The board can call a vote at any time, and it can happen remotely. The vote and the closing of the transaction are the final two steps needed before the group led by Chisholm can formally take over. Closing typically takes place in tandem with the board vote.

The agreement—which set a record for the largest pro sports franchise sale in history that was quickly broken by the sale of the Lakers to Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation—has taken longer to obtain board approval than some other recent franchise sales.

It took about one month for the sale of Mark Cuban’s majority stake in the Mavericks to receive BOG approval after its November 2023 announcement; Michael Jordan’s sale of his majority stake in the Hornets was approved about a month and a half after its June 2023 announcement. The same was true for the sale of the Suns by embattled ex-owner Robert Sarver to Mat Ishbia, which was approved in February 2023 after being announced in December 2022.

Seemingly, the transaction has been ready for approval since May, when a source familiar with the matter told FOS Chisholm had amassed enough money to cover the cost of the deal. Later that month, FOS confirmed that the CEO of ArcelorMittal—the world’s second-largest steel producer—is contributing $1 billion to the transaction. Other investors participating in the deal include private-equity firm Sixth Street, existing Celtics minority owner Robert Hale Jr., and Related Companies president Bruce A. Beal Jr. 

Chisholm, who prior to the Celtics announcement was a little-known private-equity executive, is buying the team in his personal capacity, not through his firm, Symphony Technology Group.

The departing majority owner, Wyc Grousbeck, plans to continue overseeing team operations through the 2027–28 season.

The team Chisholm takes over will look very different from the roster when he agreed to the deal. Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, starters for the Celtics squad who won the 2024 NBA championship, have been shuffled out of Boston this summer as the franchise cuts salary in the wake of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear sustained during the playoffs.