📉 How the NCAA (Barley) Avoided Bankruptcy

In partnership with

You know you’ve made it on social media when a Twitter Aggregator rips your content off bar-for-bar.

Now, I’m not claiming to be some esteemed journalist here, but I like to think the content I post on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter takes some skill in storytelling and research.

For reference, here’s the offense:

• My tweet (posted on 5/22 at 12:27 pm CT)

• Dov Kleiman’s Tweet (posted on 5/22 at 2:50 pm CT)

I’ll let you be the judge, but in the meantime, we have some stories to get to:

🗞 The Big Story: The Case That Could Bankrupt the NCAA

📉 Biggest Loser: Why the NFL Shouldn’t Ditch Chain Gangs

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Most Dedicated Fan in Sports

🗞 The Big Story

The NCAA and every Power Five college conference could be on the verge of bankruptcy, and what’s about to happen could cost schools billions.

Last night, news broke of an official settlement. You can read the full details here, but this story explains how we got here and what happens next.

Background: The NCAA and the Power Five are being sued in three different antitrust cases for restricting past college athletes’ ability to make money through NIL.

The NCAA and the Power Five are expected to jointly settle these three lawsuits in a deal that will include more than $2.5 billion in back-pay to college athletes going back to 2016.

But these cases are actually attempting to solve a much bigger problem.

Revenue Sharing: That’s because the current proposal gives every school in the country the option to share roughly 22% of the average Power Five schools:

• Media rights

• Sponsorships

• Ticket sales

Which is estimated to be worth somewhere between $20-$25 million per year.

Schools will likely be able to count grants and scholarships toward their 22% revenue-share total, which means sports that have previously had limits on scholarships, like baseball and softball, could start offering full scholarships to every athlete on the team.

But that still leaves at least $15 million per year in payments that schools will have to come up with, and unfortunately, it won’t be as easy as just writing a bunch of checks.

Better than the Alternative: Several college administrators have already hinted that they might need to cut non-revenue Olympic sports like track or wrestling or their athletic departments and coaching staffs.

But even these seemingly massive changes would only save schools a few million dollars per year — hardly enough to make a dent in the annual total they’ll be expected to pay.

However, settling these cases and introducing a revenue-sharing agreement is still better than the alternative for both the NCAA and the conferences.

A report from Yahoo Sports indicated that if settlement talks were to fall apart, the involved parties could be on the hook for up to $20 billion in immediate damages.

And frankly, a deal like this is probably long overdue and still a much more favorable outcome for the NCAA and its universities than what exists at the professional level.

📉 Biggest Loser

The NFL might be getting rid of chain gangs, but it doesn’t actually solve their biggest problem.

Trial Run: The league will test an optical tracking system for first downs across every stadium this preseason. The system will be implemented starting this year if the trial goes well.

This is the same system the USFL used last year:

1. An official spots the ball

2. Eight optical cameras from around the stadium measure its placement

The cameras from Bolt6 use light detection and lidar technology to measure the ball within millimeters. The result is instantly available for TV broadcasts and stadium crowds like Hawk-Eye is for tennis.

Problem’s Not Sovled: The NFL has said that it’s not completely getting rid of chain gangs—they’ll serve as a backup and reference point for coaches, players, and fans in the stadium.

However, even this new technology doesn’t address the biggest problem when measuring spots: the officials.

That’s because if the NFL uses the same system as the USFL, where the officials spot the ball before it’s measured, then these measurements are still subject to human error.

And if you’ve ever watched an NFL game, you know how easy it is for officials to screw up the spot or even for players to game the system.

Plus, without the chains, we’d lose iconic football moments like this…

So, is it really worth it?

📖 Required Reading 

Learn how to make AI work for you.

AI breakthroughs happen every day. But where do you learn to actually apply the tech to your work? Join The Rundown — the world’s largest AI newsletter read by over 600,000 early adopters staying ahead of the curve.

1. The Rundown’s expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI

2. They send you daily emails on impactful AI tools and how to apply it

3. You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI

Subscribe with one click.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This is the most dedicated sports fan in the world… and I can prove it.

Coming to America: 35 years ago, a high schooler named Mitsuaki Ohno moved to Minnesota from Japan when his dad got a job at IBM. That same year, in 1989, the Minnesota Timberwolves played their inaugural season, and immediately, Ohno was hooked.

However, two years later, Ohno’s family moved back to Japan, but his die-hard fandom for the Wolves didn’t stop.

Wolves Back: Minnesota was a below-average franchise for most of the 1990s, but during the ‘03-’04 season, Kevin Garnett led the team on a deep playoff run.

Not wanting to miss out on the chance to see his favorite team play in the biggest game in franchise history, Ohno bought season tickets all the way from Japan and traveled to see the Timberwolves play in a Game 7 against the Kings to advance to their first-ever Western Conference finals.

For the next twenty years, Ohno has held onto his season tickets, making the 18-hour trip every year to see his favorite team play in Minneapolis. When he isn’t at the games, he gives away his tickets to Japanese exchange students at the University of Minnesota.

But this year was different…

Game 7 Anniversary: Exactly 20 years after buying his first season tickets, Ohno had the chance to see the Wolves win another Game 7 and advance to their second Western Conference finals ever… and he knew he had to be there.

So, just 72 hours before the game, he bought a plane ticket and traveled nearly 6,000 miles and 16 hours to Denver, where he landed at midnight, just 14 hours before tipoff.

He even arrived at the stadium early to get autographs and then settled into his seat as he cheered on his favorite team to a comeback victory.

That’s when Ohno extended his trip even longer to watch the team play Game 1 against the Mavericks in Minneapolis. He’s already committed to returning to the city in three weeks when the team makes the Finals.

Find me a more dedicated fan.

📊 Chart of the Week

In 2015, the San Fransico 49ers traveled the furthest in the NFL at 13,901 miles. That would put them at No. 26 in 2024.

These charts are from my friends at Sportsball. They don’t pay me to include them, I genuinely love their work!

Consider subscribing to their newsletter here.

⏱ In Other News

• Antonio Brown has less than $50,000 to his name.

• TNT just traded the NBA for college football.

• Get hit in the head with a 110 MPH baseball? Get a Topps card.

🎁 Share the Bottom of the Ninth

When you refer new readers to the Bottom of the Ninth, you win exclusive prizes.

➡️ Here is your unique link to share: https://bottom-of-the-ninth.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

You’re currently at 0. That’s only 1 away from receiving a Bottom of the Ninth Sticker!

*Please do not use fake email addresses — they will not qualify as referrals. Thank you!

👋 Happy Friday! For those of you who are new here, I use this ending section to update you on my personal life.

Recently, it has been a lot of high school baseball updates (I’m coaching a varsity team this spring). I’ll spare you all the details, but our most recent game sums up our season pretty well.

We played an undefeated team and the state championship favorite and only lost 8-1 (for reference, we’ve lost to much worse teams by 15+).

However, 15 of our 21 outs were strikeouts, and 8 of those were looking.

It's a microcosm of our season, I suppose.