Univ of CA Board of Regents hears UCLA's reasons for bolting to Big Ten; NBA's big push around Election Day; and player intrigue in golf continues
Jay Monahan meets with PGA tour players today. Patrick Reed files suit against the PGA tour. The NBA says no games on election day. But we start with a key meeting around UCLA And the PAC 12.
Good morning. This is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, August 17th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody's doing well. Thanks for listening. A very important meeting related to the state of the PAC 12 and UCLA will take place today as UCLA's office of the president will present a report on the school's intended move to the big 10 to the University of California Board of Regents and it will likely determine the next step in the school's planned departure.
The report by the University of California Office of the President has not been made public and there are very, very few details before today's meeting, but there is a lot of speculation. Could the board of Regents attempt to block the move? Could they make it so financially painful that it would be challenging for UCLA to move to the Big 10, or could they just do nothing? The report is expected to lay out the reasons why UCLA believes it should go to the Big 10 and how it will benefit in the long term. So expect it to be pretty blunt and critical of the PAC 12. Most insiders believe the Regents could get aggressive and this could get messy and we will continue to follow the story, because it obviously could have great implications for UCLA's plan move to the Big 10.
Let's move on to the world of golf, because details are scarce, but Tiger Woods was in Delaware yesterday, the site of this week's BMW championship to meet with a select number of players to discuss the future of the PGA Tour and what players could do to elevate the tour against Live Golf and that startup series. Woods reportedly flew to Delaware from Florida, along with his friend, Ricky Fowler, who has been very outspoken against the tour's handling of its response to Live Golf.
One player who attended the meeting told ESPN it was all about getting the top players on the same page. Now, the meeting wasn't held at a course, it was held off course at a hotel. It lasted three and a half hours, according to ESPN, and most of the PGA tours top players, Justin Thomas, Roy McElroy, Jordan Spieth and others were in attendance. Now the players are expected to take their ideas on how to better the tour to commissioner Jay Monahan. Now Jay Monahan, wasn't part of Tuesday's meeting. He is scheduled to host players in an informal question and answer session today, but look for the communication between Monahan and the players to continue.
But every day there is more drama and intrigue around pro golf. As this meeting yesterday came on the same day that Patrick Reed, a Live golfer and a former Masters champion filed a defamation lawsuit against golf channel and commentator Brandel Chamblee. The central claim to Patrick Reed's complaint is that Chamblee and Golf Channel conspired with the PGA tour and Jay Monahan to defame Patrick Reed since he was 23 years old, or nine years ago. So he has the nine year history of what he calls egregious behavior against him. So all I'll say is, wow, so much for the genteel world of pro golf today.
Let's move on. The NBA's fall season schedule will be released today on Wednesday and one major wrinkle to the schedule was one of the more interesting stories and a smart move I believe by the NBA. It was kind of released yesterday. We know how active the league and its players have been in getting out the vote and the importance of elections and promoting voter registration.
Well, now the league is backing that up by playing no games on election day, November 8th. So certainly the league and the players hope the move will increase voter participation in the midterm elections. The schedule also says that 30 teams will compete on Monday, the day before the election, with each home team hosting an election based theme fan night. So I have never seen such an overt move and effort around elections and voting. Teams are being encouraged to share election information with their fan bases. The NBA did say it will work again with cities to use their sports facilities for voting and other election related activities, but a major move by the NBA and its players to get behind the midterm elections and encourage people to vote November 8th.
Let's move on to the world of name, image, and likeness, because an interesting story breaking today by SBJ's Eric Bacharach, shows that the Chicago White Sox will become the second baseball team to venture into the name, image and likeness space with a new program that includes deals with eight division one athletes from across Illinois. So the program Shy Sox Athlete will provide these White Sox ambassadors with branding opportunities, financial incentives for social media promotion, and access to professional resources within the White Sox front office and they'll provide kind of career mentorship. The eight members of the inaugural class represent five women, three men. They are all Illinois natives. They signed one year agreements and are being paid equally. Six universities and five collegiate sports are represented. It doesn't include baseball or softball of course, those are prohibited name, image, and likeness sports for major league baseball clubs under league policy.
So the White Sox hope this program, which comes about a year after the Atlanta Braves became the first baseball club to sign collective players to NIL contracts, the White Sox hope this program allows them to reach younger fans. So each of the players will post on their own social media channels about the partnership later today on Wednesday, the team said that they have no specific ROI tied to the partnerships, but they hope to draft off the student athletes following among young sports fans. So White Sox are trying to make themselves more relevant to younger sports fans who may be following these collegiate athletes. So the White Sox starting an ambitious program around name, image, and likeness and college athletics joining the Atlanta Braves.
And finally, as I am speaking today to the Atlanta Sports Council this morning at their regular meeting, I do want to give a hat tip to one of that city's true sports leaders. The Atlanta Business Chronicle this week named Atlanta Falcon CEO, Rich McKay as one of its most admired CEOs. So the Chronicle will hold the ceremony honoring McKay on Thursday of this week, but congrats to rich McKay, one of the most respected leaders in the NFL and really across all of sports. Someone I have great admiration for and have followed for many, many years. So Rich McKay being named one of Atlanta's most admired CEOs.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast. It's Wednesday, August 17th. I'm a Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.