Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to get MoneyCall conveniently delivered to your email every Wednesday morning? Easy sign-up here.)
🚨📺 Hot off the presses Wednesday morning: Andrew Marchand on ESPN’s muddled NBA Finals TV commentator situation, including exclusive new reporting on the future of Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson.
Name-dropped elsewhere today: NiJaree Canady, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Presti, Saquon Barkley, Sha’Carri Richardson, Peyton Manning, Austin Ainge, Pablo Torre, Manute Bol and more. Let’s go:
Driving the Conversation
Let’s talk about return on investment
About a year ago, Texas Tech boosters offered (and paid!) $1 million to the best pitcher in college softball, NiJaree Canady, to leave Stanford and come to Lubbock.
The payoff? Canady has thrown every Red Raiders pitch during the program’s first Women’s College World Series appearance — which includes leading them past juggernaut and four-time defending champ Oklahoma on Monday to advance to the WCWS championship. (And, yes, one costly intentional walk gone wrong against Texas tonight.)
In a time with plenty of open spending on college players, that feels like the best $1 million invested in college sports this year, whether your…
