Countless stadiums, arenas, golf tournaments and bowl games have sponsors in their titles. The world’s most prestigious soccer league was named the Barclays Premier League until 2016. Private equity firms currently hold ownership stakes in more than 60 North American sports franchises, according to Pitchbook, as well as many of the top soccer clubs in Europe.

But when news broke Thursday that the Big 12 is entertaining both a potential title sponsorship deal with insurance giant Allstate and a $1 billion private equity partnership, you could almost hear the collective reaction: “How dare they?!”

Kirk Wakefield, a Baylor University marketing professor, had a much different reaction to the possible title sponsorship.

“You wonder why people haven’t done that already,” said Wakefield, who runs a research firm that studies sponsorship impacts for sports leagues and brands. “It’s such an obvious opportunity.”

USC sports business professor David Carter looks at the plight of the Big 12, which lags hundreds of millions a year in revenue behind the Big Ten and SEC, and sees private equity as a matter of Darwinian survival. To win national championships, Big 12 schools need to be able to spend like…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

Congrats to South Carolina, which was the No. 1 team in all but one edition of this season’s rankings. The Gamecocks proved they were the best team in college basketball for all of 2023-24, just like last year, only this time they were able to cap their remarkable regular season with a national championship. South Carolina’s success was the primary validation of these power rankings, though the last poll did feature 15 of the Sweet 16 teams in the top 18 (apologies to Duke).

In case you’re interested in how well my first power rankings of 2023-24 held up, take a gander! Oregon State really came out of nowhere.

As we look ahead to 2024-25, a reminder that this is an indicator of how teams stand right now, though WNBA Draft decisions and transfers — keep an eye on Oregon State and Washington State following the dissolution of the Pac-12 — could substantially change the makeup of rosters. I’ve priced in some player improvement, particularly for younger players with high pedigree, but otherwise tried to assess these squads based on how the players finished this season. Let me know in the comments if you think I’m overlooking anyone.

Almost famous: Kentucky, Michigan State, Vanderbilt

Why South Carolina over UConn?

South Carolina is losing Kamilla Cardoso, but otherwise…

Caitlin Clark as a viewership draw just soared to a new level.

No. 1 Iowa’s 64-54 tension filled win over eighth-seeded West Virginia on Monday night — the final home game for Clark at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City — averaged a massive 4.9 million viewers on ESPN. That viewership number shatters the record for the largest television audience for the women’s tournament prior to the Final Four. The previous record was set in — you guessed it — Iowa’s first-round win over Holy Cross on ABC Saturday afternoon. That game drew 3.23 million viewers.

These are truly astounding numbers. As Sports Media Watch noted, Iowa’s win over West Virginia is the third-largest audience for any women’s tournament game in the past 20 years behind last year’s national championship loss to LSU (9.92 million) and its national semifinal win over South Carolina two days earlier (5.60 million).

Sports Media Watch also reported that ESPN’s family of networks has seen other games top the 2-million viewership mark in the early rounds, which is a new frontier for the sport. Connecticut’s win over Syracuse on Tuesday night drew 2.05 million viewers while LSU’s win over Middle Tennessee on ABC on Sunday drew 2.01 million.

Iowa star Caitlin Clark knew what to expect from her opponent Monday night. Speaking to reporters on the eve of the No. 1 Hawkeyes’ round of 32 matchup with No. 8 West Virginia, Clark cited the Mountaineers’ defensive prowess as the first thing that jumped out on tape.

“They’re going to want to turn us over,” Clark said. “They’re one of those teams that really feeds off of turnovers. One turnover can turn into five for a team.”

Yet even the sport’s best player, knowing full well what was coming, can be thrown off by a vaunted press. In the first half, Clark recorded more turnovers (four) than assists (three), making only four of her 11 field goal attempts. Clark and the Hawkeyes, slowed by West Virginia’s physicality and full-court ball pressure (on both makes and misses), scored their fewest first-half points all season (26).

But the challenge of limiting Clark and her teammates is not a 20-minute endeavor. Iowa went on to win 64-54, grinding out a victory in the final home game for Clark and teammates Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall. In the third quarter, Clark took advantage of the slightest lapses by her opponent. She made four of her five shots and tallied 13 points. A two-point halftime lead grew to 10 entering the final period.

Though she also tallied…

Caitlin Clark will play her final home game on Monday night when the 1-seed Iowa Hawkeyes take on the 8-seed West Virginia Mountaineers in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. The top-seeded Hawkeyes are heavy favorites to move on to the Sweet 16.

Clark’s record-setting career has featured plenty of memorable moments in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Still, Saturday’s first-round matchup against No. 16 seed Holy Cross didn’t get off to a great start. She turned the ball over five times within the first eight minutes and didn’t score her first field goal until 22 seconds left in the quarter. Her frustration was obvious and probably exacerbated by the Hawkeyes’ lead of just two points after the opening 10 minutes.

The second quarter was a different story, however, as Clark settled down and Iowa found its rhythm. The Hawkeyes outscored the Crusaders 25-9, turning what was a tight contest into an eventual 91-65 rout. And even though Clark struggled with her shot (8-for-19 from the field), she still finished with a game-high 27 points and nearly posted a triple-double, adding 10 assists and eight rebounds. The turnovers (six total) aren’t ideal but the game was never really in doubt after the first quarter.

Despite a sluggish start, Iowa eventually did what No. 1…

In 2010, Satyan Devadoss, then at Williams College, now a professor of applied mathematics and computer science at the University of San Diego, wrote: “It can truly be called the Michael Jordan of chalk, the Rolls Royce of chalk.”

He was talking about Hagoromo Fulltouch, a brand of blackboard chalk that was so smooth to the touch, moisture-proof and dust-free that math teachers around the world went gaga for it until the company that made it went out of business in 2015.

Or maybe Professor Devadoss was peering into the future to describe the 2024 NCAA women’s tournament.

Higher seeds went a perfect 16 for 16 in Saturday’s first-round matchups. In the dozen games we analyzed as Bracket Breakers matchups, where teams were separated by at least five seeds, favorites won all 12 and by an average of more than 20 points. Our model saw Syracuse as a very vulnerable giant, but Arizona shot just 5-19 (26.3 percent) on threes and committed 21 turnovers. And when the great Dyaisha Fair returned after being carried off the court with an injury at the end of the third quarter, the Orange crushed the Wildcats. Fair scored her team’s final 13 points, leading Syracuse to a 5-point comeback win. Slingshot also admired Florida Gulf Coast (as always), and the Eagles led Oklahoma for most…

First-round (and even first-weekend) upsets in the women’s NCAA Tournament are rare, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see thrillers from Day 1.

Since the women’s tournament expanded to 64 games in 1994, only one No. 16 seed has brought down a No. 1 seed: Harvard over Stanford in 1998. A No. 15 seed or No. 14 seed has never won a tournament game. But the 12-5 matchup remains spicy with 26 upsets through the years. Some teams (Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont) have become particularly adept at these.

The first weekend will also bring us interesting style and personnel matchups. Who will move on? Who’s March Madness dreams will end quickly?

Our experts pick the most fascinating first-round games to watch:

(All times listed are Eastern)

11:30 a.m. Friday, ESPN2

Grace Raynor:  The Spartans’ 22 wins are their most since the 2015-16 season, and they’ve hung right in with some of the best teams in the Big Ten this year, losing on the road to Iowa by just 3 points and Ohio State by 5. North Carolina, meanwhile, gave South Carolina one of its tougher games earlier in the season when the Gamecocks won by just 7 points in Chapel…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

With just a few days until Selection Sunday, much of the bracket is set. Outside of the upcoming Ivy League championship, no other mid-major conference tournament is likely to influence the at-large bids, with perhaps the exception of Middle Tennessee.

Though some teams are essentially locked into the field because of their strong resumes, which teams have the most ability to fluctuate in seeding?

You can look at many and say, “Yeah, that’s a tourney team,” but also simultaneously be unsure of where that team may concretely be seeded. I have projections and ideas, but with how open-ended the criteria for seeding is, that leaves room for intrigue when looking at a select few cases.

Multi-bid conferences

What makes West Virginia so hard to judge?

The Mountaineers had a stellar…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Power conferences understandably dominate discussion, particularly Bubble Watch talk, this time of year. All the teams fighting in the middle, yearning for resume-supplementing wins, provide some of the most notable matchups and storylines.

However, it’s worth pausing and noting some of the more under-the-radar seasons in the country, especially the programs that we are trending toward hearing about in March. I can think of few teams more deserving of that mention than Marshall.

The Thundering Herd are 20-6, a standout record on its own but even more notable when recognizing this is the first time since the 2016 season they have eclipsed the 20-win mark and just the second time since they left the Southern Conference in 1997. This is West Virginia native Kim Caldwell’s first season at the helm in Huntington. She led her alma mater, DII Glenville State, for seven seasons, including a national championship in 2022. In her first foray as a head coach at the highest level of collegiate basketball, something special is brewing.

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