Cam Ward is headed to the Music City. 

The Titans selected Ward No. 1 overall in Thursday’s NFL Draft. 

The Titans will be Ward’s fifth team since 2020, following a winding college career for the 22-year-old. 

Ward is the first No. 1 overall pick to see the transfer portal transform his career. He started his college career at Incarnate Word in 2020, where he played for two seasons before transferring to Washington State. He played two seasons for the Cougars and initially declared for the 2024 draft, where he was projected as a third- or fourth-round selection. He changed his mind, however, and benefited from name, image, and likeness rules while spending his final college campaign at Miami.

At Miami, Ward led the Hurricanes to a 10–3 record, and the team’s season ended with a loss to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Ward finished fourth in voting for the Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. 

Ward was the first quarterback taken in what is considered a weak class for the position. He will sign a four-year deal worth $43 million with an average of $7.82 million per season, based on estimates from the NFL collective bargaining agreement. 

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on the network’s draft telecast that the Giants offered Tennessee the No. 3 pick, their 2026 first-rounder, and “other picks” to move up for Ward, but were rejected.

The Titans’ decision to draft Ward makes Will Levis, the team’s current starting quarterback, expendable. Levis was a second-round pick out of Kentucky in the 2023 draft and has gone just 5–16 as a starter in two years. Levis still has two years and roughly $5 million remaining on his rookie contract, which was originally a four-year deal worth $9.5 million. 

The College Football Playoff’s annual spring meetings concluded without any major decisions about changing the format of the expanded, 12-team postseason bracket.

The CFP management committee—made up of FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua—met in Dallas Tuesday afternoon through Thursday morning to discuss standard logistical and financial operations for the upcoming season, as well as ideas about how the Playoff could further evolve.

However, no big changes were agreed to this week, CFP executive director Rich Clark told reporters in Dallas on Thursday afternoon.

One idea that has seemingly had momentum this offseason is shifting to straight seeding, as opposed to the inaugural bracket, which gave the top four seeds (that come with first-round byes) to the highest-ranked conference champions. This past season, No. 9 Boise State received the third seed, and No. 12 Arizona State got the fourth seed.

That change and any other could still be made ahead of the 2025 season, as the CFP leaders are set to meet again in June. 

Ahead of this week’s meeting, a source told Front Office Sports that they expected things to remain status quo this year, before big changes come in 2026, since the CFP format for that season and beyond has not yet been set.

Other potential format changes in future years include more automatic qualifiers for the Big Ten and SEC, expanding to 14 or 16 teams, and more on-campus home games.

Major League Baseball is projecting the largest single-game attendance of the entire season for the Aug. 2 MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway, but the league is still grappling with the complexities of playing in one of the world’s largest sports venues. 

Now 100 days out from the Braves-Reds clash at the Tennessee motorsports facility, the showcase is a continuation of MLB’s run of domestic special-event games in recent years that has included sites such as Alabama’s Rickwood Field, the Field of Dreams complex in Iowa, and Fort Bragg in North Carolina. 

The Bristol game, however, is quite different from its predecessors in that its roughly 165,000-person capacity not only surpasses nearly all other racetracks, but also stands as the world’s eighth-biggest sports venue. Its oval shape and massive infield are still big enough to fit a regulation MLB field, but the league is still working through exactly how many seats to sell to ensure good views of the action. A specific count has not been finalized, but it will surpass the 56,000-seat capacity of Dodger Stadium, MLB’s largest ballpark.  

The sprawling speedway, also known as The Last Great Colosseum, is also a highly active racing facility, with events across various circuits scheduled throughout the spring and summer. MLB’s preparation for the game will include a temporary removal of some infield structures.

“There are some luxuries you get from being in such a big venue like Bristol. But there are still a number of things to balance, including fan experience and having a backdrop that immediately makes it clear it’s a racetrack,” said MLB SVP of global events Jeremiah Yolkut. 

This week’s run of promotions for the game has included the announcement of a pregame concert by country music star Tim McGraw, while top NASCAR driver Chase Elliott made the media rounds in New York on Thursday, meeting with a variety of television networks and print journalists. 

“This is truly going to be unique,” said Elliott, who grew up a Braves fan. Elliott, however, will not be attending, as NASCAR is racing in Iowa that weekend.

A Merging of Cultures

The MLB Speedway Classic also differs greatly from other special-event games, as both the league and track owner, Speedway Motorsports, are leaning hard into the camping and extensive tailgating activity endemic to racing fandom. Camping passes on the Bristol property will be sold in addition to game tickets. 

“This event tells a great story, being able to bring the culture of one sport into another,” said Bristol Motor Speedway president Jerry Caldwell.