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Afternoon Edition

September 9, 2025

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The long-running Fox succession battle culminated in Lachlan Murdoch securing control of the family empire’s future. The deal, which pays out three of his siblings for their shares, adds stability as the company prepares to negotiate for another huge batch of sports rights.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

Lachlan Murdoch’s Victory Brings Stability to Fox Sports Rights Future [[link removed]]

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Fox CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch has prevailed in a long-running intrafamily dispute for future control of the Murdoch family media empire, providing a key dose of certainty and stability for sports leagues and investors.

An agreement reached Monday in a Nevada court proceeding will see three of family patriarch Rupert Murdoch’s other children—Elisabeth, James, and Prudence—gain about $1.1 billion each in return for their personal holdings in Fox Corp. and News Corp. The family drama, resolved through a complex series of financial transactions, furthered the deep parallels between the fictional television series Succession and the real-world conflicts among the Murdochs.

More substantively, though, the deal solidifies until at least 2050 the Fox status quo, with Lachlan Murdoch continuing to lead a sprawling set of holdings that includes Fox Sports. Politically conservative like his father, Lachlan Murdoch is already well-known to most major U.S. sports leagues and conferences, and he has been directly involved in most of the network’s key sports rights deals.

That will be a critical factor as over the next several years, Fox will have a series of rights up for renewal. Among them:

FIFA: Fox holds the U.S. rights to next year’s FIFA men’s World Cup, an event to be held in North America. Within that, there is a fast-growing relationship [[link removed]] between U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino that has deep political symmetry with the right-leaning Fox News. The network is part of an ongoing tender process for U.S. rights to the 2030 tournament and beyond, but faces substantial competition from a mix of other linear broadcasters and streamers. Rupert Murdoch, however, recently attended the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in New Jersey with Infantino. MLB: Fox has been a key part of the league’s national media presence for nearly 30 years, and it enlarged its baseball presence [[link removed]] this year with coverage of key events such as the recent MLB Speedway Classic [[link removed]]. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, intends to rework the sport’s media footprint substantially in 2028 [[link removed]], when all the league’s national-level deals expire, including Fox’s. NFL: The Fox America’s Game of the Week late Sunday afternoon showcase was the league’s most-watched game window last year [[link removed]]. It’s a virtual lock, though, that the NFL will exercise an option to reopen most of its domestic deals [[link removed]] after the 2029 season, four years early. Big Ten: The network’s rights deal with the power conference expires in 2030 [[link removed]], and Fox is now at the center of a rising college football broadcasting rivalry [[link removed]] with ESPN. As college sports continue to change at historic levels but still deliver some of the biggest non-NFL audiences anywhere, Fox will want to preserve its strong position here. Another rights deal with the Big 12 runs to 2031 [[link removed]].

Lachlan Murdoch, meanwhile, has also been a key figure in pushing the network to a more digitally focused strategy, one that includes the recent debut of the Fox One streaming service [[link removed]].

Analysts now expect him to become more active in reshaping the company with the family control issues settled.

“Now that Lachlan Murdoch has cemented control in a post-Rupert world, we would not be surprised to see an increased level of aggressiveness around [mergers and acquisitions],” wrote LightShed Partners in a research note. “While Fox bought back $1.25 billion of stock in 2025, with the company dramatically outperforming its peers, the company is sitting on considerable balance-sheet firepower.”

SPONSORED BY U.S. BANK

Oculus Takeover Launches PLL Championship Week

U.S. Bank is inviting fans and first-timers alike to step into the world of lacrosse [[link removed]]. Today, U.S. Bank and the Premier Lacrosse League will transform the Oculus at World Trade Center [[link removed]] into a turf-field celebration of the sport. The all-day event serves as the official kickoff to PLL Championship Week, building excitement for the PLL U.S. Bank Championship on Sunday, Sept. 14, at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Fans can enjoy youth showcases with Harlem Lacrosse and the Brooklyn Crescents, meet Atlas and Outlaws players, and watch an NYPD vs. PLL skills challenge.

U.S. Bank [[link removed]] will also donate $10,000 to FDNY and NYPD charities. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the fun.

Fox Schedules Michigan State for 11 p.m. ET Kickoff vs. USC [[link removed]]

Lansing State Journal

In the Big Ten’s second year as a coast-to-coast, 18-team conference, its primary TV partner is going back to the well of scheduling a team from the Eastern Time Zone to play a late-night matchup on the West Coast.

In Week 4, Fox will have the national broadcast of Michigan State–USC at 11 p.m. ET on Sept. 20.

It will mark the second such instance, following a Rutgers-USC matchup on Fox last October. However, that game was on a Friday night, directly following Game 1 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series. With a strong lead-in (15.2 million viewers for the Fall Classic opener), Fox drew an audience of 2 million [[link removed]] for its late-night college football broadcast.

But this year’s experiment comes on a Saturday night, following an Arizona State–Baylor Big 12 matchup at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fox. There won’t be another college football game on Fox following Game 1 of this year’s World Series on Friday, Oct. 24, but the network could opt to schedule one following Game 2 on Saturday, Oct. 25.

Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith has not publicly reacted to the game time yet, as the scheduling announcement was released after his weekly press conference on Monday, but the football program’s official social media account did. “It’s gonna be a late one folks,” MSU football wrote on X [[link removed]].

The game will be Michigan State and USC’s first matchup since a 1990 bowl game, and the Spartans’ first visit to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 1978.

Fox Sports helped fund the Big Ten’s expansion [[link removed]], agreeing in 2023 to pay Oregon and Washington $35 million to $40 million annually for joining the conference. Since home games of those West Coast schools, along with USC and UCLA, have not yet been tapped for Fox’s Big Noon Saturday game window (which would be 9 a.m. PT), the network has been utilizing them in late-night slots to help fill out its college football programming.

The Late Show

The Big Ten is not the only conference scheduling late-night West Coast matchups.

On Saturday, Boston College visits Stanford in a game that will kick off at 10:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on ACC Network. Minnesota, which is in the Central Time Zone, also plays at 10:30 p.m. ET at Cal.

WNBA Hits 3M Attendance Milestone in Season’s Final Week [[link removed]]

The Indianapolis Star

With less than a week left in the WNBA season, the league hit another growth milestone.

The WNBA eclipsed 3 million total attendees for its regular-season games Sunday, three weeks after breaking its regular-season attendance record [[link removed]] of 2.36 million set in 2002, according to data from Across the Timeline.

The league benefited from its longest regular season ever, stretching out the season to 44 games per team—the maximum number of games allowed under the current CBA. However, the 2025 average attendance (10,954 attendees) is still the most for a season, and will likely break the previous record set in 1998 [[link removed]] of 10,868 attendees.

The WNBA will need to average 8,511 attendees for the remaining 10 games to break the average attendance record. Only three teams averaged fewer than 8,000 fans at their home games this season—and the two lowest teams (Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream) already hosted their home finales.

The Indiana Fever and Golden State Valkyries are the biggest drivers of attendance growth.

The Fever led the league in total attendance, drawing nearly 700,000 fans when combining home and road contests—100,000 more than any other team. This was driven by about half the league moving home games [[link removed]] against Indiana to larger arenas to accommodate fans driven by interest in Caitlin Clark.

Unfortunately, Clark was able to play in only 13 total games this year, with five coming on the road. Three of those road games were moved to bigger arenas, including on July 15 in Boston against the Connecticut Sun. Clark suffered a right groin injury in the fourth quarter, and it would ultimately be her final contest of the 2025 season [[link removed]].

On the other hand, Golden State set the standard for expansion teams with its home court attendance. The Valkyries announced Saturday that they sold out all 22 home games [[link removed]] at the Chase Center this season. They also set the WNBA record for total (397,408) and average (18,064) home attendance.

Golden State also clinched a playoff berth, becoming the first expansion team in league history to qualify for the postseason. However, the team may not get to host a playoff game at the Chase Center. Its first-round home game will be moved to the SAP Center [[link removed]] in San Jose due to a schedule conflict.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS LIVE

One Week Left to Claim Your Spot

Front Office Sports returns to The Times Center in Manhattan on Sept. 16 for Tuned In [[link removed]], presented by Elevate.

With official partner Nielsen, and supporting partners Greenberg Glusker and Antenna, this daylong event will feature candid conversations with the biggest names in sports media, including:

Adam Silver, NBA Rob Manfred, MLB Kim Ng, AUSL Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN Eric Shanks, FOX Sports Luis Silberwasser, TNT Sports Jay Marine, Amazon Rick Cordella, NBC Sports Betsy Riley, NBC Olympics Maria Taylor, NBC Sports Greg Olsen, Youth, Inc. Ian Eagle, CBS Sports Noah Eagle, NBC Sports

Additionally, Stephen A. Smith and Clay Travis will hit the stage for a fiery debate about sports and politics.

Included in your ticket is a full day of programming, lunch, top-tier networking opportunities, and a post-event cocktail hour.

Secure your ticket now [[link removed]].

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY What Week 1 Revealed About Future of NFL Broadcasting

FOS illustration

Week 1 of the NFL season featured four great primetime games, but ratings for Friday night’s Brazil contest seriously underdelivered. FOS columnist Mike McCarthy joins Renee Washington and Ben Horney to weigh in on whether the NFL needs to stay in its Monday/Thursday/Sunday lane, and assess second-year Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton’s ManningCast, and the new age of RedZone that includes commercials.

Plus, longtime SportsCenter host Stan Verrett is launching a new show on Twitch with Neil Everett, his partner on the ESPN desk for the past 15 years. Verrett joins Front Office Sports Today to explain his decision to move from broadcast to live streaming, what caused the massive boom in the creator-led media landscape, and why SportsCenter is out of its heyday.

Watch the full episode here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

Athlos

Athlos ⬆ The women’s professional track meet announced a domestic media-rights partnership with Ion for its 2025 event on Oct. 10. The event, launched by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian [[link removed]], will also be streamed on YouTube and X/Twitter.

Cheyenne Parker-Tyus ⬆ The 33-year-old has been activated by the Las Vegas Aces and is reportedly expected to play Tuesday against the Chicago Sky. The veteran signed with the Aces in the offseason, though she was expected to miss nearly the entire regular season due to her pregnancy. She gave birth to her son on July 1. Last year, the Aces were sued by former player Dearica Hamby [[link removed]], now with the Los Angeles Sparks, who alleged Las Vegas discriminated against her because of her pregnancy.

The CW ⬆ Baylor’s 48–45 upset over No. 17 SMU on Saturday drew just over 1 million viewers, marking the network’s most-watched college football game in nearly two years and its third-largest CFB audience on record, behind 1.33 million viewers for FSU–North Alabama in 2023, and the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl that same season, which drew 1.1 million viewers for a Toledo-Wyoming matchup.

Big 12 referees ⬇ The officiating crew who worked Saturday’s Kansas-Missouri game has been removed from its next scheduled assignment in Week 3 due to erroneously allowing a punt to occur on a free kick in violation of Rule 2, Section 16, Article 6 of NCAA Football rules, the conference announced Tuesday.

SPONSORED BY IMG ACADEMY

A Blueprint to Save College Sports

College sports are changing fast—from NIL (name, image, and likeness) and the House v. NCAA settlement to shifting conference landscapes.

In this week’s episode of Next Up with Adam Breneman [[link removed]], presented by IMG Academy, Adam sits down at IMG Academy with CEO Brent Richard and Drew Weatherford, cofounder of Weatherford Capital, former FSU QB, and FSU Board of Trustees member, to discuss a bold solution to fix college athletics: Add more athletes.

Rather than cutting so-called “non-revenue” sports, they propose expanding roster spots and creating JV or “varsity-lite” programs that serve as on-campus farm systems—developing talent, reducing portal chaos, and generating new revenue.

Watch the full episode of Next Up here [[link removed]].

Conversation Starters Kent Broussard is a 66-year-old retired accountant who achieved a dream of playing for the marching band at LSU. He received a standing ovation at the Tigers’ first football game of the season. Check it out [[link removed]]. Here’s a glimpse [[link removed]] at how NFL RedZone with Scott Hanson looks from behind the scenes. USF coaches were fired up in the press box after upsetting No. 13 Florida. The Bulls were paid $500,000 to play the Gators in Gainesville. Take a look [[link removed]]. Editors' Pick Tony Parker, French Team Owner, Says NBA Europe Is Inevitable [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Parker didn’t rule out his ASVEL club joining the NBA’s new league. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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