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ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, a proud UConn alum, had more on the line than just the national championship against Michigan Monday night. Prior to the NCAA men’s basketball title game, Michigan alum Taylor Lewan proposed a friendly wager with Orlovsky. And because Michigan won, Orlovsky now needs to wear a dangle earring with a block M…
President Donald Trump invited more than three dozen dignitaries and sports celebrities, including former longtime Alabama Crimson Tide coach turned ESPN college football analyst Nick Saban, to a college sports roundtable with the aim of finding solutions to the current state of collegiate sports. The roundtable led to Trump signing an executive order limiting NCAA…
If you thought you were shocked by the reaction of Geno Auriemma to UConn getting beat by South Carolina in the women’s Final Four, nothing can prepare you for the reaction of Dan Hurley to the UConn men getting beat by Michigan in the men’s national championship game. Auriemma threw a temper tantrum that would…
Major League Baseball has seen positive momentum in ratings and attendance in recent years. And now America’s pastime is hoping to extend that growth with a new platform designed to reach younger fans. MLB is launching a new kids YouTube channel, MLB Clubhouse, that will feature original programming. Baseball has seen encouraging numbers on television…
Steve Levy’s name is back in the ESPN NFL booth conversation. On his Marchand Sports Media podcast, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand floated Levy as a candidate for the second booth, which is expected to open up under the new NFL deal, saying he gives the network something worth considering even if he falls short of…
Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras is quite displeased with the Milwaukee Brewers. Contreras was hit by a pitch from Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff in the third inning of Monday night’s game at Fenway Park. It’s the sixth time in his career that Contreras has been hit by a pitch from Woodruff, and it’s…
The Michigan Wolverines are national champions in men’s college basketball for the first time since 1989 and the second time in program history. Michigan, led by head coach Dusty May, held off Connecticut in a 67-63 victory in the 2026 NCAA Tournament’s national championship game on Monday night in Indianapolis. It capped off an incredible…
The 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament came to a conclusion on Monday night with Dusty May and the Michigan Wolverines taking down Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies 69-63 in the national championship game in Indianapolis. It’s Michigan’s first national title since 1989. After the game, TNT Sports showed the 2026 edition of everyone’s favorite annual…
The sports media world was fairly unanimous in its disapproval of how Geno Auriemma comported himself in the waning moments of UConn’s blowout loss to South Carolina in the women’s Final Four last week. But on Monday’s episode of Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, cohost Michael Wilbon went further than just about anyone in his…
ESPN’s Holly Rowe has worked for the network regularly since 1998 and is one of the preeminent names on the women’s basketball beat. A longtime sideline reporter for the NCAA Women’s Final Four, Rowe can recall a time when the Tennessee Lady Vols, led by legendary coach Pat Summit, were one of the sport’s “blue-blood” programs. The…
Ahead of Monday night’s men’s college basketball national championship game between Connecticut and Michigan, Shaquille O’Neal joined the TNT Sports desk and his longtime Inside the NBA buddies to make an announcement. O’Neal and TNT Sports are launching “Dunkman”, a professional dunking league. The Dunkman League will premiere this summer on TNT with five live…
Zach Lowe has a simple test for a great League Pass broadcast. It’s not just the announcer. It’s the announcer, the team, and the way those two things feed each other. By that measure, he and Bill Simmons agreed this season that nobody came close to Charlotte. Eric Collins has been the voice of Hornets…
Things are getting weird with Dan Orlovsky at ESPN, so it’s nice to get a little bit of normalcy from him to balance the sheets. The NFL analyst has suddenly sparked a lot of conversation ever since he went all-in on the belief that Ty Simpson is a better QB prospect than Fernando Mendoza, who…
The only person at ESPN who can claim to know the New York Knicks better than Stephen A. Smith is Mike Breen, the network’s top NBA announcer and the team’s voice locally for MSG Networks. And as the Knicks sit among the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference for the first time this…
Jim Nantz might not be concerned about the criticism that often gets sent Tony Romo’s way, but he’s aware of it. Nantz made the media rounds on Masters Monday ahead of what will be his 40th broadcast of golf’s most prestigious tournament later this week. And during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Nantz…
Jamal Mashburn did not plan to return to broadcasting. He left ESPN in 2010 after three years as an NBA analyst, burned out from the travel grind of commuting from Miami to Bristol, and increasingly aware that his kids were growing up while he was somewhere on the road. His son was coming up through…
Dave Portnoy’s short, online-centric nightmare is over. The Barstool founder’s world was rocked last week when he tried to message Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark and realized his number had been blocked. During an episode of Barstool Live, Portnoy revealed that the WNBA star had blocked him across all platforms after an interaction he had on…
Once upon a time, ESPN2 was home to plenty of original programming. Nowadays, the channel largely shows re-airs of ESPN daytime programming like Get Up and First Take, various podcasts hosted by its talent, and live sports in the evening. It appears ESPN could have similar plans for NFL Network, which it just formally acquired on April…
CBS Sports’ lead golf announcer Jim Nantz was in the headlines last week over comments he made during a Masters preview press call about LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau. On the call, Nantz mentioned that he had not seen DeChambeau play at all this season, citing his own commitments covering the PGA Tour for CBS.…
The 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament concludes Monday night when the Michigan Wolverines meet the UConn Huskies for the national championship. Ian Eagle, Bill Raferty, and Grant Hill will be on the call, but we’ve heard from a handful of different announcing teams during the tournament. We asked Awful Announcing readers to weigh in on the…
Dan Orlovsky doesn’t appear to be on the verge of leaving ESPN any time soon, but Stephen A. Smith warned the network against tempting him. Monday morning on First Take, Smith ripped Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys for never having the inclination to hire Troy Aikman as an advisor the way the Miami Dolphins…
40 years after his first Masters broadcast, Jim Nantz recalls fearing he made a mistake that would have kept him from ever being invited back. For all the incredible moments Nantz has witnessed over his four decades calling the Masters, that first one still might be the most amazing. Nantz was just 26 years old…
Bob Ryan attended his first Final Four in 1970, when UCLA beat Jacksonville in College Park. He’s in Indianapolis this year for what he estimates is his 35th. In the 55 years between those two trips, he has watched sports media transform into something he doesn’t always recognize, and in a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s…
Regardless of whether Luka Dončić plays another game during this regular season, Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony are calling on the NBA to make him eligible for end-of-season awards. Dončić suffered a left hamstring injury during the Los Angeles Lakers’ blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last Thursday night. And while Stephen A. Smith…
