Cooper Rush Got Sandbagged

PLUS 16.9M Viewers Tuning In, The Streaming Wars, Caitlin Clark’s Early NIL Days

January 07, 2025

Welcome to Office Chair Sports! Your home for everything Sports & Biz! Today, we’re covering top news about:

  • 16.9M Viewers Tuning In

  • The Streaming Wars

  • Cooper Rush Got Sandbagged

  • New NIL Player Enters The Arena

  • Caitlin Clark’s Early NIL Days

16.9M Viewers Tuning In

College football is on fire right now 🔥

The expanded College Football Playoff quarterfinals just wrapped up, and the numbers are pretty wild!

The games averaged nearly 17 million viewers, which is a 59% jump from previous years.

  • The Rose Bowl stole the show, with Ohio State taking down Oregon in front of 21.1 million viewers.

  • Pat McAfee's alt-cast even pulled in 2.4 million people, breaking ESPN's alt-cast record.

  • Texas and Arizona State also put on a show in the Peach Bowl, drawing 17.3 million viewers in an early time slot.

  • Things got a bit crazy with the Sugar Bowl - it had to be delayed because of a terrorist attack in New Orleans, but still managed to pull 15.8 million viewers for Notre Dame's win over Georgia.

  • Penn State rounded things out by beating Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

The semis are up next - Notre Dame vs. Penn State in the Orange Bowl, and a heavyweight clash between Ohio State and Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Let's go!

The Streaming Wars

Huge shake-up in the streaming world today! Disney and FuboTV just announced they're joining forces to create a sports streaming powerhouse, and Wall Street is loving it.

FuboTV's stock shot up a wild 125%!

Here's the deal: Disney is throwing their Hulu + Live TV service together with Fubo to make one mega-platform (still called Fubo). Disney's gonna own most of it (70%), but Fubo's current CEO is staying in charge. The new service will have over 6.2 million subscribers who'll get access to all of Fubo's current stuff plus Disney channels like ABC and ESPN.

The streaming wars just got way more interesting, especially for sports fans. Get ready for some major changes in how we watch our games.

Cooper Rush Got Sandbagged

Talk about a wild way to end the season. The Cowboys just sandbagged Cooper Rush by benching him for Trey Lance in their season finale against Washington. Lance, the former No. 3 overall pick from the Niners, got his first real shot with Dallas but couldn't quite get the W, falling 23-19 to the Commanders.

Here's the thing - Rush was just a few snaps away from hitting a $500K bonus (needed 55% of season snaps, was at 52.5%). Pretty cold from the Cowboys.

Lance wasn't exactly lighting it up (244 yards, no TDs or picks), but both he and Rush are free agents in March. The Cowboys traded a fourth-rounder for Lance last preseason, so maybe they wanted one last look before making offseason decisions?

New NIL Player Enters The Arena

Big moves in college sports NIL world.

South Dakota State just launched "Jacked NIL," and it's basically their way of helping student-athletes cash in on their name, image, and likeness. Think of it as a one-stop-shop for connecting SDSU athletes with brands and sponsors.

The cool part? It's running through Learfield (these guys are like the big dogs in college sports media) and using Opendorse's platform, which is basically like LinkedIn for college athletes. SDSU fans can now directly support their favorite athletes, and businesses can easily set up deals for everything from social media posts to public appearances.

Jacked is not just throwing athletes to the wolves. The whole thing's set up to track deals, keep everything NCAA-compliant, and make sure both brands and athletes get what they want. Plus, fans can contribute directly to specific sports programs if they want.

Basically, SDSU's making it way easier for their athletes to get paid while keeping everything above board.

Caitlin Clark’s Early NIL Days

The Iowa basketball superstar opened up on the "New Heights" podcast about what it was like being one of the first athletes to navigate this whole NIL thing back in 2021.

When NIL first dropped after her freshman year, nobody really knew what was going on. Clark had to rely on her family to figure things out because it was such uncharted territory.

The craziest part? She points out how basic stuff like doing a local coffee shop commercial - something any regular student could do - was off-limits to athletes before NIL. Now she's saying universities are scrambling to hire NIL specialists and lawyers to help athletes navigate these deals.

But here's the best part - Clark thinks NIL has been a game-changer for women's sports. Despite the early chaos, she sees it as a massive win for everyone involved.

Internships 🙋

1. Intern - Ticket Sales and Services (Pittsburgh Pirates) - This internship will assist the Ticket Sales and Services Department (Premium, Service & Retention, Group Sales, New Business, Sales and Service Development, and Ticket Operations) with various season and off-season office tasks, as well as game-day responsibilities.

2. Intern - Video Production (Pittsburgh Pirates) - The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking for an Intern, Video Production to join our team and help us build media that drives our storytelling narrative and business value. 

3. Graphic Design Intern (Green Bay Packers) - Supports the Creative Design Manager and Graphic Designer in the creation and production of a wide variety of print and digital design projects for the Green Bay Packers and its business units.

4. Baseball Sciences Associate (Boston Red Sox) - The Boston Red Sox are seeking a forward-thinking Baseball Sciences Associate for the 2025 season to drive the development and application of innovative solutions aimed at improving on-field performance and injury risk mitigation.

5. Social Media Internship (Texas Rangers) - Assist in the implementation of the organization’s social media initiatives. The intern will be tasked with participating in content ideation, production, and measurement with a focus on content creation.

Job Board 💰

1. Coordinator, Suites & Premium Hospitality (Arizona Diamondbacks) - Assist with servicing of all nightly suite sales across the sales floor by ensuring proper communication on accessing tickets, placing F&B order, parking, and other gameday details are shared with each suite rental.

2. Partnership Marketing Coordinator (New Orleans Pelicans + Saints) - The Partnership Marketing team is responsible for relationship building, execution and overall management of the teams’ corporate partnerships, and is expected to drive revenue by renewing and growing our partnerships.

3. Digital Marketing Coordinator (Boston Red Sox) - The Digital Marketing Coordinator will be a vital member of the corporate marketing team, primarily responsible for managing the organization’s email marketing efforts to drive revenue, engage fans, and expand reach.

4. Graphic Designer (New York Islanders) - The Graphic Designer will execute design projects from start to finish, managing asset creation. They will create assets for Islanders’ digital channels, including NewYorkIslanders.com, social media platforms, and email/digital marketing campaigns.

5. Motion Graphics Designer (Part-Time) (Golden State Warriors) - The Golden State Warriors and Chase Center Productions are looking for a hardworking and detailed Motion Graphic Designer to join our growing content department. The ideal candidate is enthusiastic about creating compelling motion graphics and animations for fans across Warriors in-arena platforms.

Thanks for reading - see you soon!