Bud Light is kicking off its 13th consecutive season as an NFL corporate sponsor with a series of TV ads showcasing fan devotion. Breaking this week is a campaign continuing Bud Light’s "Easy to Enjoy" thematic from The Martin Agency. In "Easy to Sunday," rituals of NFL fans are highlighted, including a 63-year-old Giants fan’s Sunday-best mussels recipe; a farmer and Titans fan who listens to games on his tractor; along with a military veteran and die-hard Eagles fan who never missed a game -- whenever and wherever she was stationed. "Easy to Sunday" follows this summer’s "Easy to Summer" campaign, which included NFLers like Chiefs TE Travis Kelce and 49ers TE George Kittle.  

"The idea is to get back to what Bud Light does best: easy enjoyment with humorous, relatable moments," said Bud Light VP/Marketing Todd Allen. "There’s not a single actor in this campaign-it’s about authenticity."  

The campaign, which will include dedicated local social and digital, along with on-premise support, will run through the season and into the playoffs. 

Bud Light is also reprising its longstanding NFL can promotion this season with team marks and player photos from 23 teams across millions of cans. A QR code on those cans allows fans to scan for a chance to win NFL merchandise, Sunday Ticket and gift cards to NFLshop.com.  

Bud Light, which has sponsorships with 27 NFL teams, earlier this year was displaced from its decades-long position as the top-selling domestic beer brand by Constellation Brands’ Modelo. The sales slippage came after Bud Light used transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for some marketing, causing a brand boycott amidst a national kerfuffle within the brand’s customer base and the LGBTQ community. 

Powerade has signed five college football players to NIL deals that will form the basis of a new ad campaign for this season called “It takes more.” The first 30-second spot will air Sept. 3; subsequent spots will follow. Powerade’s largest marketing effort in the college space previously was through its March Madness partnership. The brand is calling the “It takes more” campaign its largest marketing effort in college football with activation across TV, digital, out-of-home, radio and social media.

Five current college football athletes sit at the center of the campaign:

• Florida State DE Jared Verse
• LSU QB Jayden Daniels
• Georgia DB Malaki Starks
• USC WR Mario Williams
• Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson

The spots highlight school traditions at each of the five universities. Open X, an ad agency within WPP, came up with the creative for the spots. Powerade works with Altius Sports Partners on its NIL strategy. The performance drink brand began assembling its roster of athlete ambassadors earlier this year and the program has grown to 60 athletes with NIL deals. Powerade also has arrangements with more than 20 schools, where it is the official hydration drink.

In addition to the two 30-second spots, Powerade will air multiple 15-second regional spots with a focus on the five schools in the creative. BodyArmour CMO Tom Gargiulo joined the company six months ago and has overseen the evolution of the college football campaign.

“We knew that college football was a big area of opportunity for us,” Gargiulo told SBJ. “We knew that we wanted to really lean into the relationships with the schools where we already had relationships and lean into NIL.”

ACC expansion discussions "are intensifying" as conference leaders "continue to consider the acquisition of Stanford, Cal and SMU," according to sources. New financial models have been "socialized" with league administrators, and they "show a financial boon" of roughly $72M in annual additional revenue for the conference. The additional revenue that the new expansion targets would forego is "new money to current ACC members." Now, administrators are expected to discuss what is the "key issue" in the expansion debate: "How the additional revenue will be distributed." More meetings among ACC administrators are "planned for this week," including a call with presidents today as well as a separate meeting with ADs. A final decision is "expected as early as next week" (YAHOO SPORTS, 8/23).

The ACC has explored adding Cal, Stanford and SMU "just for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball." But a source said yesterday that the three "would likely be brought on for all sports" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 8/23).

The Tour Championship has "installed a series of new precautions" at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta as the forecast for the event today through Sunday calls for temperatures "ranging between 95 and 98 degrees, with the adjusted heat index approaching 100." The price of water on the course has been "halved, from $4 to $2," and there are "additional water refill stations around the course." Misters and shaded rest stations have been added at "popular gathering places on the grounds." Tour Championship Exec Dir Alex Urban on whether he thinks the heat would affect attendance said, "People in Atlanta are used to heat in August" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 8/23).

Angels P/DH Shohei Ohtani has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, "ending his season as a pitcher and dramatically shifting his prospects for what was expected to be a record-setting free agency" this winter. The Angels and Ohtani have "not yet decided" if he will undergo a second Tommy John surgery. Ohtani is set to be a free agent at the end of the season, and his contract was "expected to be at least" $500M with some suggesting he could receive $700M. But "with his future as a pitcher in doubt, it is unlikely that he would be able to reach that level." Ohtani also suffered a tear during the 2018 season, resulting in surgery that "prevented him from pitching until 2020" (O.C. REGISTER, 8/23). The injury is a "shocking twist in the lead-up to arguably the most highly anticipated free agency in baseball history" (ESPN.com, 8/23).

Premier League club Everton took a hit yesterday after MSP Sports Capital "withdrew from talks about taking a minority stake in the club." The U.S. investment group signed an "exclusivity agreement" with Everton in May when it was looking to take a 25% holding in the club that "could have been worth" $163M. Two-thirds of that amount "would have gone to Everton Stadium Development Company," which is overseeing the construction of Everton’s new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, with the rest "going to the club." However, the time period of exclusivity that MSP Sports Capital had "has now elapsed." It will, however, still lend $109M to the stadium company. It is thought that Everton owner Farhad Moshiri is "seeking alternative funding for the stadium" (London TIMES, 8/23).

Fanatics’ growing Mitchell & Ness brand, which specializes in vintage sports apparel and jerseys, will have close to 100 schools under license when the college football season opens this weekend with games in what’s known as Week 0. Fanatics acquired the nostalgia brand in February 2022 and used an expanding line of college apparel to spur growth, the company said. Among the program’s blue-chip licensing partners are Alabama, Oregon, Kentucky, Penn State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Clemson, Florida State and Georgia.

Since joining Fanatics last year, Mitchell & Ness, the brand founded in 1904, has added 60 new university partners. Mitchell & Ness operates within the Fanatics Commerce division. The company said it plans to launch several new authentic jersey programs this fall.

NASCAR is getting into the micro betting sector of gaming, inking a deal with nVenue, a company that develops the odds via AI and machine learning. The deal will be announced later today with terms undisclosed, but it will see the Daytona Beach-based league become the latest sports property to partner with the Dallas-based nVenue. The company is a graduate of the NBA Launchpad and is a partner of Apple for its MLB games. Under the agreement, nVenue will use its proprietary technology to develop thousands of different betting opportunities for people to explore during NASCAR races, as opposed to the traditional method of betting on the final outcome of the competition. The bets could be around pit road strategy, stage results and qualifying. nVenue will get access to NASCAR's real-time and historical data in order to set up the markets. NASCAR Managing Dir of Sports Betting Joe Solosky helped set up the deal for the racing property.

Nielsen is "planning to incorporate viewing data from streaming services for live programming," a move that will "likely boost the ratings for Amazon Prime Video’s 'Thursday Night Football' package and allow it to charge more for commercials." This is the "first time" Nielsen has agreed to "use a company’s own data along with its independent research" to publicly report ratings. It "only applies for live programming on streaming services" and is "open to other streamers" as well. Amazon’s ratings using its own data were "nearly 18% higher than Nielsen’s" when it came to "Thursday Night Football." Nielsen’s decision to accept first-party data came after lobbying by Amazon and the NFL to "include first-person data in its ratings" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/23).

• Spain FA meeting Friday amid Rubiales controversy
• Rugby Australia may take over struggling clubs
• England's Mary Earps challenges Nike statement

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Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez today will meet in Pullman with Washington State officials “to make her pitch” to the school, according to sources (KTVB-NBC, 8/23).

Creighton basketball will continue playing at CHI Health Center Omaha for at least another decade after the school and the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority agreed to a 10-year extension that runs through the 2032-33 season (Creighton).

Davidson College has launched a new logo and visual identity that links the letters D and C (Davidson).

“Irsay is dangerously close to being James Dolan of the Knicks, which is dad gave him a great business and they’re a little undisciplined, unfocused, they love their music. That’s great but in the end, stay off Twitter, don’t meddle. It’s getting to be a little Looney Tunes in Indy” -- FS1’s Colin Cowherd, on Colts owner Jim Irsay’s comments about RB Jonathan Taylor (“The Herd,” FS1, 8/23).

The N.Y. TIMES looks at the "unusual legal agreement behind ‘The Blind Side.'" Michael Oher was a "top prospect to play major college football and seemed headed to the NFL" when Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy took him in, but "there were complications." Because the Tuohys were not Oher’s parents, providing support to him could have been seen as "breaking NCAA rules against providing benefits to recruits." As "significant donors" to Ole Miss, one of the colleges recruiting Oher, the Tuohys might "subject themselves and the school to penalties in case of a violation." So they asked a court to "give them wide authority over Oher’s affairs, including power of attorney, control of his medical decisions and the right to approve financial contracts on his behalf," and arrangement, they "believed, would satisfy the NCAA." Oher, then 18 and legally an adult, "agreed to it." Now the legal relationship, known as a conservatorship, and the Tuohys’ motives are "under scrutiny." This much is "clear: The conservatorship departed in several ways from Tennessee legal norms."

Also:

• How South Sudan built a World Cup team from scratch.

Kevin Hart thought he could beat former #Patriots RB Stevan Ridley in a 40-yard dash.

He couldn’t.

Not only did he lose the race, but Hart also suffered a torn lower abdomen, which has now left him in a wheelchair. 😬
pic.twitter.com/paScrDZJNJ

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 24, 2023

Jimmy Butler didn't get to his level without training.

Tonight, it was to be a #USOpen ball crew member. pic.twitter.com/S5mFYvXK3R

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 24, 2023

This angle of Messi’s absurd assist 🤤

(via @opencup)pic.twitter.com/tO5Nl24opc

— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 24, 2023

Elly De La Cruz touching Shohei Ohtani to see if he’s real and Ohtani giving him crap for where he hit a ball with an off-balance swing.

The language of baseball > pic.twitter.com/MJMGyUTtoN

— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) August 24, 2023

White Sox fans aren’t quite satisfied yet with the organization’s changes

(via @jkimpictures) pic.twitter.com/VUZ9QhmtPm

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 23, 2023

"A trip to El Paso with his young son & wondering what the city might look like years into the future inspired a novel by this author."

“Who is Cormac McCarthy?”