Mickey Togs

The Big Ten has officially completed a new seven-year media rights agreement with FOX, CBS and NBC that will be the richest-ever television agreement for a college athletic league.

The new deal, which is expected to bring in more than $7 billion for the conference, will begin on July 1, 2023 and run through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year.

The Big Ten is projected to eventually distribute between $80 million and $100 million to all 16 of its member schools over the course of the television deal.

CBS, NBC and FOX are all set to carry future Big Ten football championship games as part of the deal, with FOX remaining the conference’s primary broadcast partner, having aired the football title game annually since its initial agreement in 2011.

FOX will broadcast the 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029 Big Ten football championship games — as well as the previously scheduled 2022 title game — and carry between 24-32 football games per season as part of the new deal.

CBS will broadcast the 2024 and 2028 Big Ten title games and broadcast 14-15 games annually.

NBC will broadcast the 2026 Big Ten football championship game and 14-16 games on its linear network, as well as eight annually on its Peacock streaming service.

Jets upstart quarterback Mike White nearly led the Jets to a comeback victory, but an interception with 10 seconds left by Vikings safety Camryn Bynum ended the Jets’ upset hopes and gave the Vikings a 27-22 victory.

The Jets fell to 7-5 on the season, hurting their playoff chances. The Vikings improved to 10-2.

The Jets had several chances to win the game late in the fourth quarter, but came up short.

The final chance came when the Vikings punted and the Jets took over at the Minnesota 43 with 1:19 to play. White hit Garrett Wilson for a 18-yard pass that put them at the 19, but the drive stalled there. White threw three straight incompletions and then was picked off at the goal line by Bynum to end the threat.

White completed 31 of 57 passes for 369 yards and two interceptions in the loss, while rookie wideout Garrett Wilson had a career day with eight catches for 162 yards. Another Jets rookie, running back Zonovan Knight, showed out as well, rushing for 90 yards on 15 carries.

The Denver Broncos have entered a sale agreement with the Walton-Penner family ownership group, led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, as part of a reported record-setting deal to purchase the NFL franchise.

The Broncos confirmed the acquisition in a statement shared by team president and CEO Joe Ellis.

“While this purchase and sale agreement is pending approval from the NFL’s finance committee and league ownership, today marks a significant step on the path to an exciting new chapter in Broncos history,” Ellis said.

The winning bid is valued at $4.65 billion, the most expensive price ever paid for a U.S. sports team, more than doubling the $2.275 paid by David Tepper to acquire the Carolina Panthers in 2018.

Mike White got the hero’s treatment as he walked from the Jets’ locker room to the player’s parking lot after Sunday’s 31-10 win over the Bears. 

White had just thrown for 315 yards and three touchdowns in his first start this season in place of Zach Wilson. White made the Jets’ offense look fun and functional and threw the ball to a whopping 10 different teammates. 

“He made the easy look easy,” coach Robert Saleh said. That is something Zach Wilson, the would-be franchise quarterback, has struggled with all season. 

White finished 22 of 28 for 315 yards and three touchdowns. 

The Jets gained a season-high 466 total yards, a week after gaining only 103 against the Patriots. Yes, it was against a terrible Bears team that was missing two starters in the secondary entering the game and lost another in the second quarter. But the Jets aren’t apologizing for that. 

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt have won the American League and National League Most Valuable Player awards, respectively, both taking home their league’s top honor for the first time in each of their historic careers.

Judge — who had previously finished second in AL MVP voting in 2017 and fourth in 2021 — led the American League in two of the three Triple Crown categories, setting an AL single-season record of 62 home runs, while also hitting a league-best 131 RBIs.

“It’s tough to put into words, it’s an incredible moment,” Judge said during his acceptance speech alongside his family after being announced as the winner by Yankees teammate Giancarlo Stanton. 

Judge received 28 of 30 first-place votes for a total score of 410 voting points, defeating 2021 AL MVP Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels — who received two first-place votes and 280 points — and Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, who had 232 points.

Goldschmidt won in a much closer vote, claiming 22 of 30 first-place votes for 380 points. San Diego Padres shortstop Manny Machado received seven first-place votes for 291 points and fellow St. Louis Cardinals star Nolan Arenado received one first-place vote and earned 232 points.

The first baseman hit for a .317 average, 35 home runs and 115 RBIs, having previously finished in the top 3 for MVP voting three times during his previous stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks, as well as sixth in 2021.

While the Detroit Lions are starting to find their way under second-year coach Dan Campbell, the New York Giants looked lost for the first time this season under first-year coach Brian Daboll.

Jamaal Williams ran for a career-high three touchdowns and the Lions stunned the New York Giants 31-18, posting consecutive roads wins and their first three-game winning streak since November 2017.

The Lions (4-6) now already have one more victory than they did last season, when they went 3-13-1.

The Lions defense shut down NFL leading rusher Saquon Barkley and forced three turnovers on a cold, blustery afternoon at MetLife Stadium.

Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, the No. 2 overall pick in the draft in April, intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble to help set up 14 points. Jared Goff and the Lions’ offense didn’t have a turnover for the second straight game.

The mistake-prone Giants (7-3) got 3-yard touchdown runs by Daniel Jones and Matt Breida. Jones also threw a meaningless late TD to Richie James but also was intercepted twice, his first picks since Week 3.

Barkley finished with 22 yards on 15 carries. Jones led New York with 50 yards on seven carries.

The New York Jets gave up an 84-yard punt return to rookie Marcus Jones in the final seconds of a tie game to suffer a crushing 10-3 defeat to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. 

The punt return sent the Jets to their 14th straight loss to New England, the longest current streak in the NFL. The Jets came to Massachusetts with a chance to grab first place in the division. Instead, they left in last. 

The Jets are now 6-4, tied with the Patriots but New England owns the head-to-head tiebreaker after sweeping the Jets for the seventh  consecutive year. These are not the Same Old Patriots, but they still found a way to beat the upstart Jets.

The game came down to the special teams miscue, but the Jets’ offense takes the blame in this one. It looked inept all day. The Jets managed just 103 total yards, the fourth-lowest total in franchise history. They had six first downs, tied for the second-fewest in franchise history. 

Zach Wilson completed just 9-of-22 passes for 77 yards. The Jets were particularly awful in the second half. They did not cross the 50-yard line once in the half and had two total yards. 

The Jets now must pick up the pieces before playing the Bears next week. 

Before free agency began and all 30 teams could have taken a run at Edwin Diaz, the Mets agreed to bring back their closer on a five-year, $102 million deal. 

The deal includes a $12 million signing bonus, a sixth-year option and an opt-out after three years, plus a full no-trade clause through the opt-out year.

The contract is a record for a reliever, surpassing the five-year, $86 million deal Aroldis Chapman signed with the Yankees in 2016. The average annual value of $20.4 million also exceeds Liam Hendriks’ reliever record of $18 million, set in his 2021 deal with the White Sox.

Diaz is coming off arguably the most dominant season of any reliever, in which he recorded a 1.31 ERA and 118 strikeouts across 62 innings. He had 32 saves in 35 chances, with no blown saves over the final four months of the season. In the process, he also became a fan favorite with his popular entrance music, “Narco,” which led to a live performance from Timmy Trumpet at Citi Field for one of Diaz’s appearances in August.

Following a 2-year hiatus, Olive Garden is welcoming back the brand’s fan-favorite Never-Ending Pasta Bowl.

With the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, you can enjoy never-ending servings of pasta, sauces and toppings, all with a Never-Ending First course of soup or salad and breadsticks starting at a suggested price of $13.99. Each never-ending topping can be added for $4.99.  

The 2022 Never Ending Pasta Bowl menu includes:

Pick Your Pasta: Fettuccine, Spaghetti, Angel Hair, Rigatoni

Choose A Sauce: Alfredo, Marinara, Meat Sauce, Creamy Mushroom, Five Cheese Marinara

Add A Topping (For an additional price): Crispy Chicken Fritta, Meatballs, Italian Sausage

The Never-Ending Pasta Bowl can be found at participating Olive Garden locations nationwide for a limited time.