Sports

Call Her Daddy, Alex Cooper Split

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It’s been almost six years since the Call Her Daddy breakup rocked the podcasting world. And somehow, there’s still more that people don’t know about the hit show’s jaw-dropping dissolution.
Launched in 2018, Call Her Daddy experienced a meteoric rise in the entertainment world, becoming the most popular show at Barstool Sports and racking up millions of weekly downloads. Co-hosted by self-proclaimed best friends Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn, Call Her Daddy reveled in its shock value, with fans piling in weekly to hear raunchy takes on dating, sexual favors, and feminism. The clear draw was the rapport between the hosts, so listeners were understandably shocked in 2020 when news broke that, after months of contract negotiations with Barstool and its owner, Dave Portnoy, the podcast duo would be splitting up. Cooper kept the show — and Franklyn was left with nothing.
The story has been discussed ad nauseam online in the years since, with each party rallying fans around their own version of events. (Cooper claimed Franklyn wanted to leave Barstool and was willing to blow up the show to do it. Franklyn said she tried to make negotiations work and was blindsided when she was cut out of the deal.) Cooper has declined to comment several times to Rolling Stone, but in several episodes of Call Her Daddy, her stories about Franklyn and the split have moved from scorched-earth accusations of lying to vague acknowledgments of Franklyn’s existence — a position of power aided by her $60 million Spotify deal and reigning role as queen of podcasting. (Portnoy, in a past comment to Rolling Stone, claimed Franklyn “can’t get her story straight.”)
But in her new memoir, Daddy Issues, out Tuesday, Franklyn is finally telling the story from her perspective. The book goes through her early childhood in Utah, a failed career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley, the chance meeting with Cooper that led to Call Her Daddy, and the highly publicized breakup of a friendship and its painful aftermath.
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“The decision [to write the book] was one I came to on my own,” Franklyn told Rolling Stone in February. “Six years ago, I was reeling from an experience I didn’t understand. I needed to grow up and be free of ego as much as humanly possible.”
Here are the biggest bombshells from Daddy Issues:
Franklyn’s early years and time in the spotlight were dominated by heavy alcohol and drug use
On Call Her Daddy, Cooper and Franklyn were open about their hard-partying ways. In fact, reckless nights out in New York City fueled some of their most popular stories. But Franklyn reveals in the memoir that she spent much of her early adulthood abusing drugs and alcohol. She was arrested for using a fake ID, then twice for underage drinking. In one particularly shocking story that she told on the podcast and recalled in the book, Franklyn accidentally smoked meth, thinking she was simply doing cocaine. When a friend offered her heroin, it served as a wake-up call — and part of the impetus to move to New York City.
Though she was perhaps a bit more careful about the drugs she accepted from strangers, Franklyn kept many of the same partying patterns when she moved. But in Daddy Issues, she notes that many times she went out to avoid feelings about her complicated childhood family dynamics, her move, career, and where she was in life.
She met Cooper in 2018 after a chance encounter with a girl in a rideshare. The woman knew of two people needing a third roommate, and when Franklyn complained about her rent, offered her their numbers. Franklyn and Cooper became an instant duo and began partying together. Considering Franklyn had virtually no friends in the city at that point, she needed both a support system and a distraction, she wrote, and Cooper’s all-encompassing nature answered both.
Cooper’s best friend Lauren, who was also their third roommate, tried to warn Franklyn about Cooper’s worst tendencies early on
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Looking back, Franklyn said in the book, there were several warning signs that her relationship with Cooper might end poorly. The two became what they called a “package deal” in all things: living together, going out together, instigating poor choices with toxic boyfriends together, and working on a podcast together.
But one night, their third roommate and Cooper’s childhood best friend, Lauren, warned Franklyn that Cooper was using her to help elevate her own status.
“She uses you because you’re hot, to like, go to parties and stuff,” Lauren said, according to the book.
In the book, Franklyn wrote that Lauren thought it was especially telling how Cooper essentially “tossed” her aside once Franklyn came into the picture. “You showed up and it was like I never existed.”
Franklyn wanted to negotiate ownership of Call Her Daddy before they ever signed to Barstool
Cooper and Franklyn started Call Her Daddy in 2018 as an experiment with the company Podible. But by the time they recorded their fourth episode, Cooper had a DM from Portnoy wanting to sign the two to his network.
According to Franklyn, she and Cooper were excited about the contract Barstool Sports offered them. The three-year deal had a clear pay structure: $75,000 for the first year, $85,000 for the second, and $100,000 for the third year, including $2,500 bonuses for every 10 percent increase in show downloads. The only part of the contract Franklyn had a problem with, she wrote, was the ownership. In the deal, Barstool acquired the Call Her Daddy IP, including the name and its social media accounts. Essentially, Barstool would own Call Her Daddy outright, with Franklyn and Cooper simply acting as talent.
Franklyn discussed the deal with her mom, she wrote, who suggested she reach out to other media companies to see if someone wanted to offer them more. But Franklyn said Cooper wanted to complete the paperwork quickly — so Franklyn signed on the dotted line.
Cooper allegedly tried to get Franklyn fired — then used a rough night at a Barstool holiday party to negotiate a secret raise
In Daddy Issues, Franklyn wrote that “insane anxiety” at a Barstool Christmas Party led to an intense fight with Cooper. During the party, Franklyn remembers feeling intensely out of place with her co-workers, which led her to drink heavily.
“The second I wake up the next morning, the worst feeling comes over me. I have no idea how I even got home. The only thing I am certain of is my dread,” Franklyn wrote. “Every part of my body knows I’ve done something very wrong.”
When Franklyn tried to speak with Cooper about the night, it was clear she was upset with her. After prodding, Cooper told her that she was “rude” and “aggressive” at the party — enough that Portnoy wanted to fire her. When Franklyn desperately tried to apologize and offered to speak to Portnoy directly to try and rectify the situation, Cooper instead allegedly encouraged her to see a psychiatrist recommended by her family. At the suggestion of the doctor, Franklyn started taking naltrexone, a drug used to curb alcohol and opioid addiction.
But when Franklyn eventually attempted to discuss the night with Portnoy and the Barstool executive team, no one seemed as worried as Cooper had implied, Franklyn wrote.
Later on, Franklyn found out that Cooper had gone directly to Portnoy after the party and attempted to get Franklyn fired. When that didn’t work, she refused to continue the series without a raise.
“[Cooper] was like, ‘If I have to put up with her, I need more money,’” Cooper’s friend and a former podcast employee, Muji, reportedly told Franklin. “So she got the raise.”
Franklyn and Cooper asked Barstool for $1 million per year in a new contract
In 2020, despite their three-year term not yet being over, Cooper and Franklyn pushed to renegotiate their contract early when it became clear that the podcast was not only one of the most financially successful shows at the network, but also in the podcasting industry as a whole. Their legal team projected that they brought in $11 million from the show alone, which didn’t even include merch sales. Their contracts at the time meant they were getting constant $2,500 bonuses for their rising downloads. But they felt their yearly take-homes didn’t reflect their worth, especially since the Barstool Sports deal prevented them from taking on other lucrative opportunities, like a joint book deal, alcohol sponsorships, new social media accounts, or a podcast tour.
They decided to send Barstool an email with their new contract proposal. Along with their desire to do live events and alcohol partnerships, they also asked for more money — a lot more money.
“50/50 split of all revenue derived from Barstool’s exploitation of the property (i.e., advertisers, sponsors, merch, etc.),” they wrote, and a “minimum guarantee — $1M each, per year.”
During the Barstool Sports negotiations, Cooper and Franklyn discussed starting over with a new show called The Fathers.
The heart of the argument was always the IP of Call Her Daddy. Barstool Sports owned the show and its archive, which meant that if a new deal fell through, Franklyn and Cooper might not be able to use the brand they had turned into a household name, and the network could technically replace them with new hosts.
At a weekend retreat used to get on the same page about business, Franklyn said the two decided that staying together was the ultimate goal.
“Seeing her across from me, it feels like we’ll be sisters forever, and we say as much, high off the “founders are like married couples” binder,” Franklyn wrote. “We’re being corny as shit, but it’s because we’re both blissed out on the plan and our future — we don’t know how Barstool will respond, but we know that staying together is more important than losing the IP, or whatever they may threaten. What is the name without us?”
The two agreed that, in the worst-case scenario, they would depart without the Call Her Daddy IP and start a new show. They decided to call it The Fathers.
When Call Her Daddy officially split, Portnoy offered Franklyn her own show
After months of attempting to come to agreeable terms with each other and Barstool, Franklyn’s worst-case scenario became a reality. Cooper negotiated a deal in which she kept the show on Barstool Sports and ousted Franklyn.
In the days before, Portnoy called Franklyn to discuss the situation, revealing that Cooper met with him separately and proposed continuing on the show without her. In return, he offered Franklyn her own podcast.
“She came to me with a plan, and I needed an episode. There’s no clear favorite. You could always have your own show, and we promote the shit out of it like we did with Call Her Daddy. I think it would be huge,” he said, according to the book. When Franklyn confirmed that this would mean Call Her Daddy would belong to Alex alone, Portnoy continued, “She told me that you’re never going to sign and that she got a different lawyer because you’re trying to blow up the deal.”
“According to her, you’re the one that’s been dragging this on, and she’s been ready to sign this thing,” he added.
Even after Portnoy attempted to reassure her with the promise of “your own show, your own editor, and anything else you need,” Franklyn wrote, she felt too burned by Barstool to continue working with them.
The fall of Call Her Daddy sent Franklyn on a downward spiral
The split — of both the podcast and friendship — happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Franklyn and her then-boyfriend, Peter Nelson, moved in with her mother in Utah. Several people tried to get involved in the breakup, including an attempted mediation from music executive Scooter Braun. But Franklyn’s multiple attempts to talk to Cooper, both through legal representation and personal texts, went unanswered, she wrote.
Instead, Franklyn said Cooper locked her out of all the social media accounts and then posted “The Truth About Call Her Daddy,” a 52-minute YouTube video where Cooper called Franklyn a “liability” and blamed her for the show’s split. It started a vicious online narrative: that Franklyn was greedy for money and Cooper was a victim who lost her friend.
Franklyn wrote in Daddy Issues that because of the drama and media speculation that came along with it, she became withdrawn and paranoid. It took her months to figure out how to respond to Cooper — and even when she started a new podcast, Sofia with an F (which she proudly wrote that she was offered $500,001 to start, a dollar more than Cooper’s first solo deal with Barstool) — Cooper’s actions clouded everything.
“I wonder if anyone in the history of business breakups — like Mark Zuckerberg vs. the Winklevoss twins — has not only stolen someone’s million-dollar idea but decimated them online?” Franklyn wrote. “Is taking my livelihood and my reputation not enough?”
The stress led her to return to drinking and partying — and eventually, she wrote, it caused her to cheat on Nelson, which contributed to their eventual breakup.
Franklyn also wrote about finding out she was pregnant and getting an abortion one day before a family trip to the Amalfi Coast for her birthday. “How can I bring new life into the world when I don’t live a life worth keeping myself?” she wrote.
While there, Cooper announced the launch of her new media company, Unwell. She got the name from a story that Franklyn told on Call Her Daddy.
Cooper allegedly threatened to sue Franklyn after she read her book proposal
Franklyn’s work reclaiming her life following the Call Her Daddy debacle wasn’t easy — or glamorous. In her memoir, she recalls discovering the existence of Cooper’s line of Unwell beverages while recovering from norovirus, standing in a CVS aisle bewildered with dry vomit clumps still in her hair. But there was a freedom in that moment, Franklyn wrote: the idea that Cooper’s fame and power had eclipsed her own so thoroughly that there’s no longer any need to compete.
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But while Franklyn wrote that she learned to stop caring about what Cooper does — blocking her number, her accounts, and mentions of her on her socials — that clearly isn’t reciprocal. According to Franklyn, her book agent received an irate call from Matt Kaplan, Cooper’s husband, the day of her book announcement, threatening to sue. It was the first time Franklyn had heard from her former best friend in six years.
“I remember this feeling of powerlessness. Alex rearranging my life with no acknowledgment. My life being taken, overnight. On the scoreboard of Alex vs. Sofia, Alex won. I cannot fathom her trying to do it again,” Franklyn wrote. “I feel bulletproof … something born out of a dark place. For the first time I have something Alex wants. Our story. My story.”

Sports

Create My Widget, Pixel 10 Rambler

Like last year, the next Pixel Drop is rolling out a month early in November. Coupled with Android 17 QPR2, it’s quite a big Feature Drop for Gemini and other AI capabilities, as well as the Pixel 10 series.
Pixel Watch Drop: Create My Widget, Phone-to-Watch Unlock, and Wear OS 7.1
Gemini Intelligence is coming to the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The lead feature is Rambler to automatically remove filler words and format your transcription.
The Pixel 10 series also gets Gemini app automation for ordering groceries, ride-sharing, meal delivery, marketplace transactions, and booking reservations. Proactive Gemini Actions let you “send groceries right to your Google Keep list straight from ongoing conversations” and more.
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The Pixel 11 and 10 are getting Create My Widget. This generative UI capability lets you create custom homescreen objects using natural language. For example, you can create a sports widget or an event countdown. The feature first debuted on Googlebooks.
On the Pixel 11, Gemini Call Screen is an “intelligent, proactive assistant that screens incoming inquiries on demand.” Replacing Manual Call Screen, Gemini will speak to callers in a more conversational manner than before.
Meanwhile, the Pixel 10+ now lets Gemini make calls on your behalf in the US. Use cases include changing reservations, putting items on hold, and checking inventory. Beta testing started in September.
The AI features continue with 10 new Custom Icon styles. Following the March introduction, Google has upgraded the experience with Nano Banana for higher-quality icons. Available on Pixel 6a+.
Pixel Solver in the Google Calculator app provides generative AI custom templates and allows for conversational, multi-step problem solving using prompts. This is available on Pixel 11+.
Unit Conversion is a “top-tier module” that saves you from switching between your browser and the Calculator app. It offers inline mathematics, combined unit interpretation, and real-time exchange rates on the Pixel 6a+.
On the Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL, and Pro Fold, HiLight now supports Google Messages notifications after being restricted to phone calls and Gemini at launch.
Pixel Search is now available on the Pixel 6 and newer to provide a more integrated on-device lookup experience that spans apps, web, settings, and other personal content. It allows for natural language search from the search bar at the top of the app grid.
Extreme Battery Charging is now available on the Pixel 10 series.
Following the 2.0 redesign in September, Pixel VIPs now supports Live Location Sharing. This will surface real-time information and battery status from Find Hub in contact cards and homescreen widgets on the Pixel 6a+.
Transit Mode has been upgraded to automatically trigger based on device sensors. This is available on the Pixel 6a+.
International feature expansions today include:

Sports

Bills report card: Defense aces test in gritty win over Vikings

MINNEAPOLIS – Josh Allen strode into the interview room late Monday night with all of his limbs in working order, and that’s no small thing for a quarterback going against the most ferocious and aggressive defense in the NFL.
“That defense is one of the better ones you’ll see in the league any year,” the Buffalo Bills superstar said of the Minnesota Vikings unit that defended every rubber pellet in the artificial turf with uncommon vigor, though all for naught in what wound up being a decisive and statement-making 23-6 Buffalo victory at raucous U.S. Bank Stadium.
“I don’t care going back a long time, it’s a really tough defense to go against. I thought we stuck in there, we continued to find a little bit of success on third down. Obviously, there’s some stuff we want to clean up, and obviously don’t want to turn the ball over. But proud of our how our guys kind of finished at the end there.”
Ninety minutes before kickoff, it was revealed that the entire left side of the offensive line would be inactive and that Tylan Grable and Austin Corbett would be starting in place of injured Dion Dawkins and Alec Anderson. You would have been correct to surmise that there could not have been a worse game for that to happen, having to go against the blitz-crazy Vikings in their domed stadium.
And yeah, it created some big problems early, but the Bills persevered and ultimately wore the Vikings down as they ended up possessing the ball for more than 42 minutes.
“That’s a long time for a defense to be out there, it’s a lot of plays,” Allen said. “Our linemen were out there executing, Jimbo (Cook) finding holes, Ty Johnson and Ray (Davis) in the pass protection game, I thought they did a great job. So our guys stepped up and made a statement.”
Here’s how I graded the Bills:
PASS OFFENSE: B+
Allen overcame a rough start as he and coach Joe Brady were trying to figure out ways to cope with all the pressure, but once they found their groove, the Vikings could not stop them.
As Allen said, it was far from perfect as he suffered four sacks, threw an interception, and had a couple near-miss picks, but in the end, Allen found a way to put up more points against the Vikings than any team this season. He finished 21 of 31 for 234 yards and a 25-yard TD pass to fourth-string TE Keleki Latu against a pass defense that was No. 1 at 154.9 yards per game.
One of the biggest keys was Brady turning to the quick passing game, which alleviated some of the stress caused by the quick pressure. Khalil Shakir led the WR group with four catches for 58 yards and Dawson Knox had four for 37, though he failed to make a TD catch that should have been made.
RUN OFFENSE: A-
Coming into the game, this was the only area where it seemed Minnesota’s defense was vulnerable. Not that it was bad, but in comparison to the pass defense it was the way to attack and the Bills sure tried as they used two- and three-TE alignments on 63.3% of their snaps per Sumer Sports.
James Cook had nowhere to run in the first half, thanks in part to the state of the offensive line. He had just 17 yards on his first 11 carries and finished the first half with 33 on 15 attempts. But over the final two quarters the Bills hammered away and Cook eventually crossed 100 yards on his 30th carry which resulted in the clinching touchdown with 6:17 remaining.
He finished with 107 yards on 31 carries and those may have been the toughest 31 carries he’s ever had as every yard was hard to come by, but on Buffalo’s last TD drive, it was clear the Vikings were tired because at that point they’d been on the field nearly 40 minutes. On that drive Cook ran for 47 yards.
PASS DEFENSE: A+
Carson Wentz was beyond bad, maybe even worse than Ravens third-stringer Joe Fagnano the week before. He finished 8 of 25 for 81 yards with two picks and a passer rating of 8.9. Truly egregious.
The Bills had CB Christian Benford traveling with Justin Jefferson most of the first half and Benford blanked the star WR on the first seven matchups before allowing two catches for 39 yards on the final drive of the second quarter and that helped the Vikings get a field goal. Benford suffered a wrist injury, was able to return to start the second half, but eventually he left for good in the third quarter. Jefferson finished with just three catches for 58 yards.
The Bills had two interceptions in the third quarter, the first by Dorian Williams who made an outstanding catch at the Bills 11 while covering TJ Hockenson one-on-one on Minnesota’s first possession of the second half which probably cost the Vikings a scoring chance as they were already in field goal range. Terrel Bernard had one on the next series, but that one did not lead to points. Bernard also dropped one right in his hands with no one around him.
Early in the game, Jefferson dropped what was ruled a backward pass and Greg Rousseau recovered the fumble. Rousseau also had a sack and a deflected pass and helped the pass rush generate a 38.4% pressure rate per Sumer.
RUN DEFENSE: A
The Vikings had the ball just over 17 minutes, had only nine first downs and went 0-for-10 on third- and fourth-down plays so they really never had a chance to get a running game working.
They finished with 51 yards on 12 attempts led by Jordan Mason’s 35 yards. Up front, Ed Oliver had a strong game and was credited with four impact plays by Sumer while Bernard had five while also making six tackles along with his pick.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
In a game like this, special teams figured to be important. Greg Dortch started the game with a 58-yard return of the opening kickoff, but that possession went nowhere and Tommy Doman hit a poor punt that went for a touchback and a terrible net yardage of 27.
That started a busy night for Doman who punted more in this game (5) than any other this season, and he did not have a good game as he had a second touchback and cost the Bills field position. His net average was an abysmal 35.2 yards.
Doman also handled kickoffs instead of Tyler Bass and on his first one, it was an adventure as Myles Price, perhaps the most dangerous returner in the league, returned it 35 yards and then he fumbled on a big hit by none other than Doman. However, the Vikings were able to make the recovery at their 45.
Bass continued his outstanding start to the season as he made three more field goals from 39, 25 and 52 yards and he made both of his extra points.
COACHING: A
The game plan obviously had to be altered with the realization that Dawkins and Anderson were not playing and I thought Brady did a very nice job of keeping the Bills on schedule and adjusting to what was happening. Early on it was clear dropbacks and downfield throws were going to be a problem so he worked the quick passing game and continued to hammer away on the ground, even when it wasn’t working.
Brady pulled off a great challenge in the first quarter when he believed Wentz threw a backward pass to Jefferson, which he dropped, and he was right. The play resulted in the fumble recovery by Rousseau.
Jim Leonhard deserves a lot of credit for how the defense has played the last two weeks. Yes, the Bills faced awful quarterbacking, but some of that had to do with the defenders who have turned it up in the aggressiveness department.

Sports

College Football Playoff committee executive admits they don’t care fans are against 24-team playoff

Monday made what was long rumored official: we’re moving to a 24-team College Football Playoff starting in the 2027-2028 season.
The reaction from most fans, commentators, analysts as well as many coaches and people within the sport, can be summed up in one word: why?
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As recently as 2023, the playoff was four teams. The smaller field ensured that the best of the best would compete for a title. Only one-loss or undefeated teams had a chance at postseason glory … well, unless you were an undefeated Florida State team.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF EXPANDING TO 24 TEAMS IN 2027, WITH MORE GAMES COMING TO CAMPUSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Then, in 2024, we moved to a 12-team format, which offered more opportunity for teams to change their season. The 2024-2025 Ohio State Buckeyes were a perfect example, losing the final game of the season before roaring back to life and steamrolling their way through to a championship.
The 12-team format has generally been well liked; it’s a solid balance of maintaining the exclusivity of the tournament, while adding more big postseason games on campuses and mostly preserving bowl season and the importance of the regular season. While the upcoming 2026-2027 version of the playoff will be just the third under the expanded format, we’re already moving on to even more teams. Somehow.
24 teams essentially means the end of meaningful bowl games. With a bowl field so diluted by the increase in playoff participants, the remaining bowls will be picking up scraps. Major conference championship games are set to become a thing of the past.
The regular season, long the best in sports, will be significantly less meaningful. Not only will three losses not be enough to keep teams out, there’s a strong chance that four or potentially even five loss teams (from the SEC) will be in the 24-team playoff. This might mean more scheduled games between big programs, since they’ll no longer be concerned about a single loss hurting their chances, but if it doesn’t, the sport will have sacrificed the regular season almost entirely.
Which again, raises the all-important question: who wanted this? Who was asking for it? Why is it even happening?
The answer is money, money and money. The Big Ten led the charge for more playoff spots, and other conferences and groups eventually fell in line. The SEC, long the hold out, caved, presumably because commissioner Greg Sankey realized he could start campaigning for all 16 conference teams to reach the playoff each season.
Obviously, more playoff games means more money coming from the broadcast partner, ESPN. More teams will have late-season home games with a potential “playoff appearance” on the line. Then be able to sell expensive home playoff game tickets to their fans. Coaches now have a lower bar to claim a successful season. And boosters can see a return on investment instead of seeing their money go towards reaching the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
The one group missing here? Fans. As usual. Fans weren’t asking for this, and surveys have shown that they overwhelmingly don’t want it. Unsurprisingly, it’s happening anyway. And in a news conference announcing the change, Executive Director Rich Clark explained why: the playoff committee doesn’t care.
BIG TEN CONFERENCE COMMISSIONER GIVES TONE DEAF STATEMENT ABOUT 24-TEAM COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
Clark said on the call that changes brought about by the 24-team field will be beneficial for the sport, and most importantly, the business school executive’s new favorite word: “stakeholders.”
“New scheduling standards will incentivize institutions to schedule more compelling non-conference matchups during the regular season, and 16 Playoff games will now be played on campuses, bringing Playoff football to more students and local fans,” Clark said. “Finally, our commitment as the CFP administration and staff, we will make the 24-team Playoff spectacular for the fans, for the student-athletes, for the institutions, and for all our stakeholders.”
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Clark answered a few questions, saying that the committee will evaluate and encourage strong schedules, and teams will be required to play 10 games against teams from Power 4 conferences. That’s all well and good. But what came next was frustrating and a bit emblematic of how this whole process has played out.
One reporter asked Clark about fan opinion, saying “the online segment of the fan base seems to be maybe against this,” and wondered how Clark thought it would be “received by fans.” Here’s what he said:
“We’re aware of the fan sentiment and that many fans aren’t in favor of expansion,” Clark responded. “That was certainly weighed into the decision. It was considered. Ultimately we just need to make a spectacular Playoff. I mean, the CFP has a responsibility to our fans, they’re the lifeblood of college football. We owe it to them to make this great. That really is our intent. We appreciate our fans. We did take into account their sentiment. That was rolled into this decision. But we decided to move forward with it.”
Ah. Yes. We know fans don’t want it, we just didn’t care and did it anyway because it made more money. Perfection.
Obviously, that’s the real explanation for why they decided to “move forward” anyway. Fans are dead last when it comes to priorities among the leadership in college football. A “spectacular playoff” doesn’t require 24 teams, in fact, it’s more likely to dilute it.
In 2025-2026, for example, several games between P4 and G6 teams were widely decried as being non-competitive. Ole Miss blew out Tulane 41-10 and Oregon handled James Madison 51-34. Even in the 2024-2025 playoff, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit went on a rant decrying the Indiana Hoosiers reaching the 12-team field when they lost 27-17. In a 24-team format, how bad will that 24th team be?
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Probably not great!
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But this is what happens in modern college football; those in charge focus exclusively on short-term financial success over long-term health. Fans come last. Money comes first. At least this time they’re admitting it.

Sports

Bills vs. Vikings live updates, inactives, where to watch: MVP favorite Josh Allen, Buffalo face Carson Wentz with Kyler Murray injured

The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings will close out Week 9 on “Monday Night Football,” with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. ET at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Both teams sit at 6-1.
The Bills have been off to another hot start with MVP quarterback Josh Allen at the helm, but he’ll face his most difficult test yet against Minnesota’s Brian Flores-led defense. Allen leads all quarterbacks in EPA (expected points added) per play, the Vikings have allowed the lowest EPA per play this season — the ultimate “unstoppable force meets an immovable object” kind of matchup.
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While the Vikings have been at the top of the league defensively, they’ve struggled to find rhythm offensively. Veteran quarterback Carson Wentz will look to give Minnesota a spark in his second start of the season, as starter Kyler Murray is out with a hamstring injury. It’s not inconceivable that Wentz could win the starting job outright with a solid performance; the Vikings are averaging just 1.71 offensive touchdowns per game this year — the fourth-fewest in the league.
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more as the Bills and Vikings close out Week 9, airing on ABC and ESPN.

Sports

David Ellison Is Very Bullish On AI’s Creative Potential

In his first earnings call as CEO at the helm of both Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison talked up his merged Hollywood empire as a tech-forward enterprise — and part of that tightrope walk included an embrace of AI while also dismissing “AI slop.”
It’s a two-step that’s not necessarily an easy one. The technology is widely seen as a harbinger of doom for Hollywood’s traditional workflows (i.e. building sets, shooting with real background extras, going on-location, etc) while also being increasingly adapted and integrated into the business (see: Ben Affleck’s VFX firm, which has helped Netflix use AI on 300-plus titles so far, while supposedly preserving the things that make Hollywood, Hollywood).
Ellison told analysts that he expects AI to help his company’s studios make content faster and cheaper, describing the technology as the biggest breakthrough in the industry since CGI effects went mainstream. Skydance plans to spend $30 billion annually across its content portfolio — that includes everything from prestige TV HBO projects to CBS procedurals and MTV reality shows as well as NFL sports rights and features at Warners and Paramount.
“I don’t think it can be discounted how fast this technology is moving,” Ellison said after table-setting by saying that “in a world of AI slop we think there will always be a premium for truly hand-crafted storytelling.”
Ellison has a unique lens into the issue as heir to his father Larry Ellison’s AI-powered Oracle tech fortune, which is a key facet of his effort to rebrand legacy Hollywood studios as a tech-centric venture. (To that point, the enterprise cloud apps of Oracle Fusion got a call out in the earnings call as well when talking about consolidating back office functions.)
The CEO also views franchise IP — he described his empire as having 40 $1 billion franchises — as a moat protecting against the onslaught of AI content, delivering more premium experiences to his 203 million-plus subscribers at a soon-to-be merged Paramount+ and HBO Max.
He then launched into an anecdote about a franchise that his Skydance Media has rebooted multiple times over the past two decades.
“AI really has the potential to be the biggest creative unlock in modern history,” Ellison bullishly said. “The last time we saw anything close to this was really the advent of CGI and digital composites in the early ’90s. That technology gave birth to amazing stories like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. It’s hard to imagine that AI is not going to have a more significant impact than that. I personally believe that’s going to be an incredible unlock on creativity.”
“If you go back in time, speaking of Terminator which everyone knows is one of my favorites, if you go back to ’83, when James Cameron made that movie it was made for $4 million,” Ellison noted. “If you wanted to make that picture today shot-for-shot, it’d be $60 million-$70 million.”
The CEO added: “There’s not a lot of bets that get taken like that across our industry. And we think these tools will help unlock more original storytelling by being able to make the budgets more digestible to take that amount of risk.”
Cameron, who directed the original Arnold Schwarzenegger feature as well as its acclaimed sequel, has been one of the CEO’s biggest backers (and an early “Team Ellison” advocate as Skydance was fighting Netflix for its Warner Bros. prize). The Avatar helmer has himself been on the vanguard of the technology, with his Lightstorm banner just buying an AI-driven 3D post-production firm in September.
Skydance is also looking to bake in an AI productivity narrative as it looks to find some $6 billion in cost-synergies from merging Paramount and Warner Bros. In addition to finding redundancies in corporate overhead, real estate and facilities as well as consolidating back office and corporate functions, those efficiencies include scaling AI-workflows across the combined company. That includes merging Paramount+ and HBO Max within a year, which Ellison described as an “ambitious target” that is “possible because of the latest tools in artificial intelligence.”