FS Sports's List: Leagues & Franchises

Published August 16, 2010
By John Ourand, Staff Writer

Three years ago, in the middle of Time Warner Cable’s yearlong carriage battle with the Big Ten Network, the cable operator’s top programming executive, Melinda Witmer, sounded a warning that proved to be prophetic.
Witmer predicted that the Big Ten Network — if successful — would spawn a bevy of similar channels.
“What’s to stop there from being a Wolverine network next?” she asked during an industry conference in the fall of 2007.
It was a classic slippery-slope argument that quickly was rebutted by programming executives who shared a panel with her that day. To that point, no individual college had launched its own network, and the programmers said none looked likely to do so.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2010, and it looks like Witmer’s scenario has come true.

Published May 16, 2011
The brash, bold XFL played only one season, but a decade later its images and impact live on

Published March 15, 2010
By Bill King, Senior Writer

I am here to try to do what most other strangers who approach them uninvited try to do: sell them something. In this case, it's a Magic season ticket. But it could just as easily be a gently driven Nissan or a share in a Marriott vacation club.