Mixed Zone blog

Soccer may not be the biggest sport in the United States, but the U.S. is already the #1 source of TV money for FIFA. Oh, and it's also the #2 source, thanks to FIFA's ability to sell two U.S. media rights packages. But with Telemundo's broadcasts now streaming on Peacock, how much longer can we pretend the Spanish-language coverage occurs in a separate mediaverse?

Matt Brown puts the college in U.S. college sports reporting. He also brings global awareness to what can often seem to be a provincial, insular domestic sports industry... that very much is not. For folks outside the United States who want to learn more about the American college sports landscape, the best place to turn is to Matt Brown's Extra Points newsletter.

This week, Carlo Ancelotti announced his final selection for the seleção that will represent Brazil at this summer’s World Cup.

Shelby Evans went to scout out the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, near Palm Springs. It’s a wonder she ever came back.

The host of "Good Game with Sarah Spain" (and Great Game Lab fellow... she's good and great, folks) Sarah Spain had quite the time covering her first Olympic Games in Italy, where women’s sports media also became a newsworthy protagonist. In this Q&A version of a Scouting Report, Sarah answered the Great Game Lab’s most pressing and hard-hitting journalistic questions, like what was it like to sing with Flavor Flav and which pin was she most excited to trade for.

Once again, the small country of Norway won the medal count at the Winter Olympic Games, beating sporting giants like the United States, Germany, France and China. Andrei Markovits and Christian Neubacher explain the Nordic country's winter sporting dominance and why we should fully expect Norway’s prowess to continue unabated in future Games.

How many of the 230 hockey players in the Milano Cortina Olympic women's tournament do you think have spent time developing their world-class skills in American college sports? Shelby Evans brings the stats and the history behind how U.S. college women's hockey became a globalized league and the best place for athletes around the world to advance their game and make their national teams.

The Valley of the Sun isn’t exactly known for snow, but that hasn’t stopped the Great Game Lab from getting excited about the Winter Olympics. With Milano Cortina 2026 around the corner, we took a walk around campus to check the temperature on Olympic excitement.

 

As a child in India, Narayanappa Janardhan’s parents dissuaded him from playing or following some of the nation’s traditional sports. Unlike tennis, they did not consider them a worthy pursuit for upwardly mobile professionals. But now, as Dr. Janardhan explains in his VAR, these traditional sports are now becoming celebrated upwardly mobile businesses, thanks to media, and he is eagerly following them.

If you are looking forward to the Australian Open as much as I am, chances are you will enjoy the first full season of The Players Box podcast as much as I will.

Running is a shapeshifter. It serves us in different and overlapping ways as we move through our lives and choose to move by running. Running is forever profound in this way. At the same time, as Nicholas Thompson points out in the new memoir, The Running Ground, running is “the simplest of sports.”

The Great Game Lab is primed for FIFA's World Cup draw to be held in Washington on December 5. We walked about our Arizona State campus to gauge how primed the rest of our community is.