After news broke that WWE’s SmackDown on Friday nights would be returning to USA Network next year, FOX seems poised to fill the void in that time slot with college sports.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for FOX earlier this year that WWE would be seeking a new partner for SmackDown. FOX CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in the spring that the network hadn’t engaged in rights talks with WWE. But that was at a time when WWE was in the middle of working on its recently completed merger with Endeavor.

Big Ten football and Big East basketball look to be the products that FOX will put on its airwaves in primetime on Fridays.

Given the way things currently work, with WWE on the big network on Friday nights, any college football or basketball scheduled would air on either FS1 or FS2. That will change starting October 2024.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the New York Yankees game on Thursday night, and while it didn’t rival rapper 50 Cent‘s or Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate‘s first pitches at Mets games several years ago as some of the worst ever, Stephen A. didn’t throw a strike.

Smith admittedly isn’t a big baseball guy, and makes it very clear on First Take that he’s not going to dedicate a ton of air time to talking about the sport. He did hype himself up talking about getting his moment on the show Thursday morning.

But at Yankee Stadium, Stephen A. took to the pitcher’s mound and toed the rubber before rearing back and throwing. Smith’s pitch didn’t quite make it to the plate, bouncing about five feet in front of home.

Sports media had plenty of reaction to the pitch.

Stephen A. had his own way of putting what kind of throw he delivered.

First Take moderator Molly Qerim added to those trolling Smith.

Members of the sports media continue to question ABC’s decision not to show a replay of Nick Chubb’s injury during Monday night’s game between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. 

On the most recent episode of Pardon My Take, Big Cat says the network’s position that the decision was made out of respect for fans and the Chubb family doesn’t jive with what happened last year.

“That’s insane,” he said. “They showed us Damar Hamlin dying on the field.”

PFT Commenter added that showing a replay may actually have been the smarter move. 

“So when it happened, Joe Buck was like, ‘And I’m being told that we’re not going to show the replay it’s that bad.’ As Joe Buck saying that, you hear the crowd reaction in Pittsburgh to them seeing the replay live,” he said. “And to me, that was almost worse than watching the replay because you hear that, and it’s a bunch of Pittsburgh fans who want Nick Chubb out of the game. They don’t want him injured, but they obviously don’t want to see him scoring touchdowns against them. And the entire crowd in Pittsburgh is just like, ‘oh, dear God, what did I just see?’. So what would we have to do? We’re basically entrapped into going online and looking for the replay.”

Big Cat echoed Dan Patrick’s belief that the appropriate thing to do would have been to show one replay and make a disclaimer so that the audience is clear that what they are about to see is brutal. He said that not showing the replay probably sent a lot of people to social media and to YouTube looking for video of the play to make the call for themselves.

PFT agreed.

“When Joe Buck says it’s so bad, we’re not going to show it to you, that’s like your parents being like, ‘No, you’re not allowed to watch this movie. It’s got tits in it.’ And then I’m like, ‘Wow, Braveheart’s awesome!’”