This week marks week one in the 2025 college football season. The NFL season is a week away. As football takes center stage, Yahoo Sports senior writer Jay Busbee previews both seasons and tells us the teams to watch in 2025.

Busbee is an accomplished author. His latest book, “Iron in the Blood: How the Alabama vs. Auburn Rivalry Shaped the Soul of the South,” was released the week this podcast comes out.

The book is a behind-the-scenes account of the Alabama vs. Auburn rivalry, one of the fiercest in American sports, detailing its rich history, celebrating the triumphs of both teams, and showcasing the larger-than-life power of football to break down barriers and shape an entire culture. Busbee traces the perpetual impact of football in Alabama, from the days of Reconstruction, through the Civil Rights era, to the hyper-partisan climate of the 2020s.

In this episode, Busbee explains Auburn’s place in the state of Alabama and how it competes with the University of Alabama. He also discusses the changing landscape of college football and how that will impact the games on the field. The episode concludes with a preview of the upcoming NFL season, including a focus on the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions.

Order “Iron in the Blood” here: https://tinyurl.com/fn9e8v28

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The week of this episode’s release is the same week that ESPN is launching its long-awaited streaming app, which is a direct-to-consumer product that does not require a cable subscription. Still, how many customers will pay for ESPN without bundling it with other streaming service options? On August 5th, 2025, ESPN acquired the NFL Network and other NFL media assets, including the linear rights to the league's popular RedZone channel, in a deal that will see the NFL get a 10% equity stake in the all-sports network.

Those titanic stories are the backdrop for Michael McCarthy’s return to the show. McCarthy is an award-winning Senior Writer for Front Office Sports.

McCarthy has won both Best News Story and Best Project reporting from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE). His stories have appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, USA TODAY, Sporting News, Newsday, and Adweek. He’s also written for the official publications of the NFL and Major League Baseball. McCarthy has appeared on everything from CBS This Morning, NBC’s Today show, Fox & Friends, and Access Hollywood to CNBC, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. McCarthy has also served as a journalism professor at Rutgers University since 2015. He’s based in New Jersey.

In this episode, McCarthy discusses the ESPN NFL deal, the streaming app, and the network’s dropping of Major League Baseball. He also covers the NBA, NHL, and NCAA in this episode.

Front Office Sports is having its 2nd annual “Tuned In” seminar in Midtown Manhattan. On September 16th, 2025, leaders within the sports media space—ranging from athletes and on-air talent to media moguls and league executives who are instrumental in shaping the future of how fans view sports. Registration includes a full day of programming with leading names in sports media.

For more information: https://events.frontofficesports.com/tunedin2025.

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Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Madden has covered the Yankees and Major League Baseball for over 50 years, including more than four decades with the New York Daily News. He is a bestselling author and the 2010 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s BBWAA Career Excellence Award. His new memoir is entitled Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown: A Baseball Memoir. Tracing through the timeline of Madden’s exceptional career, this book tells amazing stories of some wild times in the history of the New York Yankees and their bombastic owner, George Steinbrenner.

In this episode, Madden discusses the origin of the book idea. He tells incredible stories about covering the Yankees, specifically in the early 1980s at the height of the Steinbrenner circus. He comments on what newspapers were like in the past compared to online journalism today. He talked about the inner workings of the Yankees and the differences in player relationships today vs. when he traveled on team charters with the team.

Check out Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown: A Baseball Memoir by Bill Madden here: https://bit.ly/4lntjsY

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