Now, the disagreement was resolved… but how did it affect people how those 2 weeks, and how did it end up shaping their thoughts?

For first-year student Luke Moyer, the impact hit immediately. His Eagles football, special college football games, and more were all off the table.

“My Eagles played on Monday Night Football, and I couldn’t watch that on my YouTube TV app that I’ve shared with my family for years… I missed a lot of college football, a lot of SEC games I looked forward to watching too.” 

Moyer wasn’t alone. Across Syracuse (and the world), devoted sports fans found themselves refreshing apps, switching devices, and turning to shaky “illegal” streams to keep up. Even more frustrating, the outage came with no real warning.

“It just screws over the customer,” Moyer said. “Both companies are trying to get the best deal for them, and in the end, it screws over the customer. This is why people hate both Disney and YouTube TV, they’re just all in it for the money.” 
​
For Gabe Perrin, a longtime YouTubeTV subscriber, the blackout felt even more personal. “It wasn’t great,” Perrin said. “I had to turn to a lot of “illegal” streaming services. I just couldn’t watch Monday Night Football, or even the nightly news. I work at the local ABC station here and I couldn’t even watch the news that I help put on. It was ridiculous.” 

​Photo Illustration by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In the midst of the dispute, to appease subscribers, they issued a $20 credit to every account. However, there was a catch, proving once again the evil behind this. It wasn’t automatically put into your account. If you want your $20 credit, then you need to go through a process to claim it. And if you don’t grab it before Dec. 9th, then it goes away and you don’t get it.

“I felt kind of disrespected,” Perrin said. “There was a $20 credit issued, but I had to go claim it myself… I spend $400 a year on this and I only get $20 that I don’t even actually get?” 

The dispute also highlighted a bigger issue in the sports world: streaming has exploded, and fans are paying for it… literally.

“The original appeal was to cut the cable,” Moyer said. “Now it’s essentially just several different subscriptions all bundling into essentially what cable TV was before.” 

Perrin echoed the same frustration.

“It’s fees on top of fees on top of subscriptions,” he said. “It’s getting really tiring as a consumer.” 

In a moment when sports should be bringing people together, streaming’s shifting landscape is doing the opposite, and this conflict between YouTube TV and  is just the latest example of it. 

Because for viewers like Moyer and Perrin, and everyone else, it’s simple: they just want to watch the games.

“All-Star.”
 
Not the song by Smash Mouth - but a term synonymous with all of sports.
 
In the history of the NBA, the word All-Star means so much more.
 
Being an All-Star impacts a player’s legacy… and enough of them make you go from good to great to legendary. It still means something, but PLAYING in the actual NBA All-Star game used to mean something, but now…
 
The NBA All-Star game is RUINED.
 
And everything they’ve tried to do to fix it, has only made it 10x worse and not enjoyable.
 
From the inception of the NBA to 2017, the All-Star game was always the Eastern vs. Western conference.

:​Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant. And so many more, took it competitively for so long because these 2 conferences hated each other, which made this mid-season spectacle interesting… and watchable.
 
But no more. Because money ruined the NBA All-Star game and there’s no way of going back.
 
With the new CBA’s – collective bargaining agreements – so much money is on the table for players to sign extensions that the fear of getting injured in a mid-season exhibition, with no stakes, could ruin the player’s chance to get significant more money.
 
Players into the 2010s still cared and were competitive, and we know it’s a new era, but could money really have brought on this drastic change?
 
Now, why did I give you that whole soliloquy? Here we go:

You can’t force the players to try, but constantly changing things won’t convince them to.
 
Over the past 7 years the NBA has gone through major experimentation fatigue. Too many changes too fast has confused fans and taken away the identity of All-Star weekend.
 
In 2018, the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver decided they needed to change things and find a spark. The league introduced the captain draft format to All-Star weekend, where one captain from each conference would pick their teams from the player pool of selected All-Stars. This was the format through 2023.
 
It worked… until it didn’t.
 
In 2024, after fans rioted because the new format had died out, the NBA went back to its original East vs. West format.
 
It didn’t work.
 
In 2025, the NBA introduced a new mini-tournament with four teams of All-Stars in single-elimination style. A big shift from the traditional single game format. Adam Silver talked it up as the brand new, innovative format that would stick around for a long time.
 
It didn’t work.
 
Just announced this past week, the NBA is changing the All-Star format again. A USA vs. World competition. 3 teams competing in a round-robin tournament until a winner is crowned.
 
You can argue that while change is good, the frequency and magnitude undermines the core identity of the All-Star game – making it harder for the average fan to keep track of what format is being used, hurting continuity and tradition.

​Tom Cunningham has been involved with Power Soccer for a long time, a sport his son Drew played. Like many others who play, Drew had muscular dystrophy – a group of diseases that cause muscles to get weaker over time. He passed away a few years ago.
 
“He could’ve just folded after he lost his son, but instead he’s living through him and doing something that he’s so passionate about,” said Mark Chaupetta, head coach of New England FC, who is a father of twin sons with muscular dystrophy.
 
Tom and CNY United started the annual ‘Memorial Power Soccer Tournament,’ honoring his son Drew and his two other players that passed away, Patrick Coggins and Patrick Marshfield.
 
“We got to know each other as friends when our sons actually joined the national team, and the fact that he’s continuing to run this tournament, in memory of not only his son, but two other players of his that passed away. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing,” said Chaupetta.

What is Power Soccer?
 
Power Soccer is an inclusive sport for individuals who use power wheelchairs to play soccer. Players maneuver their power wheelchairs equipped with specialized footguards to pass, dribble, and shoot an oversized soccer ball, according to the US Power Soccer Association. ‘Combining the strategy and energy of traditional soccer with accessibility, power soccer provides a unique and competitive environment for players with physical disabilities.’
 
“It just feels great to be out here to kind of let go of the things that we deal with throughout our lives, and just to be able to focus on competing against each other, and be athletes,” said Peyton Sefick, CNY United and US Men’s National team power soccer player. “It’s all about community for our team and the sport at large.”

​Keeping The Sport Alive
 
The 2025 Memorial Tournament had five teams from the northeast coast, as far north as Montreal, Canada and as far south as Virginia Beach. CNY United and Peyton finished the weekend with some wins, going 4-0-1 (W-L-T) in the tournament.
 
Peyton and Tom’s son, Drew, were best friends and played power soccer together for decades. Despite being a part of this annual tournament, Peyton isn’t done coming up with ways to honor his friend.

​“One of the things that I’ve been working on over the past year and a half, in Drew’s name, is the Drew Cunningham Mentorship Program,” said Sefick.
 
Through the program one kid is selected that’s under 16 years old, which means they’re not yet eligible to play for the national team. The player will get invited to a national team training camp and get mentored by Peyton and the rest of the team.
 
“We actually had the first ever award winner come out to a training camp, experience being on the team, get to know the coaches and the players, and that’s just really exciting for me as a player that’s been around for so long,” said Sefick. “I know the sports in a really good spot, when I see players out there that are making me look silly. It’s exciting to see.”
 
Power Soccer is all about competitiveness, but Tom, Peyton, and the rest of their community know it means so much more.
 
“Take the ‘D,’ the ‘I,’ and the ‘S’ out, and it’s just about ‘ability.’ That’s what our life is about. [Power Soccer] changes lives. When these players are on the court, they’re not disabled. They’re all the same,” said Chaupetta.

At Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, the nation’s top sports communications college, the answer would be broadcasting.
 
Why do “failed” athletes turn to broadcasting?
 
“The truth is I’m not good enough to play professionally. If I could, I would,” said Andrew Forster, a junior studying to be a Soccer play-by-play broadcaster.
 
“I feel like (broadcasting) is the next best, closest thing to just spreading my love of the game. Anything soccer related for me, whether it’s broadcasting, writing, playing – it’s not work for me. It’s always enjoyment, it’s what I love doing.”
 
When he’s not calling soccer games, Andrew plays on the Syracuse University club soccer team and for CitrusTV Deportes – an intramural soccer team of student broadcasters from the campus’s student-run TV station, CitrusTV, who have joined forces to live out their dreams of being professional athletes.

​Milo Hoffman, another Syracuse junior on the CitrusTV Deportes team, said what it means to play with other broadcasters. “Well, I think it’s really cool because we come together for this one common goal. In our everyday lives, all we do is talk about sports, whether that’s for fun, on TV, or on the radio. But for all of us that played this sport growing up and dreamed of being pro-soccer players, being able to do this together and have fun at this point in our lives when we’re heading towards our new goal of calling these pro-games, is a great thing.”
 
Forster echoed his comments saying, “I’ve been playing since I was 4. Biggest passion of my entire life and here, you have a group of people who might be connected outside of this, but can be connected through soccer.”
 
“The reason I love soccer is anyone can play. It’s the reason I’ve met my best friends, and it’s why I’m the person that I am. If I have the opportunity to be around it for the rest of my life, up in the booth, why wouldn’t I take that?”
 
Famous Sports Media Personalities
 
If you look at the landscape of sports media right now, a lot of the personalities that you might’ve heard of, got into broadcasting for the same reasons Andrew laid out.
 
Here are a few you might’ve heard of:
 
1.Jim Nantz (CBS Sports):
-Co-captain of his high school basketball and golf teams
-Went to play golf in college, but said when a tournament “fell apart on the back 9,” he realized that was the start of the push to go on the broadcasting path
 
2.Skip Bayless (Fmr. ESPN/FS1):
-Averaged 1.4 ppg on his high school basketball team… went into broadcasting and became one of the most accomplished sports writers and personalities ever
 
3.Ian Eagle (CBS Sports)
-Publicly documented his failure in sports as a kid, hence the reason why broadcasting was the thing for him

​Ultimately, the sports broadcasting path allows those who can’t play professionally to stay connected to the sports they love.
 
“I think one of the biggest joys in life is giving other people the joy that I experience, so if I can bring fans to the game of soccer and give them the same love I have for the game, that’s my only goal in life,” said Forster.

​If you didn’t hear, the ACC just announced a 9-game football schedule, and like me, it had a lot of college football fans, say “ok?”
 
But why?

​Photo from Reddit: “Dream College Football Conferences”

‘Will this change our rivalries? Will this hurt my favorite sport?’ NCAA, I’ll be the one to say it, please just stop.
 
Stop confusing us. Conferences - stop changing rules, and schedules, and everything we know about the college sports that we love.
 
You know what made the PS5 so exciting, because they waited 7 years to release it, everyone wanted it. College football is becoming like the iPhone to me. Way too many updates and a new phone every year. Sure, the product is shiny and exciting, but can’t we just enjoy it for a while, before the next one comes out right away?
 
Over the past 5 years, so many teams have switched conferences that some barely exist anymore. Take the Pac-12 conference, for example, which in 2023 had 12 teams. It currently has only... 2. And starting next year, they’ll have 9. But actually… only 8 in football. Honestly, how do you keep up!
 
Especially in college football, it has become so easy to find loopholes that there are no waiting periods for anything. It used to take years for things like that to happen.
 
In the new era of college football, colleges care more and more about gaining players in the transfer portal Just this month, the NCAA changed the transfer portal rule again… now there's only a period in the winter, but then it came out that if your coach gets fired mid-season, you can transfer in a special period.
 

​Photo by 247Sports: Example of Transfer Portal Rankings

​We won’t even dive into NIL, but there are literally no rules at all anymore. All these constant changes, you think might be helping the game, while in fact, they make even the die-hardiest of college football fans, confused and annoyed.
 
All the switching is ruining the fan experience, and I’m exhausted.

Photo from Getty Images

​These days, nearly anyone with a phone can create and share content online. That’s both exciting… and scary?
 
On the positive side, social media gives more people a voice. Users can share their own stories, and breaking news often comes straight from regular people on social media before it hits TV, especially in the social media age. However, there are downsides. Misinformation can spread fast, people don’t always know what or who to trust.
 
While the sheer amount of content can be a lot sometimes, this new reality of sharing the news, in my opinion, hasn’t changed the relationship between journalists and the public that much. Journalists are still sharing the news, but instead of just telling it on tv, readers can now comment, share, fact-check, and even criticize stories in real time. Sometimes the audience even helps report the news, by posting videos or photos from events as they happen, which in turn end up being used my tv stations or big social media outlets. While it makes journalism less of a one-way street and more of a conversation, there is still a clear distinction between journalists and everyday citizens.

Photo by Getty Images

Mobile devices and social media affect journalists in three big ways: how they gather news, how they share it, and how they connect with audiences. For gathering, think of reporters using Twitter/X or TikTok during a storm to find real-time videos from people on the ground or events from a sports game, like SU Football running sprints last week, a single video from someone’s phone went mega-viral. For sharing, outlets like The New York Times or ESPN will send push notifications straight to your phone or post quick-scrollable updates on Instagram. For engagement, people hold IG or TikTok lives now all the time to get audience engagement, or post polls on X for LIVE responses all the time.
 
While the challenges are big, the opportunity to connect with audiences in new ways is bigger.

Photo by USF Athletics

​In case you missed it, last weekend, the University of South Florida defeated the University of Florida in Football, 18-16. This was a seismic upset of a non-power 4 team’s unexpected take down. You’re probably wondering, but why is this upset different from any others?
 
Well, every once in a while, we run into this situation, a pay-for-play matchup where the expectation is clear: the big powerful team beats up on the smaller weaker team. In this instance, Florida paid USF $500,000 to make this game happen… yet here we are.
 
In the new world of NIL, it’s quite remarkable that a win like this happened on the scale it did because the budget figures make this result even more remarkable. In the 2024 fiscal year, UF’s athletic department brought in $200 million in revenue, while USF trailed with just $103.5 million, roughly half of UF’s total. Florida, also, received about $64.65 million in media rights, CFP and NCAA-related distributions, compared to USF’s $11.35 million.**
 
Athletic departments around the country, thanks to bills passed within the past couple of years, now must set money aside to pay its players. So, for Florida to drop a game to a school they have $100 million more dollars than them is bad, considering the resources they have. Anything can happen on the football field, but when you have that type of program, the expectation for many is, there are no excuses.
 
NIL or Name, Image, and Likeness did not start out like this. It started out as players just wanting to receive compensation for local tv ads or shirts with their names on them to… being paid millions of dollars to play for these schools. Legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban weighed in, warning that the SEC’s once-locked geographic advantage is evaporating. “Kids grew up wanting to go to LSU, Alabama … now they don’t mind going to other places,” he observed, noting NIL has given the Big Ten “a bit of an edge” in recruiting. Essentially stating, that if schools can set aside the money, they have the advantage.
 
Meanwhile, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning offered a pointed reflection on the real investment required to compete - in response to remarks about NIL spending levels at Oregon - "close to $40 million" last year, as estimated by Oklahoma St. head coach Mike Gundy, Lanning said, “If you want to be top 10 in college football, you better be invested in winning. We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t.”
 
That is why USF’s win, is so impressive.
 
Despite being a smaller financial operation, USF isn’t just surviving - it’s thriving. The Bulls already boast two wins over top-25 opponents this year, marking them as a standout case study in how non–Power-4 programs can excel even amidst college football’s new NIL era.
 
USF’s story is a testament to how leadership, smart resource allocation, and honestly just sheer grit can punch above the financial weight other schools can force. The Bulls aren’t just a spoiler, they’re a blueprint.