Football

How NFL, Other Sports, Could Fuel Amazon’s Advertising Ambitions

By Jaime E. Love 6 days ago
  • Amazon’s exclusive deal for “Thursday Night Football” pushed it into the mainstream in US sports.
  • The deal shows how Amazon is using sports to fuel its ad revenue, along with its other businesses.
  • Analysts are sizing up how big Amazon’s sports-ad business could be and what it could buy next.

This is the third in a 10-part series publishing over the coming days that examines Amazon’s booming advertising business: The people driving it, the ripple effects on other companies, and what’s next.

Soon, Amazon will be able to lay claim to “Must-See-TV Thursday.”

Come September, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, might well be having friends over to watch his beloved New York Giants on Prime Video. The e-commerce giant will be the only place Americans can watch “Thursday Night Football” — the company signed a blockbuster $11 billion, 11-year deal with the NFL to show it exclusively.

The move has

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Pro Football Network Place Longhorns 23rd in Way-Too-Early Top 25

By Jaime E. Love 7 days ago

Texas is ranked 23 on the Pro Football Network Way-Too-Early Top 25. This is in large part due to the job Sarkisian’s staff has done both on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal since the conclusion of his first season.

In the time since the 2021 season ended, Sarkisian and his staff have added cornerback Ryan Watts from Ohio State to fill a hole vacated by former Longhorn Josh Thompson. They have added tight end, Jahleel Billingsley, from Alabama, a talented player who shined in Sarkisian’s offense during Alabama’s 2020 national championship run. 

The Texas staff went out and added two talented wide receivers in former Wyoming standout Isaiah Neyor, a big-bodied receiver with the capability to stretch the field. In his final season at Wyoming, Neyor caught 44 passes for 878 yards and 12 touchdowns. Texas also added former Alabama receiver Agiye Hall, who was one of

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Looking at LSU’s future non-conference opponents in football

By Jaime E. Love 1 week ago

Non-conference contests provide us with some of the more interesting games in college football.

It’s always fun to see teams that rarely see each other get a chance to face-off. Since these games take place early in the year, they don’t always have the weight of a later season contest, but they still give teams a chance to make a statement on a national stage, while also being a chance for new fanbases to come together.

LSU has a big non-conference game to open 2022 as the Tigers are slated to face Florida State in New Orleans. They also face the Seminoles to open the season in 2023 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

We’ll be looking even further ahead, where the team has some neutral site games but also a few intriguing home-and-home series.

With the SEC set to undergo massive change when Texas and Oklahoma join, schedules are

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Breaking down Auburn’s Football Power Index ranking since 2005

By Jaime E. Love 1 week ago

Over the last two decades, Auburn Tiger fans have seen the ups and downs of their program. The highs were the 2010 BCS National Championship team and the lows were the 3-9 campaign that ended in the dismissal of Gene Chizik.

In the first year of the Gus Malzahn era, the team was battling for another national championship but came up short against the Florida State Seminoles. A new era began in 2021 with the dismissal of Malzahn and the hiring of former Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin.

In recent weeks ESPN published their updated Football Power Index (FPI) that measures team strength, based on 20,000 simulations as explained on their website.

This year the Tigers have the following preseason FPI ratings:

FPI: 13.9

Overall Ranking: No. 10

SEC Ranking: No. 3

Auburn Wire breaks down each final FPI dating back to 2005:

2005: 9-3

John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

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