Is your bracket busted yet? There remains a chance UConn sweeps the men’s and women’s basketball titles—a feat they’ve accomplished twice before in 2004 and 2014—after the Huskies’ buzzer-beating victory over top-seeded Duke, while Geno Auriemma made yet another Final Four.

Amid the hoops hysteria is the beginning of another baseball season. Some stories remain the same in 2026 (like the Dodgers being an overwhelming favorite), while others change, including how a sizable portion of MLB teams had to come up with a new plan for the local and regional distribution of live games. However, it’s good news for a league that’s trying to streamline its overall RSN landscape, with sights set for 2028 when MLB goes to the drawing board with all of its national media rights agreements.

“We’ve always believed that as this league grows, the players who power it must grow with it, and we’re proud to see that belief shared,” WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike said. “We love this game enough to push for what it can become, not just for ourselves, but for those who built this league and those who will carry it forward. This agreement reflects that shared commitment, with players owning their value and future alongside a league growing stronger because of it.”

By the time presentations begin, opinions are already formed. The Cynopsis Upfront Package puts your brand in front of marketers and buyers early—and keeps you there through the entire Upfront cycle.

Show up sooner. Stay top of mind longer.
Explore the 2026 Upfront Package.

REACH OUT TODAY

RACER offers a suite of products such as TV’s RACER Network, the RACER+ app and RACER magazine, while GRIDLIFE is a car-focused events platform and The ID Agency serves as an experiential marketing firm. Cynopsis Sports wanted to learn more about what F=ma has in mind to connect brands with car-crazed audiences and caught up with the company’s CEO James Schiefer. Below is an edited excerpt of the interview.

You’re packaging RACER, GRIDLIFE and The ID Agency. How do these pieces work together in practice for a brand partner looking to get into the space?
I think we are solving a couple of problems. First of all, I think the way brands can connect with the automotive enthusiast and in motorsports today is pretty fragmented. So we’re creating this ecosystem that makes it really easy and turnkey for brands to connect with the motorsports fan as well as the automotive enthusiast at scale. We can do that with the RACER side, with TV network and broadcast, and all of the reach that it has. GRIDLIFE is definitely reaching that car-curious individual as well as the participant racing. And then ID is sort of that glue between that can connect those dots with those different assets as well as outside of it—anything in motorsports and automotive where we’re connecting with. I think of us as a creative solution to really connect brands with the automotive enthusiasts at scale.

Are there brands or segments that you’re specifically looking at beyond traditional automotive advertisers?
We work with a ton of endemic advertisers, but outside as well. We have insurance companies, energy drinks, cell phone providers, carriers—it’s anyone that wants to reach that younger enthusiast in large amounts. We can connect with [them]. It’s not only just spots and dots. We are actually consulting with brands to authentically connect with that consumer and have the right message at the right time, at the right place… Being enthusiasts ourselves, it really allows us to make sure that message is right, make sure that the consumer experience with the brand is relevant to them as well.

Fragmentation is felt in media, and in motorsports and car culture, it’s the same situation. Why do you believe this model for F=ma addresses the pain points that brands have?
I think it goes to the humans on the team, which it’s a wide experience base across the board. We’re all enthusiasts in a lot of different ways. From being F1 fans to going to cars and coffee, we as humans on the team have that understanding of all of the different segments in motorsports and in automotive culture to just get it. So if it’s not exactly in our list of assets today, we know how to. We know how to connect with different events and different cultures and different companies in this space. So I think it’s very different. From the investors and team behind this—from a financial standpoint—racing cars and loving this space, to the executive team and across the board, we’re just enthusiasts and we love this. That’s really our model to solve those problems for brands in our ecosystem and outside of it. We’re happy to partner with other media companies, other groups that are doing stuff. It’s a very big world and we’re happy to connect those dots and play nice with everyone.

Where do you see some of the biggest revenue upsides? Is it sponsorships, media rights or something else?
We’re looking at it in three buckets. There’s a lot of partners in our ecosystem already, and there’s not a ton of overlap. So how can we cross-sell and connect those dots across all of the different assets, as well as broaden that pipeline out to new endemic and non-endemic partners that can be in the ecosystem? [There’s] lots of upside from that perspective. Second pillar is in our plus platform and creating a membership community and a DTC relationship in our community asset and media platform. And then third is just driving ticket sales. And I think GRIDLIFE has had significant growth year over year for every year that they’ve existed and done it a ton through growing organically and connecting with the community in authentic ways. We want to continue with that. And what are things that we can do with a group that has a little bit more funding behind it? What does a paid strategy look like? What do some additional investments in the consumer experience look like? So just driving ticket sales on that third pillar through the weight of what we believe we bring collectively will help, too.

The stat that 1/3 of Gen Z and Millennial adults have owned, or currently own, an “enthusiast car” stood out to me. How are you planning on capturing and growing that audience?
I think in a lot of different ways, one, we’re already doing it. Like GRIDLIFE, 70% of the audience is under 34 years old. It’s super important that the younger generation, they really want to have access and feel a part of something. So we’re creating that community through our plus platform and building that out, as well as just in real life at GRIDLIFE life events. We will start thinking about other events and other partners and creating access across the board… and then we’re looking at the content strategy, and we’ll be developing new content that’s relevant to that audience as well. So tons of different ways. Super fun, super exciting. But I think that’s really what’s exciting and driving this for us, is to not only reach the motor sports and enthusiasts, but the younger and next generation at scale too. Because we’re already doing it, awesome, but how can we lean in further and on all the things I just discussed?

Why was Factor the right fit for this installment of “No Days Off”?
Factor was a natural fit because No Days Off has always been about the discipline and daily habits that fuel elite performance and nutrition is a foundational part of that story. What made this collaboration make sense is that Factor’s fresh, performance-driven meals designed for busy schedules, aligns perfectly with the lifestyles we’re documenting. Whether it’s an early workout, recovery session, or a packed travel day, nutrition is part of the grind.

How do you balance the raw nature of a docuseries with the messaging requirements of a brand like Factor?
We lead with authenticity. Our audience comes to No Days Off for access and credibility, so we protect that first. The way we approach brand storytelling is by identifying where the brand naturally lives within the athlete’s ecosystem and relating that back to the viewers. When a brand authentically enhances the story, the audience doesn’t experience it as advertising, they experience it as insight.

While the episode is on YouTube, how are you using DAZN’s broader portfolio or social platforms to drive short-form engagement for the partnership?
The hero episode serves as the anchor, but the real engine is short-form distribution. We’re activating across Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and more with snackable formats designed specifically for vertical consumption and platform-native behavior.

1975: Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and UCLA win their 10th national championship via a 92-85 win over Kentucky. Wooden had announced his intention to retire following the Bruins’ semifinal win against Louisville two days prior. It was his first career win over the Wildcats as well.

1985: Old Dominion defeated Georgia 70-65 to win the fourth NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship. It remains the Monarchs’ lone title.

1991: Tennessee took down Virginia 70-67 in what was the first time an NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship game went to overtime. It was the third title in Pat Summitt’s Hall of Fame career, ending with eight at the time of her retirement in 2012.

1997: Arizona won its first men’s basketball national championship, defeating Kentucky 84-79 in overtime. Although it’s UA’s only title in program history, the Wildcats have the chance to make it two as they face a Final Four date with Michigan coming up this Saturday.

2002: Led by Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Geno Auriemma, UConn completed a perfect 39-0 season to win the program’s third NCAA women’s basketball championship. The Huskies’ starting five of Bird, Taurasi, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams is regarded as one of the greatest women’s college hoops lineups of all time.

2004: Then-Yankees pitcher Kevin Brown became the second member of the All-30 Club, which describes MLB pitchers who have defeated all 30 franchises throughout their career. Mets pitcher Al Leiter was the first to hold the honor in 2002. Today, 24 pitchers are part of the All-30 group, the most recent being Jose Quintana.