Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! Try something new in the new year, even if it seems remarkably silly at first glance.

Commiserations to everyone else who failed to win any of their five fantasy football leagues this year, even though they definitely had the best team in two of them. But it's time to move on to 2026, so we'll take a look at six ways politics and sports can and will collide next year (basically, a preview of what you're going to read more about in Free Agent next year).

Don't miss sports coverage from Jason Russell and Reason.

Locker Room Links

• The NCAA granted eligibility to athletes who were already drafted in the NBA and NHL (though the players haven't actually had playing time in those leagues).

• But if you're a D-III runner who gets help from a community fundraiser to pay tuition, you can kiss your eligibility goodbye.

• The Kansas stadium deal with the Chiefs looks worse and worse for taxpayers: "Each and every Chiefs fan would need to spend an extra $4,000 per game for Kansas to break even." But it's also not fully finalized, yet. Meanwhile, a Missouri state senator wants to make the Chiefs pay for demolition of the county-owned Arrowhead Stadium—at least 58 percent of the cost, to be precise (one percentage point for each year they'll have played there).

• ECHL players went on strike for two days, even though the league offered them a 20 percent raise and mandatory days off. (The ECHL is two tiers below the NHL, and was formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League before it expanded westward.)

• The National Women's Soccer League wanted to keep its players from leaving for Europe on lucrative contracts, but instead of ditching their salary cap, they came up with a convoluted system where "high impact players" can get paid up to $1 million outside the official salary cap.

• The length of grass at a cricket match was off by three millimeters, resulting in a defensive advantage that ended the match after two days instead of the expected five days.

• Elsewhere in Reason: "5 Wars Trump Started or Expanded in 2025"

• Anyone else notice the only sporting events on Christmas Eve were the Hawaii Bowl and some African soccer games? Maybe there's an opportunity for someone there.

  Folks…idea..maybe a dumb one but maybe not…NHL should jump on Dec 24, there's nothing on…make it yearly..

Collision 2026

If you know what's going to happen on the field in 2026, I hope you'll share some of your winnings with Reason. I can't say for sure what will happen off the field next year, but I know what you should keep your eye on. Here are six things to watch out for.

College Sports in Congress

The NCAA has been asking Congress to regulate college sports for over six years. Congress came closer than ever to fulfilling that wish in December—until a vote on the SCORE Act was pulled from the House floor. "It prevents college athletes from being recognized as employees and, hence, collective bargaining is out of the question," as I summarized in July. "It would also override any state laws that restrict name, image, and likeness payments (though schools and conferences could still restrict these). The NCAA and athletic conferences would get antitrust protections." Some aspects of the bill had bipartisan support, but it seems all House Democrats were set to vote against it. Even if it does pass the House, its prospects in the Senate seem dim because of competing approaches there. Some kind of law regulating college sports might not pass in 2026, but the debates will show what might eventually happen. The 2026 midterm elections could slow everything down even further if Congress gets more divided—but there's certainly a bipartisan appetite to do something, which usually doesn't result in good lawmaking.

Expansion and Stadium Subsidies 

Where will leagues push for expansion next year? The NBA will decide whether to expand, though not necessarily where teams will go. Las Vegas and Seattle are in consideration—those cities already have properly sized arenas, but "other markets" are also in consideration. Who knows if those cities already have basketball-ready arenas or if expansion team owners will be asking state and local officials for an arena subsidy? Even arenas that seem ready might get some taxpayer money when no one's looking. As for hockey (because 32 teams isn't enough, apparently), Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Indianapolis, and New Orleans are in the mix. Atlanta has jumped the gun with multiple places trying to prepare an arena. People are still trying to make hockey in Arizona happen, too. Baseball may move closer to expansion in 2026 too, with the A's and Rays seemingly close to settling their stadium situations. Maybe the Canadian Football League will try to expand into America? Why politicians are so eager to spend taxpayer money on sports stadiums and arenas when it is so clearly a bad idea is beyond me.

Trump and the World Cup

President Donald Trump will be sure to make the World Cup about himself as much as possible (see here). He will probably keep threatening to move games out of cities he doesn't like (though actually moving matches away from his friend Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium seems unlikely). After Trump's threats began in September, FIFA said it wasn't Trump's call, then in November it said matches could be moved at Trump's request. Technically Trump doesn't have sole power to move a match, but FIFA does and it seems willing to do whatever Trump wants. Then there's the immigration angle: World Cup ticketholders around the world will get priority access to visa appointments to come to America. But that doesn't mean there won't be any border- or Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related chaos when they get here. Teams may not be immune from this either, with countries like Iran and Haiti under the Trump administration's travel ban, and more countries could be added. Members of the Iranian soccer federation reportedly had their visas denied for the World Cup draw this month. Expect the unexpected from Trump, except for when the unexpected is for immigration to go smoothly.

Open To Bets?

Online sports betting is legal in some form in a majority of U.S. states, but California and Texas remain big holdouts. Don't expect much action in Texas, whose state legislature will not be in a regular session next year. With almost 40 million people, California is a huge market and the big players in sports betting will be pushing hard to make progress on legalization. It will also be interesting to see if any states consider undoing legalization—remember a survey last summer showed 43 percent of U.S. adults think "the fact that betting on sports is now legal in much of the country is" a bad thing for society, 7 percent say it's a good thing, and 50 percent say it's neither good nor bad (though there are various reasons I wouldn't worry about this too much). What's worth watching is the rise of prediction markets—which are slightly different from sports betting, but are they different enough to withstand government scrutiny? The NHL has partnered with prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket, while the NFL is not so sure.

Labor Strikes Strife?

If last year is any indication, the WNBA would like to tip off in May. But by January 9, the players may be on strike—98 percent of union members voted to authorize their executive committee to go on strike, though the authorization doesn't mean a strike will happen. The players union and the league are still far apart on the numbers—the union wants 30 percent of gross revenue, the league wants to give them 15 percent. Either way, that's a huge raise for WNBA players. If the players go on strike while some of their members are playing in January and February in the Unrivaled 3x3 league, it'll be an awful look for the WNBA. Meanwhile, the MLB collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December. The two sides still show no signs of avoiding a lockout. What baseball will look like in 2027, if it happens at all in 2027, seems totally up in the air.

Milano Cortina Winter Olympics

Whenever athletes get together under their national banners at the Olympics, politics gets involved. Thankfully, having the Olympics in Italy saves us from having people push for an American boycott, as people called for with the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Russia and Belarus are still not welcome—though up to 14 athletes from those nations (combined) will participate as Individual Neutral Athletes (abbreviated as AIN). Any athlete who has been "actively supporting" the war in Ukraine was not allowed, and each one had to comply with individual doping checks. The International Olympic Committee is expected to decide on transgender athletes soon, too—it may be too late for that to affect the games in February, so expect something to happen that will stir the pot.

Best of 2025

It's been a joy writing Free Agent this year! Thank you for subscribing, whether you've been around for all 43 weeks or you're just joining us. Here's a quick rundown of some of our highlights this year:

Most Opened Subject Line: "Looming Lockout?" from March 25, about MLB's labor issues.

Most Read Newsletter: Thanks to the web version getting linked on a news aggregator, it was "Americans Are Turning Against Sports Betting—But It's Not Going Anywhere" from October 7.

Most Clicked Link (Replay Edition): People love the CFL! This replay from the July 1 newsletter got way more clicks than anything else all year.

It's no NFL or College Football

but amazing things are happening in the CFL

pic.twitter.com/aBz3MAthWr

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 30, 2025

Most Clicked Link (Nonreplay Edition): You all really wanted to know J.J. Watt's thoughts on playsheets (from last week's newsletter):

There's really not a huge advantage to having the opponents call sheet.

The plays they run, the situations they run them in, the variations, etc. it's all on film, documented and translated into the language of your own team.

Having it in their language is only beneficial if… https://t.co/oJUN0grs1Q

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) December 19, 2025

Most Fun Newsletter To Write: The August 19 newsletter about fixing MLB, while trying to juggle what fans and owners both want, was my favorite (although every newsletter is like a child—by the time I'm done writing them, they're all my favorite). I tried to fix the schedule by cutting it to 138 games, fix the designated hitter, fix the broadcasts, and fix the umpires. For more in this series, you can read about fixes to the NFL, college football, the NBA Cup, and even the NIT.

Editor's Pick: Free Agent editor Jeff Luse is going with "The Weird Law That Keeps the NFL Off (Most) Friday Nights," about the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. If you've ever wondered why the NFL doesn't play on Friday nights, Saturdays, or why the Black Friday game was in the afternoon, give it a read. "This was one that I learned the most new info about and one that I've used the most in day-to-day conversations," Jeff writes. "In other words, it's made me look the smartest in front of my football loving friends."

Newsletter That Should Have Been Read More: The July 22 newsletter was about the head of the NFL Players Association finally resigning after years of controversy, with media scrutiny of his strip club receipts seemingly being the final nail in the coffin. (Maybe "strip club" being in the subject line sent this newsletter into spam boxes, sadly.)

Newsletter That Got the Most Hate: Many of you enjoy losing the Masters ticket lottery year after year and would prefer to watch it at home rather than pay market prices, or even just a higher ticket price than the low $140 they charge. That take got some hate in my inbox and on X. I maintain that prices are a great distribution system, and my resolve here has only strengthened as FIFA handles their own ticketing debate.

Newsletter With the Most Subscribers: That would probably be today's, because subscriber numbers keep going up. But until we have the numbers, it technically goes to last week's newsletter: "Tariffs Are Leaving Fewer Footballs, Golf Clubs, and Toys Under the Christmas Tree." Thank you to all for reading!

Replay of the Week

Reminder that if your NFL team is eliminated from playoff contention, it's time to get into hockey.

OH MY JVR YOU ARE NASTY

NO LOOK BETWEEN THE LEGS FEED TO LARKIN
pic.twitter.com/JQ6fITTb5H

— Barstool Detroit (@BSMotorCity) December 24, 2025

That's all for this week. Enjoy watching the real game of the week, the NHL Winter Classic on Friday night at 8 p.m. Eastern, featuring the Panthers and the Rangers playing outside at loanDepot park (yes, the high temperature in Miami that day is in the 70s, and yes, the roof and windows of the ballpark will be open).