I know I won't be right on all of these, but I'll talk smack about the few I'm right about. Here we go:
*Celtics repeat. Unfortunately. I just think this roster is too good in comparison to the rest of the field that they will end up hanging their 19th banner. I really like to see them face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals, but I think Boston's experience in that moment pulls them through.
*Kansas City Chiefs won't three-peat. It hasn't been done in the Super Bowl era and hasn't been done since the Packers in the 1960s (the only other time it happened was the Packers from 1929 to 1931). As I write this, they are 15-1 but that doesn't mean much. In the Super Bowl era, teams that has won at least 15 regular season games have only won the Super Bowl twice in seven opportunities ... and that was the 1984 Niners and 1985 Bears. I just don't think this Chiefs team is as good as Patrick Mahomes' previous three title teams and I think the Bills and Ravens are more equipped to knock them off. Of course, I could very well be wrong.
*UConn won't repeat either. The other notable team looking for a threepeat are the UConn Huskies basketball team. They've been so dominant the last two NCAA tournaments but I don't think this year's team is as polished as the previous two. The NCAA tournament is just so random as it is that all it takes is an off night to get knocked off.
*An SEC team will win the NCAA tournament. Just a feeling, but I think one of the SEC teams wins their first tournament since Kentucky did in 2012. I can't tell which one it will be, but the Alabama-Auburn rivalry looks to be a nice start. Kentucky could do it. So could Tennessee. Maybe Florida.
*An SEC team will NOT win the College Football Playoff. This one I may not truly believe, but I'm going with it. The Big Ten has three legitimate contenders to the title and two of the Final Four could be from there. I feel the Oregon-Ohio State winner will end up winning the championship. I loved Georgia, but I'm very hesitant with Carson Beck out for the season.
*Warriors miss the playoffs again. They'll probably get into the play-in, but this isn't a playoff team. Right now they are 10th in the standings and the teams ahead of them (Wolves, Suns, Clippers) are more likely to get better than Golden State is. The Spurs are also right there behind them, and while I don't think much of San Antonio in the grand scheme of things, they could catch fire and sneak past the Warriors. If they make a big trade and land Jimmy Butler, well that could change things.
*Golden Knights win Stanley Cup. Just a feeling.
*Mets miss the playoffs. Just a feeling.
*Travis Hunter won't be the NFL's No. 1 overall pick, but should be. Everyone is desperate for their franchise quarterback that they'll reach for hope instead of drafting the best player available. The Giants would most likely draft a QB with the top pick. The Patriots won't, but could feasibly trade out of a top two spot to get more picks to fill out their roster. The Jaguars are the only other team likely picking at the top that wouldn't use that pick on a QB if either Shadeur Sanders or Cam Ward were available. I'd tell all of them to draft Hunter and deal with finding a QB later. Hunter is both a culture changing person but an elite and special talent.
*Caitlyn Clark will get the Indiana Fever to the WNBA playoffs. Self explanatory.
*NBA announces they will be officially expanding. Signs point to Seattle and Las Vegas getting those teams. That announcement may not happen in 2025, but that's what I think eventually happens. The Minnesota Timberwolves will move to the Eastern Conference. If they keep the current six divisions, the Wolves join the Central Division, Seattle to the Pacific Division and Seattle to the Northwest Division.
*MLB gets closer to their expansion, but doesn't. MLB has some issues this coming season. Two of their franchises will be playing in minor league ballparks. The Tampa Bay Rays will be playing in Tampa's minor league park after hurricanes made Tropicana Field unplayable, while the Oakland Athletics will leave Oakland to play in a minor league park in Sacramento (their name will just be the Athletics this year) before moving to Las Vegas by the end of the decade. While this is a problem, the A's relocation drama ... ending? ... means that the league can look at adding two or four more franchises. Unlike the NBA, there is no shoo-in candidates since several are very attractive. Nashville, Montreal, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Portland and others are on the list.
*Streaming becomes a more important part of sports broadcasting. While fans may complain about it, they are going to have to get used to it. The NFL has already done a lot with streaming with Amazon, Peacock, ESPN+ and Netflix while the NBA enters its new broadcast agreement next fall where streaming is a major partner. The fall of regional sports networks will make streaming options more attractive to leagues like the NBA, NHL and MLB. While people may not be used to it, they should enjoy these options. If you really think about it, we have more access to sports than we have ever had before and that's a good thing. If you refuse to pay for six or more streaming services to watch all the games, I get it. But you're still watching more games a week than you did 10 years ago and exponentially more than you did 20 or 30 years ago. Netflix's broadcast of the Paul-Tyson fight was ridiculed, but they did a much better job on their Christmas Day telecast. Netflix wants in on sports, so expect more and more games online.
*NFL will add an 18th game. Having said what I did about streaming, the next foray for the NFL is to reach more into streaming and more into international games. Those things will compel the NFL to try to work with the player's union to add that 18th game on the schedule. That WILL NOT happen for the 2025 season, but it will be worked on extensively this year. The NFL will want to sell an international package of games to one service -- which likely will be a streaming service. Think the Thursday Night schedule for Amazon, except it will be international games for, say, Netflix. That doesn't short the other broadcast partners and gives an influx of money to both the teams and the players. If the NFL can figure out how to throw in a second bye (it happened in the 1990s, but wasn't well received) then it gives the league even more weight on the sports schedule. The NFL now has no issue stepping on other sports' toes (right NBA on Christmas?) so the NFL could start the week before Labor Day (sorry, college football) and end the regular season the second week of January. That pushes the playoffs forward a week and puts the Super Bowl around President's Day weekend. Having that second bye means there is more opportunity to have international games since there is more built it rest weeks. We could see a situation where there is a new 9am Eastern Time window for an international game most weeks. With England and Germany already in the bag and Spain in the future, there is interest in hosting these games. Add in Brazil and back to Mexico City and there are plenty of places wanting to host NFL games. Have a 10 or 14 game package and sell that to Netflix? Look for that on the horizon.
*New ESPN streaming hub will change the game. One of the changes going on in the streaming world is how networks are streamlining their properties into their streaming service. In the non-sports world, you are seeing companies slash their networks and just integrate them into their streaming format. ESPN is essentially doing the same but creating their streaming service all encompassing. As you likely know, ESPN+ alone doesn't give you events on the linear ESPN networks -- you still must have a subscription through cable or satellite for ESPN. The new format will have all of ESPN's content on one place, which is attractive to people who just have cable for ESPN. That's a big hit for those cord companies, and could be the trend that goes into other networks. I mean, you are already seeing hubs on all these services already.
*NCAA tournament will expand to 76 teams. Again, that won't happen for the 2025 tournament, but it will be voted in this year. There is a want to expand the tournament some, but nothing to big. Adding eight teams means the First Four gets expanded out to eight games. Here's how it goes: There will be four games on Tuesday and four games on Wednesday. Four of those games will be two 16 seeds facing off where the winners will be the 16-seeds to face the No. 1 seeds in the "real" bracket. There is a bit of a trick to this since with the pods that we can't just split those games to two on each day. Then we have four games of 12-seeds (or 11-seeds, if that's how it lands) that are not automatic qualifiers. Have all of that in Dayton for both days -- a day session of two games and a night session of two games for each day. Or, if you want, add a second site that is kind of centrally located. Maybe Nashville? Kansas City? Or maybe another Dayton-type city like Greensboro, Birmingham, Tulsa or Arlington, Texas?
*NBA makes some rule change on three point shot. This may be less likely, but Adam Silver clearly has an issue with how his game is perceived. He wasn't too shy about his disdain for the way the All Star Game looks and is quickly looking for a fix. He started the NBA Cup to make the early part of the season (read: the schedule that coincides with the NFL) attractive to viewers. So with a lot of people turned off by the NBA's current style of gunning threes, look for Silver to at least float some ideas out there to make the game ... more attractive. The idea I like is ditching the corner three -- having the three point arc extend out to the free throw line extended. Who knows if Silver is willing to do something that drastic immediately, but that could be a discussion that gets tried out in the G-League for a few years before the NBA actually implements it. But expect those discussions to get serious.
*NBA's broadcasting free agency. Remember that TNT's time as an NBA broadcast partner ends after this season. That means that there will be a free agency of sorts for TNT's talent to ESPN, Amazon and NBC. Ian Eagle has already agreed to go to Amazon. Kevin Harlan will be a huge free agent, though he already does work for CBS for the NFL and the NCAA tournament (as part of the Discovery-CBS agreement). There is a lot of talent that will be leaving TNT, and while NBC and Amazon are starting from scratch, expect ESPN to really look at adding some of it as well. While Mike Breen is a legend, their top broadcast team has been a mess since they broke off Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson (expect them to show up on one of those other networks). Tim Legler has been really good and may be the guy going forward, you still have to do your due diligence.
*Tom Brady stops/slows his broadcasting career. The amount of money owed to him is outrageous, so this is a serious take, but Tom Brady may decide to be more involved in his ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders than into his broadcasting. If that's true, he may back off his FOX broadcasting commitments. That could mean he does less games, does only games close to his home, or just stops doing it altogether. He's not been great at the job, but he has shown moments where he drops key knowledge on the audience ... especially in clutch moments.
