Shortly after the ink dried on the NBA’s astonishing $76 billion, decade-plus media rights deals last year, my best sources wondered what fate might befall the next crop of leagues heading out to test the market. Yes, yes, everyone expects the NFL to pursue an out in its current contracts to renegotiate terms in 2029, and use the NBA’s recent success as leverage for what’s sure to be an utterly gobsmacking, market-defying number. But between now and then, many whispered, the industry was likely to face a stagnant market, at best, for less sexy leagues—F1, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, and even a post-ESPN-divorce MLB—and fewer (and more cash-conscious) bidders.