Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email on everything that happens off the field. I will be spending the early part of next week manning Puck’s luxurious Montauk satellite office with Matt Belloni. We’re both in town for a BofA Securities event.

There’s only one sports media obsession that matters these days. All anyone wants to talk about is David Zaslav, Mark Lazarus, Adam Silver, and NBA rights. Derek Thompson put me in the unenviable position of defending the NBA’s huge rights fee increases—nearly triple!—on his excellent pod, Plain English. And I had a blast geeking out on the topic with my partner Dylan Byers, who is guest-hosting The Powers That Be this week.

It appears that Marchand’s dissertation on the Byzantine Empire was more popular than expected. So, for those of you who still insist on forwarding this newsletter, get ready for Marchand’s Gregorian chants. The guy has pipes and looks great in a robe!

Okay, let’s get to it…

First, there was the exclusive renegotiating window, then...