Flo Sports

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · January 05, 2026, 10:35:12 PM

I suspect these are attempts to judge the audience for such a thing to gauge what kind of money might be made. Whether they go with Flo or go it alone, most conferences are looking for ways to monetize the broadcasts and this is a decent test of who's willing to pay.

Patrick Coleman · January 05, 2026, 10:41:32 PM

Only kind of -- it's a test of who's willing to pay for the most impactful content at the end of the season. I'm not sure it's a great analogue for who's willing to pay for way more content.

scottiedoug · January 06, 2026, 11:55:21 AM

Maryville was in a tournament at Emory which was a Flo event, so I could not watch any games without buying way more access than I wanted. I am sure Emory can afford not to be part of this.

y_jack_lok · January 06, 2026, 10:40:46 PM

Quote from: scottiedoug on January 06, 2026, 11:55:21 AMMaryville was in a tournament at Emory which was a Flo event, so I could not watch any games without buying way more access than I wanted. I am sure Emory can afford not to be part of this.

Except Emory is in the UAA and the UAA has already signed on with Flo.

Ron Boerger · January 07, 2026, 09:40:14 AM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on January 06, 2026, 10:40:46 PM
Quote from: scottiedoug on January 06, 2026, 11:55:21 AMMaryville was in a tournament at Emory which was a Flo event, so I could not watch any games without buying way more access than I wanted. I am sure Emory can afford not to be part of this.

Except Emory is in the UAA and the UAA has already signed on with Flo.

That's what scottiedoug was saying - like basically all the UAA schools, Emory doesn't need the pittance this brings in ("can afford not to be part of this"), what with their $11 BILLION endowment.

y_jack_lok · January 07, 2026, 09:51:40 AM

^^^ Got it. I must say I was mystified when the UAA announced it had signed on with Flo.

WUPHF · January 07, 2026, 12:56:34 PM

Every UAA school had layoffs in 2025. I am not surprised that they signed with Flo, though officially, they said that the funding was secondary.

y_jack_lok · February 06, 2026, 09:37:32 PM

Was anybody else having a problem connecting to an event via Flo Sports tonight (Friday February 6, 2026)?

deiscanton · February 06, 2026, 10:05:32 PM

The entire FloSports live video system crashed about 7:30 PM ET this evening just as the NYU women's basketball team was about to tip off vs CWRU in Cleveland to attempt to tie the DIII women's basketball all-time consecutive wins record. CWRU rose to the occasion and played a terrific game, however, in the end NYU won and is now tied with Wash U at 81 consecutive games won.

Fortunately, CWRU decided to provide a free backup stream so that the game could be watched live on video and I would not be forced to rely exclusively on live stats for that contest. I was not so fortunate with the Brandeis women at Carnegie Mellon, as that game was forced to be followed live on live stats only. Now that the NYU game is over, the FloSports system is conveniently coming back on-line and I can watch replays of the UAA women's basketball action that could not be watched live due to the system crash.

I am so angry at FloSports right now-- I paid $108 for the year back on July, 2025, and I expect FloSports to be able to handle the volume of viewers for a big contest and not crash out like this. FloSports screwed up royally this evening. I hate to see what is going to happen Sunday at noon ET when NYU attempts to break the DIII all-time consecutive games winning streak at Carnegie Mellon.

y_jack_lok · February 06, 2026, 10:13:10 PM

^^^Thanks for that info. Sorry you had that experience for such a meaningful game.

I do see that the platform is back to functioning.

I did contact Flo about the problem and got this response:

"Hello,

Weâ€™re currently experiencing technical issues affecting our platform. Our product and engineering teams are actively investigating the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience while we work to restore full functionality.

We will share updates as they become available. In the meantime, please donâ€™t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,

Kayla
FloSports"

You should request that Flo extend your subscription for a month at no cost to you. I might, also, though I was not inconvenienced nearly as much as you were.

WUPHF · February 08, 2026, 12:21:28 AM

Quote from: deiscanton on February 06, 2026, 10:05:32 PMI hate to see what is going to happen Sunday at noon ET when NYU attempts to break the DIII all-time consecutive games winning streak at Carnegie Mellon.

Carnegie Mellon is going to stream the Women's game for free on YouTube. Not even bothering with Flo Sports. The Men's games are still on Flo it seems.

https://gonyuathletics.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule
https://athletics.cmu.edu/sports/wbkb/2025-26/schedule

Ron Boerger · February 08, 2026, 09:08:08 AM

If you notice, it's still a FloSports broadcast, though. Does answer the question "can a school opt out of the Flo paywall for one of its webcasts"; does not answer the question of what they had to do to pull it off.

WUPHF · February 08, 2026, 10:23:43 AM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on February 08, 2026, 09:08:08 AMIf you notice, it's still a FloSports broadcast, though. Does answer the question "can a school opt out of the Flo paywall for one of its webcasts"; does not answer the question of what they had to do to pull it off.

True, though interestingly, Case Western Reserve was able to pivot on Friday and stream most of the game against NYU using the Boxcast platform they used for the past 5-10 years.

It would be interesting to know the backstory.

Flo Sports brags about the number of streams they have on offer. Did the additional traffic to the NYU game really bring the entire platform to a standstill?

The fact that they are offering the stream on YouTube may suggest that the answer is yes.

The NYU streak is a great story and they have received much-deserved national coverage, but really, only Flo Sports subscribers could have attempted to watch it. How many viewers are we talking about?

The YouTube platform will provide a snapshot as to how many viewers they have at any one time.

Here is the link again for NYU vs. Carnegie Mellon. They are already three others waiting for the game to begin. https://www.youtube.com/live/uOA71OCN-ao

WUPHF · February 08, 2026, 10:29:22 AM

As an aside, as the Winter sports season draws closer to the postseason, I would give Flo Sports an F for the additional content that was part of the promise.

Just based on a review of their primary Flo Sports websites and X accounts, they appear to be doing less overall for Division III than they were to start the 2025-2026 season.

Patrick Coleman · February 08, 2026, 11:25:54 AM

In the fall, Flo did a free game of the week for Division III and Division II on its YouTube channel, like it is today for the women's basketball game. I was wondering why they hadn't been doing so for basketball all along to showcase the product, but maybe it was a traffic deflation initiative as much as a showcase?