| Wednesday, November 12, 2025 |
| Time is running out to make an order for Mississippi State cheese | |
 | Tucked behind the red-brick halls of Mississippi State University, stainless steel vats hum with tradition as students and scientists turn fresh milk into one of America's most beloved campus-made cheeses. And this time of year is when the dairy division at MSU earns its keeps as orders from around the world descend on Starkville for cheese to be delivered everywhere from Tupelo to Tahiti. Of the 350,000 pounds of cheese products produced at Mississippi State during the year, about two-thirds of that is shipped or sold for the end-of-the-year holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. "Just in the fall of the year, we will ship out between 15,000 and 20,000 orders. That's not individual products. That's orders," Dr. Darrin Dodds told the Clarion Ledger. "Of that, some folks may have 10 products. Some may just have 1." Dodds said there will be another 15,000 to 20,000 transactions at the on-campus store in Starkville. Most people who aren't from Mississippi in general, or from Oktibbeha County specifically, may not understand that what makes MSU unique compared to other universities that have dairy divisions is that all of the milk that makes the cheese, ice cream and fluid milk products, comes from its own dairy. |
| $2.5 million grant to highlight role of religion in Mississippi's history, culture | |
 | A $2.5 million grant will go toward highlighting the role of religion in Mississippi's history and culture. Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded the funds to the Foundation for Mississippi History to support and promote programs, activities, and projects by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History focused on how faith has shaped the Magnolia State. The grant was made available through Lilly Endowment's Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, a nationwide effort to help museums and other related facilities improve the public's understanding of religion. This is Lilly Endowment's second grant to the foundation, as a $2.5 million award in December 2022 launched the state of Mississippi's work to expand religious initiatives. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History's Religion Initiative has three goals: attract more visitors to the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, make archival holdings related to religion more accessible to the public, and make improvements to historic sites related to religion. Recent funding from the Lilly Endowment has aided in this campaign. "Support from Lilly Endowment has been transformative," MDAH director Katie Blount said. "The Lilly Endowment funding has helped us elevate our work at MDAH and expand our audience through outreach to church groups and deep dives into archival resources related to religion." |
| 14 current or former Mississippi officers plead not guilty in drug-trafficking case | |
 | Twenty people, including 14 current or former Mississippi law enforcement officers, have pleaded not guilty to federal charges that allege a widespread drug-trafficking conspiracy. The indictments accuse officers from multiple law enforcement agencies in Mississippi of taking bribes to provide safe transport to people they believed were drug traffickers. Six other people -- three in Mississippi and three in Tennessee -- were also arrested. The officers are alleged to have understood they were helping to transport 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine through Mississippi counties and into Memphis. Some of the officers also provided escort services to protect the transportation of drug proceeds. Two Mississippi sheriffs, Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston and Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams, were among those arrested. Both Gaston and Williams are accused of accepting thousands in bribes from someone they believed to be a member of a Mexican cartel. In return, the sheriffs allegedly gave the cartel their "blessing" to operate in their counties. |
| North Carolina Sen. Tillis blocking Trump's Mississippi nominees | |
| A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi's nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi's senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized. "Roger's one of my favorite people here, and, you know, it's just a matter of using the leverage people use every day here," Tillis said. Wicker's office did not respond to a request for comment. Tillis has been a vocal supporter of federal recognition for the Lumbee. He is not running for reelection in 2026, so next year will be his final opportunity to secure a bipartisan bill for the indigenous people. In August, Trump nominated Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court, to vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. Trump in July nominated Scott Leary and Baxter Kruger, his choices for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi, respectively. |
| Bessent says tariff cuts on coffee, other ag products coming soon | |
 | U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said the Trump administration will soon announce a broad package of agricultural tariff cuts. "You're going to see some substantial announcement over the next couple of days in terms of things we don't grow here in the United States, coffee being one of them," Bessent aid in an interview on Fox News. "Bananas, other fruits, things like that. So that will bring the prices down very quickly." President Donald Trump has imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, the world's largest coffee exporter, and lower but still significant tariffs on other suppliers like Vietnam and Columbia, sending coffee prices higher in the United States. Trump, in an interview Tuesday evening on Fox News, told host Laura Ingraham that he planned to reduce tariffs on coffee in order to bring down prices. "Coffee, we're going to lower some tariffs. We're going to have some coffee come in," Trump said. "We're going to take care of all of this stuff, very quickly, very easily." Bessent also said Wednesday that the administration is looking at providing a $2,000 tariff rebate for families making less than $100,000 but that no final decision has been made. |
| House set to end historic shutdown as Republicans claim victory | |
 | The House returns Wednesday to vote on a spending package to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history -- an outcome widely viewed as a Republican victory over Democrats, who are now battling internally over how their firm stand on health care dissolved without a resolution. Progressives are furious that a group of Senate Democratic centrists broke after 41 days to strike a deal with Republicans on a spending package that included some concessions on federal layoffs, without getting a commitment on extending expiring health care subsidies under ObamaCare. And while public polls showed that Republicans were blamed more than Democrats for the shutdown, Republicans are spinning the result as a total victory. "It really was a shutdown about nothing. I mean, what we're voting on is effectively exactly what we offered them several weeks back," Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on CNN on Monday. Still, Democrats think the shutdown helped their side by highlighting the GOP's positions on health care. Johnson hopes to clear the bill through the lower chamber Wednesday evening. |
| Epstein, in emails released by Democrats, says Trump 'knew about the girls' | |
 | Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, wrote that President Donald Trump "spent hours at my house" with one of his victims, according to emails House Democrats released Nov. 12. The White House called the release of emails a "smear." Trump attended parties and flew on Epstein's plane during the 1990s. But Trump later ousted Epstein from his club and forcefully denied knowing about the sex trafficking. Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial. The Democratic revelations came as the House prepares to swear in a new lawmaker from Arizona, Democrat Adelita Grijalva. She is expected to provide the final signature needed to force a vote on legislation that would release all Justice Department records about the Epstein investigation. Six years after Epstein's death, hundreds of women who call themselves Survivor Sisters are applying public pressure to identify Epstein associates they allege assaulted them or participated in his trafficking ring. |
| The Fed Is Increasingly Torn Over a December Rate Cut | |
 | The path for interest-rate cuts has been clouded by an emerging split within the central bank with little precedent during Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's nearly eight-year tenure. Officials are fractured over which poses the greater threat -- persistent inflation or a sluggish labor market -- and even a resumption of official economic data may not bridge the differences. The rupture has complicated what looked like a workable plan less than two months ago, though investors think a rate cut at the Fed's next meeting is still more likely than not. When policymakers agreed to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point in September, 10 of 19 officials, a slim majority, penciled in cuts for October and December. Cutting rates at three consecutive meetings would echo the downward adjustments Powell made last year and in 2019. But a contingent of hawks questioned the need for further reductions. Their resistance hardened after officials reduced rates again in late October to the current range between 3.75% and 4%. The debate over what to do in December was especially contentious, with hawks forcefully challenging the presumption of a third cut, according to public comments and recent interviews. |
| Atlanta Fed chief Bostic to step down | |
 | Raphael Bostic, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the first Black and openly gay person to lead one of the central bank's 12 regional branches, will step down at the end of his term in February, the bank announced Wednesday. Bostic, 59, has served as Atlanta Fed president since 2017, overseeing the district that spans six Southern states and includes such major financial centers as Atlanta, Nashville and New Orleans. The Fed has been under pressure all year from President Donald Trump to slash interest rates to juice economic growth. Bostic's departure will open a key seat on the Federal Open Market Committee, the body that sets U.S. interest rates, as the central bank weighs whether to continue lowering borrowing costs when the labor market is softening but inflation remains elevated. Bostic, not a voting member of the committee, has recently expressed reluctance to continue cutting rates, saying inflation has been too high for too long. The Atlanta Fed's Board of Directors will lead the search for his successor, subject to approval by the Fed's Board of Governors in Washington. |
| Diverse and resilient energy production is needed to meet future demand, global report says | |
| Electricity demand will rise much faster than overall energy growth in the coming decades, underscoring the need for diversified energy sources, according to an analysis released Wednesday. The report by the International Energy Agency said renewable energy, led by solar power, will grow faster than any other major source in the next few years and that coal and oil demand will likely peak globally by the end of this decade. The report noted that many natural gas projects were approved in 2025, due to changes in U.S. policy, indicating worldwide supply will rise even as questions remain about how it will be used. Meanwhile, global nuclear power capacity is set to increase by at least a third by 2035 after being stagnant for years. The IEA says building greater resilience in energy systems is especially important as data centers, heating and cooling, electrification and more drive energy demand. Investment in data centers is expected to reach $580 billion this year, exceeding investment in the oil supply, according to the report. |
| Millsaps College Awarded $525,000 Grant to Launch Gulf Scholars Program | |
| Millsaps College has been awarded a $525,000 Gulf Scholars grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to establish a new minor that will prepare students to address sustainability challenges in the Gulf South. Beginning in Fall 2026, first-time, first-year students will have the opportunity to enroll in the Gulf Scholars Program at Millsaps, which combines rigorous academics with hands-on experiences to tackle pressing environmental, health, energy, and infrastructure issues unique to the Gulf region. This program is as much an investment in the state of Mississippi as it is in our students. The new minor includes three courses exploring sustainability through science, policy, and the humanities, as well as a two-course capstone sequence where students work closely with a faculty mentor and community partners to design and implement a project. Millsaps joins five other institutions in the 2025 Gulf Scholars cohort: Alcorn State University, Louisiana Tech University, Texas Southern University, University of Mississippi, and University of South Florida. |
| Virtual Construction Lab opens at ICC with Eutaw Construction donation | |
 | Itawamba Community College celebrated the ribbon cutting of its new Virtual Construction Lab, located in the John Crubaugh Education Building on the Fulton Campus, with local construction partners, industry leaders, students and ICC leadership in attendance on Tuesday, Nov. 11. The innovative lab will serve students in the Construction Management Technology program, offering immersive, hands-on learning experiences that mirror real-world conditions even when weather or other factors limit access to traditional jobsites. The space features a Caterpillar Excavation Simulator, generously donated by Eutaw Construction, along with Oculus virtual reality headsets and Interplay learning software that provide cutting-edge training opportunities for students. "This new lab is a prime example of how ICC continues to advance workforce education in ways that meet both student and industry needs," said ICC President Dr. Jay Allen. "By combining traditional skills with emerging technology, we're preparing students for the future of construction management and helping meet the demand for skilled professionals across our region." |
| David Cook to succeed Wendy Wintersteen as Iowa State's next president | |
| Over 30 years after graduating, an Iowa State alumnus and Ames native is returning to his hometown to run his alma mater. The Iowa Board of Regents named David Cook as the next president of Iowa State University Tuesday afternoon. Cook, a graduate of Iowa State, is currently the president of North Dakota State University. He will succeed ISU President Wendy Wintersteen, who is retiring after nine years of leading the university. Cook will take office on March 1, 2026. His contract is for five years with an annual salary of $700,000 and a five-year deferred compensation plan beginning March 1, 2026, with annual contributions of $100,000. Cook earned a bachelor's degree in political science and speech communication from ISU, and a master's and Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Kansas. As a researcher, he has been a principal or co-principal investigator on nearly $11 million in external grants and has authored nearly 70 publications. He has taught more than 25 courses spanning health policy and management, innovation adoption, organizational communication, and strategic marketing. "As an Iowa State Alumni, I'm excited to see a fellow Cyclone has been selected as Iowa State's next President," said Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, chair of the House Committee on Higher Education. "This coming session, I look forward to working with President Cook to continue to reform Iowa's higher education system." |
| Colleges Expand Basic Needs Support Following SNAP Freeze | |
 | The government shutdown may be nearing its end, but the delayed distribution of food assistance funds continues to pose a threat to Americans, including the basic needs security of college students. For now, the future of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding remains cloudy amid the federal government's ongoing court battles against releasing the funds. Nearly three in five college students experience some form of basic needs insecurity, and two in five experience food insecurity, according to national surveys. In addition, approximately 3.3 million college students are eligible for federal food assistance, according to 2020 data, though a large share do not utilize SNAP due to lack of awareness. Financial insecurity is one of the top threats to student retention and persistence in higher education, meaning a lapse in support may impede some students' ability to remain enrolled. Some colleges and universities have established new or expanded measures to plug the gap in food support for students during the shutdown, including expanding the hours of campus food pantries and promoting emergency grant funding. |
| Charlie Kirk's Group Wants to Grow. Its Latest Target: Black Colleges. | |
 | Craig Long, a conservative Black social-media influencer, stood just outside Hampton University's student center, reading aloud from his phone the long list of topics he wanted to debate with the throngs of students and alumni gathered at the historically Black college's homecoming. He wore a grey hoodie, jeans, and a fitted hat that read "BLEXIT." "What do you think are the biggest threats facing Black families today?" Long read. "Do you feel that all viewpoints, including conservative ones, are welcome or heard on your campus?" In the weeks after Charlie Kirk's assassination, his wife vowed that his nonprofit, Turning Point USA, would continue touring college campuses. This fall, it has filled auditoriums at dozens of colleges with high-profile speakers including sitting governors, congresspeople, and Vice President JD Vance. Speakers have urged students to challenge their leftist professors in the classroom and devote their lives to Christ. As conservative political leaders look to spread Kirk's ideas about what they describe as leftist propaganda across higher education, some have turned their attention to the nation's historically Black colleges and universities. But on some campuses, administrators described Long and other BLEXIT ambassadors as a security threat, escorted them off campus, and told them to not come back. BLEXIT organizers say that amounts to censorship. |
| What college leaders should know about the $100K H-1B visa fee | |
| President Donald Trump caught the higher education world by surprise on Sept. 19, when he signed a proclamation announcing a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas. Before the new policy, employers paid between $2,000 and $5,000 for new H-1B petitions, according to the American Immigration Council. Colleges, especially large research universities, rely on H-1B visas to recruit foreign faculty, scholars and researchers. Stanford University, the University of Michigan and Columbia University all employed over 200 workers through H-1B visas in fiscal 2025. The new fee could impede colleges' ability to recruit those workers --- potentially curtailing research, slowing scientific innovation and even leading to reduced course offerings for students, according to higher education experts. Higher education and legal experts are still trying to understand some elements of the new policy, such as if colleges and other employers can secure exemptions to the $100,000 fee for workers they'd like to sponsor. |
| Trump Defends Enrolling International Students | |
| President Donald Trump stressed the value of international students in the U.S. during an interview aired on Fox News Monday. Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Trump on why he wouldn't curb international student enrollments, particularly from China. Trump told her doing so would "perhaps make people happy" but colleges and universities would "go out of business." "You don't want to cut half of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country -- destroy our entire university and college system -- I don't want to do that," Trump said. He also claimed historically Black colleges and universities would "all be out of business." "Look, I want to be able to get along with the world," Trump added. Ingraham pushed back, raising concerns about Chinese spying and intellectual property theft. But Trump framed welcoming international students as an economic decision. "We take in trillions of dollars from students," he said. "You know, the students pay more than double when they come in from most foreign countries. I want to see our school system thrive. And it's not that I want them, but I view it as a business." The annual Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education estimates the economic value of foreign students in the U.S. to be about $50 billion per year. |
| Public norms have been warped. Is the damage permanent? | |
| Mitch Daniels, president emeritus of Purdue University and a former governor of Indiana, writes in The Washington Post: There is some small fraction of Americans -- conspiracy bloggers, radio hosts, performance artists somehow elected to public office -- who prosper from and presumably revel in this century's rapid collapse of long-standing norms in the public square. Like it or not, standards of both conduct and discourse have shifted unmistakably and radically downward. A large majority of the rest of the country, spanning the ideological spectrum minus its fevered edges, seems weary and discouraged. We may nurture the hope that the decadence is temporary, but we must accept the reality that in many respects it is likely here to stay. Surveying the wasteland, we wonder, are we looking at a pendulum or a rachet? ... Of course, a tacit assumption underlies all this goody-goody commentary, namely that one's goal in public life is the success of the nation, the promotion of the general welfare. Action against our huge and looming challenges will require some rediscovery of common purpose, some empathy with those who disagree, some recovery of the art of peaceful compromise. |
| Grisham's latest novel is not a legal thriller, but an introspective mystery about greed | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: John Grisham's latest offering is not the legal thriller his fans have come to expect -- the usual rollercoaster ride through the judicial system driven by corporations, the Mob, scheming politicians, and the like, it's a more meandering and introspective mystery about one of the Seven Deadly Sins -- greed. In "The Widow" (Doubleday, $32, 416 pages), Grisham introduces small-town Virginia attorney Simon Latch. Latch is not an up-and-coming mega-firm lawyer like "The Firm's" Mitch McDeere, or a small-town idealist like "A Time to Kill's" Jake Brigance, or "The Rainmaker's" young, brave, unlikely hero Rudy Baylor. Latch is a lawyer struggling in every phase of his life -- his practice, his marriage, his children, his finances, his confidence, and his uncertainties about his ability to keep all those plates spinning. There are secret gambling debts. ... "The Widow" examines greed slowly, meticulously, and with a sense of introspection born of age and hard experience. Simon Latch -- in many ways a lifetime loser -- confronts the consequences of greed in which the stakes are his own life, legacy, and freedom. |
SPORTS
| MSU's key weaknesses to be tested against Missouri | |
| There have been many culprits to Mississippi State's shortcomings in 2025. Two of them will need a lot of work before Saturday. The Bulldogs' run defense and pass protection will both be under a microscope when they travel to face No. 22 Missouri on Saturday night for their penultimate game of the regular season. Kickoff will be at 6:45 p.m. on the SEC Network. Mississippi State heads into the matchup having allowed 32 sacks and 176.2 rushing yards per game, the third and second most in the SEC, respectively. Missouri enters with a conference-best 232.3 rushing yards per game. Its lead back, Ahmad Hardy, leads the conference with 1,046 yards. "The first guy never tackles him, and that's what shows up on tape over and over and over," MSU coach Jeff Lebby said. "You try to arm tackle this guy, and it's going to be a long day." Defensively, the Tigers have the second-highest sack percentage (11.59%) and the third-highest tackle-for-loss percentage (13.28%) in the SEC, according to SECstat.com. |
| Fluff Bothwell rounding back into form after scary midseason injury | |
| October 4 was an evening that Fluff Bothwell would love to forget but it still plays in his mind. In the waning minutes of Mississippi State's 31-9 loss at No. 3 Texas A&M, Bothwell took a dump off pass from Blake Shapen and was hit in the backfield for a loss. Suddenly, a pain shot through his lower body and he couldn't stand up. For a time, Bothwell felt like his potential breakout season was coming to an end halfway through the year. The Bulldog medical team came out to the field followed by the coaching staffs of both squads. A cart was going to take him to the locker room. Just a couple of days later, the news came back more positive. He would ultimately miss two ball games, but Bothwell's season was spared. "Right now, I feel good. It's still day-to-day, but just knowing regardless how I feel that I know I want to play and do my best to help our team win is a good part of what I'm doing," Bothwell said. "When I was down, I couldn't get up at all and it shocked me. I didn't know what it was, but being back and helping the team win is just great." State's running back room continues to be one of the most talented on the roster. Along with senior Davon Booth, Bothwell shares the room with talented young backs like Seth Davis, Xavier Gayten and Kolin Wilson and the group has formed a brotherhood. |
| Mizzou focused on finishing strong, chasing program history | |
 | The College Football Playoff aspirations are likely gone, but Missouri insists its season is far from finished. After a disappointing loss to No. 3 Texas A&M, coach Eli Drinkwitz's message Tuesday was simple: The Tigers still have a chance to do something no MU team has ever done by winning 10 games in three straight seasons. "We could finish this season strong and still do something that has never been done here," senior defensive tackle Chris McClellan said. "That's still pretty legendary." Missouri hosts Mississippi State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium for senior day, the final home game for 20 MU players. The Tigers currently sit at 6-3 with three regular-season games remaining plus a bowl. "We appreciate their example, their sacrifice and their courage," Drinkwitz said of the senior class. "All have contributed to the success of Mizzou football." Drinkwitz said the staff is installing a permanent Rock M on the north concourse for seniors to place their commemorative rocks if the Tigers win Saturday, strengthening a tradition the team cherishes. |
| What Chris Jans said about Jayden Epps missing Mississippi State game | |
| Mississippi State basketball starting guard Jayden Epps didn't travel for the Nov. 10 game against No. 16 Iowa State, and coach Chris Jans addressed the situation in his Nov. 12 news conference. "We're hopeful that he'll be back sooner than later," Jans said. "That's all I have for an update on him right now." The Bulldogs (1-1) lost 96-80 against the Cyclones in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They committed 26 turnovers in the game, the program's most in Jans' four seasons. Jans didn't say when asked in a follow-up question whether Epps' absence was injury-related. Mississippi State plays Southeastern Louisiana (0-3) at Humphrey Coliseum on Nov. 15 (2 p.m., SEC Network+). Epps was one of MSU's high-profile transfers from Georgetown where he averaged 15.8 points in two seasons. However, he suffered a concussion in the Oct. 26 exhibition against Houston. Then, Epps struggled in the season opener against North Alabama, scoring five points in 16 minutes with no assists on 2-for-7 shooting. His first three shot attempts were blocked, and he only played five minutes in the second half. |
| Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M remain atop CFP rankings | |
| The top five teams remained unchanged in the second rankings released by the College Football Playoff selection committee Tuesday. Ohio State remained No. 1 and was followed by Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama and Georgia in the top five. Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Oregon, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma and BYU round out the top 12 teams in the rankings. Since five conference champions are guaranteed to make the 12-team bracket, No. 15 Miami (projected ACC champion) would replace Oklahoma as the 11th seed and No. 24 South Florida (highest-ranked Group of 5 champion) would replace BYU as the 12th seed. The SEC had six teams in the top 12, followed by the Big Ten with three and the Big 12 with two. The ACC had five teams in the top 25 but none higher than No. 15. South Florida was the only team from a Group of 5 conference in the top 25. |
| The 'black hoodie of death,' Kalen DeBoer's new emotions and Alabama's torrid win streak | |
| Deep within the Mal Moore Athletic Complex, perhaps in some locked box or barred closet, the University of Alabama football team's not-so-secret weapon of viral superstition resides. There, somewhere, hidden and kept secret, are seven crisp and clean Nike Dri-FIT black hoodies. Better known to the college football world as coach Kalen DeBoer's black hoodie of death. "They're in safe keeping where only I know about them," says Kyle Smith. Smith holds an important role within the Alabama football program. He's the director of equipment, a thankless and often overshadowed job but one of great importance. In this job, Smith's most visible responsibility is clothing the team's head football coach on gameday. That means acting as the caretaker of what's become one of this season's quirky oddities: DeBoer's black hoodie. As coach at Alabama, he's 16-0 in regular season games while wearing the outfit -- the short or the long-sleeve version. This bizarre statline -- only in college football -- is no longer just some fan-driven internet sensation. Bama players are well aware. So is the coaching staff, administrators and DeBoer's own children. From his office this Monday, DeBoer cracks a smile. He's getting a kick out of all the hubbub. |
| Is Florida football still one of the top jobs in the country for coaches? | |
 | The day after Florida football coach Billy Napier was fired, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin pitched what makes coaching football for the Florida Gators attractive. "The University of Florida has, for a long time, been invested in being good at football," Stricklin said in his Oct. 20 press conference. "I don't think we've ever been as invested as we are right now. But is coaching Florida football still an elite job? Experts have varying opinions. Chuck Oliver, a former high school football coach-turned-successful syndicated SEC radio host based in Atlanta, said he used to consider Florida a top five-to-10 job in the country... until five years ago. "Now, everything is different," Oliver said. Oliver said NIL and revenue sharing have evened the playing field when it comes to recruiting and stockpiling talent. He also wonders about the stability of UF's administration with UF on its second interim president, Dr. Donald W. Landry, and an athletic director in Stricklin making his third football coaching hire. |
| World Series champion manager says Giants' hiring of Tony Vitello is 'insulting' | |
| World Series-winning manager Joe Maddon weighed in on the San Francisco Giants' hire of Tony Vitello, who had no professional experience, saying that such a move is "insulting" to those who have spent their entire careers paying their dues. "Quite frankly, I'm using the word insulting only from the perspective that it appears as though you don't have to have any kind of experience on a professional level to do this job anymore," Maddon told KNBR in San Francisco. "When I was coming up, you had to have all that. You had to, like, go through the minor leagues. You had to ride buses. I was a scout. I started in 1981. I finally get a managerial job in 2006. I mean, there was a rite of passage, a method to get to that point. "So to think that somebody could just jump in there and do it, you took 20-some years to be considered qualified to do, it is kind of insulting." Now 71 years old, Maddon acknowledged that he wasn't familiar with Vitello -- who the Giants plucked straight from the University of Tennessee -- but has been impressed with what he's seen. "Having said that, I wish (Vitello) nothing but the best," Maddon said. "Because I watch videos of the guy, and I could actually understand why it's perceived that he's ready to do something like this." |
| Pickleball on Sunday: Why some top college players are calling foul | |
| As an elite pickleball player, Rachel Garff faced a tough choice when she enrolled at Brigham Young University. The school famously bars its athletes from playing on Sundays, but that's when collegiate pickleball tournament finals are usually held. Companies that sponsor top pickleball players often want them to play in those high-profile Sunday events. To qualify for sponsorships, Garff now pays $2,000 per semester to take nine credits at nearby Utah Valley University. That allows the 25-year-old to compete for UVU's club team -- which plays on Sundays and is ranked No. 4 nationally. "I do break even on it, but it's so much work," the 25-year-old said of her dual enrollment. And Garff is still torn about her choice. Now she and 1,600 other athletes and fans have signed a petition asking the organizers of college pickleball's increasingly lucrative and competitive tournaments to stop scheduling play on Sundays. Many of the signers are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which not only owns BYU but is based in Utah -- a power center of college pickleball, home to two of the top five teams in the country. But pickleball is not an NCAA sport. And it's not clear whether all three organizations at the forefront of the college game, which includes more than 100 schools, are ready to make a change. |
| Online gambling is everywhere. So are the risks | |
| Online betting is more accessible than ever, with 14% of U.S. adults saying they bet on professional or college sports online either frequently or occasionally, according to a February poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It's also in the news, with a growing list of sports betting scandals making headlines. Public health advocates and personal finance advisers say it's important to know the risks if you're going to gamble online. "Gambling and 'responsibly' seem to be oxymoronic, because if you're gambling it's all about risk," said Caleb Silver, editor in chief of personal finance site Investopedia. "But people still do it. Online gambling and sports betting are only becoming more popular." Since the Supreme Court struck down a ban on sports betting in 2018, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized gambling, according to the American Gaming Association. For those new to online gambling, it can be helpful to set limits in advance on how much you're willing to lose and how much time you're willing to spend. Many of the platforms and apps that offer gambling, such as FanDuel and DraftKings, include optional safeguards to limit time or losses. Other apps can block access to the platforms for set amounts of time. |
| Trump calls for 'powerful caps' on college athlete salaries over fears of schools going 'out of business' | |
| President Trump wants "very powerful caps" to limit college athlete salaries so that universities won't "go out of business." Trump told ESPN host Pat McAfee that he fears "lesser" sports are being scrapped due to the new practice of directly paying athletes, which has been allowed since July on top of name, image and likeness (NIL) sponsorships by companies and booster clubs permitted since 2021. "It is a very serious problem because even football, when they give quarterbacks $12 million, $13 million, $14 million -- I read a couple of them -- and all of a sudden you're going to see it's going to be out of control, and even rich colleges are going to go bust," Trump said in a Tuesday interview. "They had the old way. They gave scholarships, and they did lots of good things. But there could be some form of payments, but... look, the NFL, and all of you know, all teams, they have caps. You don't really have that in college sports," the president said. "When the guard comes along that weighs 350 pounds and he's phenomenal, and they say, 'That's going to make the difference between having a great team and a lousy team', and they give him $10 million -- that's going to start happening pretty soon -- all of a sudden you're going to have NFL-type payrolls." |
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