| Wednesday, January 17, 2024 |
| MSU to remain on remote operations on Wednesday, Jan. 17 | |
 | Mississippi State University's Starkville and MSU-Meridian campuses are being impacted by winter weather and will continue to operate through remote operations on Wednesday, Jan. 17. Students should continue to login to Canvas for course information from instructors. Severe winter weather has made driving conditions hazardous in Central and North Mississippi and are expected to continue to impact transportation Wednesday [Jan. 17]. Employees who can work remotely should do so. Designated employees who are instructed by their supervisors are required to work in person on campus. MSU's Operational Guidance may be viewed at https://www.emergency.msstate.edu/guidelines/op-guidance. Faculty, staff and students are urged to use caution to ensure personal safety. The university will make an announcement Wednesday by 5 p.m. about the status of the institution for Thursday, Jan. 18. Monitor the MSU website and social media for updates. Monitor local news outlets for changing conditions and advisories. |
| Education: MSU's Perry Cafeteria to undergo modernization and restoration, close temporarily starting this summer | |
 | Perry Cafeteria at Mississippi State University will soon undergo a major renovation, giving the 102-year-old building modern amenities while maintaining its historic character. The renovation is set to begin following the spring 2024 semester, ushering in a new era of dining at MSU. Because of the renovation, Perry Cafeteria will be closed during the 2024-25 academic year. It will reopen in August 2025 as Perry Hall with exciting new concepts. It will no longer be an all-you-can-eat style cafeteria but will instead offer three food hall concepts: a southern-style kitchen offering a modern take on comfort food, a barbecue and grill offering, and a produce/salad concept. Additionally, Starbucks will relocate to Perry in 2025 with an expanded footprint. "Perry Cafeteria has been a central part of the MSU student experience for more than a century, and I am excited about this major investment that will allow the facility to meet the modern dining needs of our students while maintaining its distinction and historic character," said MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt. "We appreciate Aramark for partnering with us on this upgrade and the temporary plans to provide for student dining needs during the 2024-25 academic year." |
| Education: New and renovated dining options, expanded State Fountain Bakery planned for MSU | |
| Mississippi State University students have new dining options coming as soon as this fall, with more additions slated to open in 2025, including restoration of a campus icon to its original location. State Fountain Bakery will be part of the renovated lower portion of Perry Cafeteria and offer an expanded menu when it returns to its original location in 2025 following the renovation to Perry. The bakery has been an MSU tradition for decades, serving unique baked goods such as dog bone cookies to the campus community. Adjacent to Perry, construction began in December as crews work to renovate the Student Media Center and University Florist building to create an expanded Subway and Bento Sushi, a new addition to campus that will serve sushi and a variety of Asian noodles. Also in December, a partial renovation began at Fresh Food Company to include a stand-alone True Balance venue, providing additional options for individuals with some of the most common food allergens. Fresh Food Company will remain open during the renovation. Subway, Bento Sushi and True Balance all are slated to open in time for the fall 2024 semester. Earlier this year, the University Florist relocated to 205 Technology Boulevard, with retail items available for purchase at the MAFES Sales Store. The Henry F. Meyer Student Media Center, which houses offices for The Reflector student newspaper, will remain in the building. The lower portion of Perry will also include an expanded and refreshed space for Moe's Southwest Grill. Both the bakery and Moe's will be closed during the 2024-25 academic year as renovations take place at Perry, but will re-open in August 2025. |
| Helium is an essential material for research and medical equipment, but it's nonrenewable and difficult to recycle | |
 | Mississippi State University's Nicholas Fitzkee writes for The Conversation: The next time you pick up balloons for your big party, remember the helium gas in those balloons is destined for the stars. Helium is so light that it easily escapes Earth's gravity, and all helium will eventually make its way into space. Like fossil fuels, helium is a limited resource. Helium shortages have become an acute problem for many researchers. Since early 2022, a variety of factors have put pressure on the global helium market, including the potential sale of the U.S.'s publicly held helium reserves and production infrastructure, sanctions against Russia and a series of breakdowns at helium plants. Four helium shortages have occurred over the past decade, and these disruptions affect several high-tech industries. Beyond inflating balloons, helium plays a part in welding for certain metals and in making semiconductors. Medical imaging and chemical analysis research also use helium. Liquid helium cooled to minus-450 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-268 degrees Celsius) keeps the superconducting magnets in instruments like magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, systems cool. |
| Education: Emerging field of quantum computing advances at MSU through $500K Department of Energy grant | |
| A Mississippi State University research team is using more than half a million dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear physics program to study the emerging field of quantum computing. The research is part of a 2020 goal set by MSU's Quantum Task Force to explore interdisciplinary programs for training MSU students in the evolving technology of quantum computing and quantum information science. The three-year, $550,000 grant -- Three-body Interactions on a Quantum Computer -- is led by principal investigator Gautam Rupak, a professor in MSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, and includes co-PIs Mark A. Novotny, professor and department head, and Yaroslav Koshka, a professor in MSU's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Quantum computing, a multidisciplinary field combining computer science, physics and mathematics, uses quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers and can create better models for how atoms and nuclei interact with one another, leading to a more precise understanding of molecular structure. "Though quantum mechanics was developed nearly a century ago, the advent of quantum computers requires a change in paradigm in how we compute physical quantities on such devices," said Rupak, noting the research team is collaborating with experts in nuclear physics, Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum, or NISQ, computers and machine learning. |
| Mississippi lawmakers to weigh incentives for an EV battery plant that could employ 2,000 | |
 | Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is asking legislators for $350 million in incentives for a proposed factory that would manufacture electric vehicles batteries and employ about 2,000 people in Marshall County. The Republican governor on Tuesday declined to name the company that plans to spend $1.9 billion to build the facility in northern Mississippi. It would be the second-largest corporate investment in state history. Reeves, who recently started his second term as governor, said jobs at the proposed factory would pay an average salary of about $66,000 a year. Reeves called a special legislative session to begin Thursday for lawmakers to consider incentives for the Mississippi plant. Citing a confidentiality agreement, the governor said he would not publicly name the company behind it until the special session ends. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, told The Associated Press that the state package would include money for site development at the Chickasaw Trails Industrial Park. |
| Gov. Reeves asks lawmakers to appropriate $350 million in state funds to Marshall County EV battery deal | |
| Gov. Tate Reeves will call a Thursday special session to ask lawmakers to appropriate $350 million in state funds to close an economic development deal that would bring an electric vehicle battery facility to north Mississippi. The multibillion dollar project, if approved, is slated to be constructed at the Chickasaw Trails Industrial Park in Marshall County near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line. State officials recently invested around $1.1 million in the industrial park. Reeves on Tuesday declined to name the companies involved in the proposed deal, but the Daily Memphian reported that the project is a joint venture between Daimler Truck Holdings, PACCAR and Cummins Truck Holdings. The three manufacturers announced plans last year to jointly invest $2 billion to $3 billion in a battery production facility. The special session will begin on Thursday and both House Speaker Jason White, R-West, and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said they anticipate legislation approving the deal will clear the House and Senate quickly. |
| Coalition of 36 organizations pushes lawmakers for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi | |
| As Medicaid expansion remains a top political issue in Mississippi -- and sure to be debated this legislative session -- one group will be advocating for the policy on the front lines. Care4Mississippi is a coalition of 36 partner organizations, and growing, focused on getting Medicaid expanded in Mississippi. Co-chair Kimberly Hughes, who's also the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network's government relations director, says this is the first time the coalition will be "active" during the legislative session, but the work on this issue began years ago. Many of the coalition's current partners were part of the Yes on 76 campaign, which was a statewide effort to get expansion of Medicaid on the 2022 ballot through the state's ballot-initiative process. However, the campaign was suspended in May 2021 after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the state's initiative process was invalid. Since then, efforts to reinstate it have failed. Researchers estimate somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 Mississippians currently fall in Medicaid's coverage gap -- they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford insurance on their own -- and would be insured if the policy was expanded to the working poor as most other states have done. |
| Speaker Johnson rejects hard-line tactics in move to avoid shutdown | |
 | Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) decision to support a short-term stopgap spending bill marks the latest instance of the new Speaker rejecting tactics favored by hard-line conservatives as he navigates a bare-bones GOP majority. The bipartisan proposal significantly lowers the chances of a partial government shutdown after Friday's deadline, and it mirrors the two-step framework conservatives championed as part of the previous continuing resolution (CR) in order to avoid a massive end-of-year, whole-of-government omnibus bill. But it is not buying the new Speaker any goodwill among hard-liners, who are speaking out against his decision to cut another "clean" continuing resolution deal with Democrats. "This is what surrender looks like," the House Freedom Caucus wrote Sunday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, accusing leadership of trying to clear spending bills "at Pelosi levels with Biden policies." After deliberations between Johnson and members of his politically diverse conference, congressional leaders landed on a two-step CR that extends funding to March 1 and March 8, buying lawmakers more time to complete the formal appropriations process. The Speaker faces pressure beyond the hard-liners. Johnson is dealing with a historically slim House majority made even more difficult this week by absences of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), due to cancer treatment, and of Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who was hospitalized following a car accident. Assuming full attendance otherwise, Republicans can afford to lose just two votes on any party-line measure. |
| First roadblock to March stopgap measure removed | |
 | The Senate overwhelmingly voted Tuesday night in favor of the first procedural move needed to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of this week. The chamber voted 68-13 to end debate on the motion to proceed to the shell legislative vehicle for the stopgap spending measure, which would run to March 1 for four of the dozen annual appropriations bills and until March 8 for the remaining eight. Leadership in both chambers are in favor of the stopgap measure, which is designed to give appropriators more time to negotiate final fiscal 2024 appropriations bills following the $1.66 trillion topline agreement Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., announced earlier this month. Without a stopgap extension, under the current law budget authority for agencies covered by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD bills would expire after Friday, Jan. 19. Those bills cover about 20 percent of federal discretionary spending controlled by the Appropriations committees. Even with Tuesday night's vote, any one senator could choose to delay passage into the weekend by using the chamber's procedural tools. Schumer urged senators not to clog up the process, so they can pass the continuing resolution in plenty of time to get it to the House in time to beat the deadline. "If both sides continue to work in good faith, I'm hopeful that we can wrap up work on the CR no later than Thursday," Schumer said on the floor Tuesday. |
| U.S. agricultural trade deficit could reach record high this year | |
| For the third time in five years, the United States' trade in agriculture will run a deficit -- when a country imports more than it exports. Through November 2023, the deficit amounted to nearly $20 billion. About 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, farmer Chris Otten swung open the door at the top of his 35-foot grain bin. On this windy afternoon, Otten needed to check his corn to make sure it hasn't spoiled. He plunged his arm deep into the grain bin. "Take your hand. If you can go in that deep, your grain is fine," he said. "If it's really getting bad, you'll get this deep and that's as far as you go." Otten's corn is still in good shape -- which is important because he's getting ready to take the crop to the Mississippi River in a few days. There he'll sell his thousands of bushels of corn, soybeans and wheat to be shipped on barges. Many of his products may end up going to other countries as exports. Traditionally, the U.S. exported more agricultural products than it imported, creating what economists call a surplus economy. But last year through the end of November, agricultural imports outpaced exports by record margins -- and that's concerning to farmers like Otten. It would be ideal, he said, "for us to get back to exporting as much as we possibly can." |
| Chinese Lab Mapped Deadly Coronavirus Two Weeks Before Beijing Told the World, Documents Show | |
 | Chinese researchers isolated and mapped the virus that causes Covid-19 in late December 2019, at least two weeks before Beijing revealed details of the deadly virus to the world, congressional investigators said, raising questions anew about what China knew in the pandemic's crucial early days. Documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by a House committee and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that a Chinese researcher in Beijing uploaded a nearly complete sequence of the virus's structure to a U.S. government-run database on Dec. 28, 2019. Chinese officials at that time were still publicly describing the disease outbreak in Wuhan, China, as a viral pneumonia "of unknown cause" and had yet to close the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, site of one of the initial Covid-19 outbreaks. China only shared the virus's sequence with the World Health Organization on Jan. 11, 2020, according to U.S. government timelines of the pandemic. The new information doesn't shed light on the debate over whether Covid emerged from an infected animal or a lab leak, but it suggests that the world still doesn't have a full accounting of the pandemic's origin. |
| Millsaps announces Neville as new President | |
| Frank Neville has been announced as the new President at Millsaps College. The Millsaps College Board of Trustees made the announcement on Wednesday, unanimously naming Neville as its 12th president following an extensive national search. The Board voted on Monday to make the hire. "Frank Neville distinguished himself throughout the selection process with a combination of experience, skills, and innovative thinking," said Board Chair John Lindsey. "These exceptional characteristics, together with his passion for liberal arts education, will be essential to Millsaps' future." According to Millsaps, Neville currently serves as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff at Georgia Institute of Technology. His background includes strategic planning, implementation, and executive management. Neville brings over 35 years of experience to his new role. Millsaps has been seeking a replacement for its president since May 2023 when Robert W. Pearigen stepped down to serve as president for The University of the South. Neville will begin his duties at Millsaps on June 17, 2024. |
| Survey: Students Value Choice in Campus Dining Facilities | |
 | Food and eating habits are critical pieces of the college experience, and students have been vocal on how dining facilities can improve or worsen their physical and mental health. A 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse found over one-third of students (37 percent) believe their campus dining facilities need improvement. A new report from the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) found key themes in how students engage with dining facilities and what they expect from their institution in prioritizing their physical well-being. Students emphasized a desire for accessibility, selection in food options and technology that aids in their dining experience. Dining programming should also consider students' mental health and well-being and academic performance. Students believe having a wide variety of nutritionally balanced food is most important in their food selection, followed by a variety of allergen-friendly foods, accommodations for different dietary needs and foods that satisfy religious needs. Similarly, 40 percent of Student Voice respondents believe colleges should prioritize improving the variety and quality of flavors. Around 38 percent of students want to see fewer ultraprocessed foods and one-third want a greater variety of cuisines. |
| University Librarians See Urgent Need for AI Ethics | |
| Nearly three-quarters of university librarians say there's an urgent need to address artificial intelligence's ethical and privacy concerns, a survey finds. Roughly half the librarians surveyed said they had a "moderate" understanding of AI concepts and principles, according to the study released Friday. About one in five said they had a slightly below moderate understanding, and roughly the same amount had a slightly above moderate understanding. Only 3 percent of respondents said they had a "very high" understanding. The study, conducted in May 2023 by Leo Lo, president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries, had 605 respondents who completed the survey. Of those, 45 percent worked in research institutions and 30 percent in institutions with undergraduate and graduate programming. The need for ethics training was one of the biggest insights, Lo said. Nearly 75 percent of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed there is an urgent need to address those AI issues. The major worries included violations of privacy and misuse of data, such as generating false citations. Many librarians are fielding questions and concerns from faculty members about those issues, with some making AI guides and launching pilot projects to address anxieties. |
| Harvard Is Trying to Smooth Things Over With Silicon Valley | |
| Executives atop Harvard University's $51 billion endowment made an unusual tour of Silicon Valley last week to try to smooth relationships with top venture-capital investors. Some have been upset at the university's response to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Some of the venture-capital executives who invest money for Harvard had pushed the endowment's executives to try to get the university to address their concerns about what they viewed as Harvard's weak response to the attacks and to antisemitism under former Harvard President Claudine Gay. Executives at Harvard Management Company, the nation's largest college endowment, met with firms including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz. They also met with Elad Gil, an Israeli-born investor, and Patrick Collison, the chief executive of payments company Stripe; both are influential in Silicon Valley and have been among those who have been more outspoken to Harvard's endowment. Harvard is a direct investor in Stripe. The pressure by some of Harvard's money managers, which hasn't previously been reported, adds another dynamic to the tumult that has enveloped elite universities since the attacks on Israel. The uproar was led by big donors such as Apollo's Marc Rowan and Pershing Square's Bill Ackman, rather than by investors hired by the schools to manage their money. |
| Amid National Backlash, Colleges Brace for Fresh Wave of Anti-DEI Legislation | |
 | At least 14 states this year will consider legislation that could dismantle the ways college administrators attempt to correct historical and structural gender and racial disparities and make campus climates more inclusive, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education analysis. The Chronicle has identified at least 19 bills that will be considered in the coming months that seek to ban the employment and funding of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices; the use of pledges by faculty and staff to commit to creating a more inclusive environment on campus, commonly known as diversity statements; mandatory diversity training; and identity-based preferences for hiring and admissions. While college administrators argue that they have a legal, moral, and financial obligation to more aggressively tackle forms of discrimination on campus and provide extra resources to historically marginalized employees and students -- who will soon make up more than half of the nation's population -- opponents say those efforts are ineffective, illegal, and, in fact, discriminatory against white men. Since The Chronicle began tracking DEI legislation in early 2023, 49 bills have been introduced across 23 states. Almost two dozen of those bills last year were either tabled, failed to pass, or vetoed, while seven bills in five states were signed into law. |
| As a new generation rises, tension between free speech and inclusivity on college campuses simmers | |
| Generations of Americans have held firm to a version of free speech that makes room for even the vilest of views. It's girded by a belief that the good ideas rise above the bad, that no one should be punished for voicing an idea -- except in rare cases where the idea could lead directly to illegal action. Today, that idea faces competition more forceful and vehement than it has seen for a century. On college campuses, a newer version of free speech is emerging as young generations redraw the line where expression crosses into harm. There's a wave of students who have no tolerance for speech that marginalizes. They draw lines around language that leads to damage, either psychological or physical. Their judgments weigh the Constitution but also incorporate histories of privilege and oppression. “We believe in a diverse set of thoughts,” says Kaleb Autman, a Black student at the University of Wisconsin whose group is demanding a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech. “But when your thought is predicated on the subjugation of me or my people, or to a generalized people, then we have problems.” A new understanding of free speech has been evolving on college campuses for years, marked by the introduction of safe spaces, trigger warnings and a rise in disruptive protests that silence speakers with offensive views. But the Israel-Hamas war and its rhetoric appear to be widening the fault lines and pushing students to demand that university leaders take a side between clashing versions of free speech. |
| Most Americans support Supreme Court's ending of affirmative action, poll finds | |
 | The majority of Americans believe the Supreme Court's ruling last year that ended affirmative action for universities around the country is "mostly a good thing," according to a new poll. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they viewed the decision favorably, while 32 percent said it's "mostly a bad thing," according to a Gallup Center on Black Voices survey published Tuesday. Black Americans were most divided in their responses, with 52 percent in favor of the decision and 48 percent against. White adults viewed it most favorably compared to polled Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, with 72 percent saying it was a good move. A slight majority of polled white adults believe the ruling will have "no difference" on campus diversity, while 57 percent of Asian adults, 49 percent of Black adults and 36 percent of Hispanic adults believe the impact will be "Much/Slightly less diverse" college campuses. Previous Gallup polls found that around 70 percent of Americans had consistently supported deciding admissions solely on merit rather than factoring in a student's race or ethnicity. |
| As promised, legislative leadership opens the door for Medicaid expansion discussions | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: After the 2023 statewide elections -- in which the fiscal plight of Mississippi's hospitals and the working poor populations many of them serve were front and center issues -- the leadership of both houses of the Mississippi Legislature has signaled that they are ready to discuss a change in the state's healthcare strategies. At the executive level, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is still opposed to Medicaid expansion and calls that path "welfare." But during the 2023 campaign as Democratic gubernatorial contender Brandon Presley pounded him in speeches and digital media ads over the state's failure to expand Medicaid, Reeves successfully put forth a Medicaid reimbursement plan that would bring state hospitals an additional estimated $689 million that the Biden Administration approved. Anyone who is particularly surprised that the state's legislative leadership is empowering discussions of some form of significant reform of Mississippi's health care policies as a means of keeping rural hospitals open and viable simply hasn't been listening. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and new House Speaker Jason White in great measure reflect the views of the majority of the legislators they represent. |
SPORTS
| Five Things To Know State-No. 8 Kentucky | |
| Mississippi State men's basketball will conclude a stretch of four consecutive NCAA NET Quad 1 games to begin SEC action as the Bulldogs travel to No. 8 Kentucky on Wednesday evening at Rupp Arena. The Bulldogs (12-4, 1-2 SEC) are one of three SEC squads (Auburn and Tennessee) and one of 26 schools nationally with at least five combined NCAA NET Quad 1/Quad 2 victories. State and Vanderbilt are the only two SEC teams slated to face 10 combined NCAA NET Quad 1/Quad 2 opponents during league action. The Bulldogs are in the midst of playing eight of their first nine SEC contests as NCAA NET Quad 1/Quad 2 opportunities. State's last win over the Wildcats was a 74-73 victory at the 2021 SEC Tournament in Nashville. Iverson Molinar led the way with 21 points followed by a Tolu Smith III double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. D.J. Stewart Jr. dished out 10 assists. Two of State's most memorable wins in program history came at Rupp Arena under Richard Williams in 1995-96. The Bulldogs defeated No. 3 Connecticut (60-55) and No. 7 Cincinnati (73-63) to punch their ticket to the 1996 NCAA Final Four. |
| Jeffries, Matthews bring chemistry, defensive intensity from Olive Branch to Starkville | |
| Before Cameron Matthews and D.J. Jeffries were sharing the floor for Mississippi State as the lead merchants of Chris Jans' physical, in-your-face defense, the pair known as "Mook" and "Slime" were dominating some of the best high school competition the Magnolia State had to offer some 120 miles to the northwest. Matthews and Jeffries play essentially the same position -- both are 6-foot-7 forwards who rebound well, play excellent defense are not especially adept as outside shooters -- but they learned to play together back at Olive Branch High School, where they led the Conquistadors to their first-ever state championship in 2018, and still enjoy that same chemistry on the court today for the Bulldogs. "We both know what we're going to get out of each other," Jeffries said. "He's like my brother. I know what I'm going to get out of him; he knows what he's going to get out of me." |
| Jessika Carter Tabbed SEC Co-Player Of The Week | |
| The Southeastern Conference announced on Tuesday that graduate student center Jessika Carter has been named SEC Co-Player of the Week. It marks the second time this season and the fourth overall in her career that Carter has been selected for the conference's top weekly award. Mississippi State has earned SEC Player of the Week honors four times this season by three different players -- Carter, graduate student guard Lauren Park-Lane and senior guard Darrione Rogers -- which is already the highest total since 2018-19. Carter averaged 22.5 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 blocks on 64.5 percent from the field in 34.5 minutes to lead Mississippi State to its first two conference wins last week. Carter totaled 45 points and 24 rebounds over the last two conference contests compared to 14 points and 18 rebounds in the first two. She was the leading scorer in both contests and turned in consecutive 20-point performances for the first time this season. Carter finished with 22 points, 19 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, the last block which came on the Razorbacks' final possession to tie or take the lead, in 32 minutes in a 66-63 road win at Arkansas on Jan. 11. The 19 rebounds for Carter surpassed her previous SEC high total; she has led the team in rebounds in three SEC contests and eight games this season. |
| Southern Miss NIL collective To The Top experiences record growth in 2023 | |
 | When Peter Boehme took over as the owner of To The Top, only eight Southern Miss athletes had signed deals with the name, image and likeness collective. Twelve months later, the number has boomed to 89 Southern Miss athletes – including the entire baseball team -- as the spring 2024 semester begins. It marks a record-setting calendar year for the collective as Southern Miss strives to be competitive in the ever-evolving NIL landscape. And now Southern Miss' largest NIL collective has its sights set on an even bigger 2024. In an interview with The Hattiesburg American, Boehme ballparked that To The Top raised $500,000 in 2023. The goal is to double that to $1 million in 2024. "We feel like we've established a good roster value so far for our players and we want to be able to grow that for our players," Boehme said. To The Top was originally founded and owned by John Miller, but he had to hand the keys over to Boehme last January when he was hired as Auburn football's associate athletic director/general manager under new coach Hugh Freeze. To The Top offers different membership levels ranging from $17 per month to $10,000 annually. They all come with different perks depending on how much the individual or business pays. One-time donations are available, too. |
| Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork leaving to become Ohio State's next athletic director | |
 | Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork will leave Aggieland to take the same position at Ohio State, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Ohio State confirmed the hire Tuesday afternoon. Bjork will take the reins from Gene Smith, who served in the role in Columbus for 18 years. Smith is set to retire at the end of June and Bjork will take over in his new role on July 1. "I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with so many outstanding student-athletes, coaches, staff and university leaders throughout my career, and Ohio State represents the culmination of these efforts," Bjork said in a statement released by Ohio State. "To be a part of Buckeye Nation, along with its storied traditions and long history of achievement, is a tremendous honor and a welcome challenge. I can't wait to get started." A committee will be formed quickly to select a new athletic director for A&M, president Mark A. Welsh III said in a statement. The Kansas native has served in his role at A&M since 2019, moving to Aggieland from Ole Miss. Prior to his time in Oxford, Bjork took his first athletic director position at Western Kentucky from 2010-12. He has served in various positions at UCLA, Miami, Missouri, Western Illinois and Tulsa. |
| Gavin Newsom spikes youth tackle football ban | |
| Gov. Gavin Newsom saved California Democrats from themselves Tuesday night by killing their proposal to ban youth tackle football just as it threatened to become a national GOP talking point about government overreach in an election year. The ban that aimed to protect young athletes from lifelong brain injuries was also rekindling the ire of parents who have protested over their rights in the liberal state -- emotional fights that had previously centered around issues like vaccine and mask mandates and school policies on transgender students. Newsom's veto announcement came just a day before a planned Fox News segment featuring the bill's main opponent, a longtime youth football coach. "I am deeply concerned about the health and safety of our young athletes, but an outright ban is not the answer," Newsom said in a statement shared first with POLITICO. "My administration will work with the Legislature and the bill's author to strengthen safety in youth football -- while ensuring parents have the freedom to decide which sports are most appropriate for their children." Newsom, who closely follows conservative media, will be campaigning around the country this year as a top surrogate for President Joe Biden's reelection. On the trail, he'd much rather promote Biden's record than fend off attacks about coastal elites messing with an American institution. |
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