| Thursday, December 11, 2025 |
| Mississippi lawmakers look at performance-based funding for universities | |
 | Some Mississippi lawmakers want to tie funding to the state's universities and colleges based on student success. In a joint universities and colleges meeting, House and Senate lawmakers evaluated the current funding formula. According to State Senator Nicole Boyd (R-District 9), the formula was set by the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) years ago. With the way it's set up, lawmakers said if the legislature gives the IHL a two-percent increase, each school would get that amount. The conversation is looking at a shift to performance-based budgeting. "Our colleagues and myself are saying it is time that we look at performance, and we're looking at and performance driven outcomes," said Boyd. The goal is to deliver better value for taxpayers. Boyd said about 30 states use this model, because it directs money to results. She said a previous funding study by the IHL never saw full implementation. "As of right now, it's not based on performance. It's also not based necessarily on student population, as well. So, universities who saw increases of students didn't see any increase in their funding formula," stated Boyd. |
| Mississippi first responders calling on lawmakers to reverse change in retirement plan | |
 | Mississippi First Responders, a group representing police officers, sheriffs, and firefighters, among others, is looking to ensure that a new retirement benefit structure created by the legislature in 2025 will not apply to those who put their lives on the line each day to serve their local communities. In the most recent legislative session, Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1 into law. While the bill's ultimate goal was to phase out the state's income tax, the legislation also modified Mississippi's public employees' retirement system (PERS), creating a new tier to improve the system's financial stability. As things stand, PERS is estimated to have an unfunded liability of roughly $26 billion. The new tier, also known as Tier 5, applies to all public employees hired after March 1, 2026, and increases service from 30 to 35 years, removes guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments, reduces the pension multiplier from 2% to 1%, and raises the retirement age from 60 to 62, among other functions, before one can draw state benefits. While on the surface, this may appear to be a proactive way to protect the retirement plans for current and future government employees, first responders are sounding the alarm that the implementation could have unintended consequences such as a mass exodus of police officers, firefighters, and others exiting government work, while their positions go unfilled due to existing struggles in attracting new talent. |
| Vape enforcement begins, removing products from shelves across Mississippi | |
 | Shelves that were once lined with vape pens and pods were nearly empty Tuesday afternoon at Exotic Smokerz in Columbus. The Mississippi Legislature in March passed House Bill 916, which added regulations on cigarette and vaping products sold in the state. Any products not included in the newly created directory by the Commissioner of Revenue are no longer allowed to be sold in stores. Businesses and producers were given 60 days after the directory was released, or until Dec. 1, to get all prohibited products off their shelves, according to the law. Robert McMillen, associate director of Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center Tobacco Control Unit, said the law aims to regulate the vaping product market, which has been largely unregulated since products were popularized in 2018. "It's a vastly unregulated market currently," McMillen said. "There are a lot of products that are on the market that are not addressed by the FDA, so they're not really supposed to be on the market, but the FDA is overwhelmed with applications for authorization of their products to be on the market." McMillen said the strength of enforcement going forward will be interesting given the lack of enforcement pursued in the seven years since vaping was popularized. |
| Mississippi leads nation in FAFSA completion, study finds | |
| A recent study has found that Mississippi ranks first in the nation in completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In a recent report by the National College Attainment Network's (NCAN) FAFSA Tracker, 73.4% of Mississippi's 2025 graduating high school seniors completed their FAFSA. This is much higher than the national average, with 61.3% of the class of 2025 completing this form nationally. "This #1 national ranking is a tremendous milestone for Mississippi," said Jim McHale, president and CEO of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation (WHEF). "It demonstrates the dedication of educators, counselors, career coaches, and mentors who work tirelessly to ensure students have the resources they need for life after high school." NCAN cites Mississippi's College & Career Readiness (CCR) course as a top reason for the number of applications completed. CCR works by equipping students with financial aid education and financial literacy, including FAFSA completion guidance. This ranking comes as Mississippi universities saw a 3% increase in enrollment from fall 2024 to fall 2025. This number could look to grow, as a study from the Mississippi State University (MSU) Social Science Research Center showed that Mississippi high school graduates who complete FAFSA are four times more likely to enroll in college. |
| Mississippi superintendent weighs in on school choice debate ahead of legislative session | |
| Mississippi's state superintendent said he supports removing restrictions that prevent students from transferring between public school districts, but maintains that private schools receiving public funding must meet the same testing requirements as public schools. Dr. Lance Evans, State Superintendent of Education, said current law allows public-to-public school transfers but requires both districts to agree to the move. "I do not think that your home district should be able to hold that child up," Evans said. Evans identified two existing school choice options in Mississippi: public-to-public transfers and education scholarship accounts for special needs students. As lawmakers prepare for the upcoming legislative session, Evans said he supports revisiting the requirements for public school transfers. "That's not a real popular statement for the state superintendent to make," Evans said. However, Evans said he opposes allowing public funding to flow to private schools without accountability measures. "If a single public dollar goes to a private school, they have to take every assessment that every student in the public school system takes," Evans said. "Now, you can be on one side of that or the other. If you disagree, I'm really not probably the person to argue that because you'll never change my opinion." |
| Fed's Fractured Vote Signals Trouble Ahead for Future Rate Cuts | |
 | Jerome Powell pushed through a rate cut Wednesday over the broadest reservations of his nearly eight-year tenure, and in doing so, implicitly delivered a pointed message to President Trump and his own successor: Cutting rates is harder than it looks. The decision drew three dissents -- two from officials who opposed any cut and one from a Trump ally who wanted a larger reduction. The formal vote understated the resistance. Four other officials registered a quieter objection in the Fed's quarterly projections: They wrote down a higher interest rate for 2025 than the one the committee approved -- a signal they wouldn't have cut. Together with the dissenters, that is roughly a third of the policymakers who attend Fed meetings. Trump immediately voiced his displeasure that the cut wasn't bigger. "I'm looking for somebody that will be honest with interest rates," he said on Wednesday ahead of his first formal interview with a candidate to succeed Powell, whose term ends in May. "Our rate should be much lower." Powell led his colleagues to cut at the past three meetings, including the one this week, based on two main considerations. First, he judged that inflation wasn't proving to be as big a worry as many feared when Trump announced large tariff increases this past spring. Second, while officials have expected job growth to cool gradually this year, that process has been "a touch" cooler than expected recently, he said Wednesday. |
| House votes overwhelmingly to pass compromise NDAA | |
 | The House cast a strong, mostly bipartisan vote Wednesday to pass the bicameral compromise version of the fiscal 2026 NDAA. The $900.6 billion defense authorization bill's 312-112 vote was due mostly to robust support from the GOP majority. Republicans backed the bill 197-18, while Democrats voted for it by the much narrower tally of 115-94. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said at a Tuesday Rules Committee meeting and again on the floor ahead of the passage vote Wednesday that the NDAA has a little something for almost everyone in Congress to both love and hate but that, on balance, it is a strong positive for U.S. national security. Smith has said that he agreed to include provisions he opposes and exclude others he supports in the interest of advancing the bill for U.S. troops. Smith said, however, that the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has failed to do as Congress has asked or required in previous laws -- with the implication that a new NDAA might also not be sufficiently heeded. Now the NDAA moves to the Senate, which plans to vote on clearing the bill for President Donald Trump's signature by year's end. The White House, in a statement of administration policy issued Tuesday, said Trump intends to sign it. |
| GOP lawmakers unhappy with Trump's affordability message: 'You can't call it a hoax' | |
 | Senate Republicans, unsettled by recent Democratic victories in the off-year elections, want President Trump to do more to respond to the issue of "affordability," a buzzword Trump recently dismissed as a Democratic "con job" despite polls showing voters view higher costs as a major issue. Republican lawmakers say they're glad Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to tout his economic record, but they warn that the White House needs to do more to show voters it is working hard to ease the financial burdens felt by millions of Americans struggling to cope with rising costs. "You can't call it a hoax and suggest that people are going to believe it," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said of Trump's attempts to dispute evidence that affordability has become a major concern for millions of Americans. "What you say matters." Trump has seemed out of touch at times with voters' concerns over the economy, a dynamic that plagued his predecessor, former President Biden. A senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss Trump's handling of the affordability issue said the president needs to understand that his party faces a major political problem. "I think Republicans need to have a message about caring for people who are struggling because of the high cost of things. I see it at home. ... The cost of things is a problem," the senator said. |
| Trump's handling of the economy is at its lowest point in AP-NORC polling | |
 | President Donald Trump's approval on the economy and immigration have fallen substantially since March, according to a new AP-NORC poll, the latest indication that two signature issues that got him elected barely a year ago could be turning into liabilities as his party begins to gear up for the 2026 midterms. Only 31% of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling the economy, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds. That is down from 40% in March and marks the lowest economic approval he's registered in an AP-NORC poll in his first or second term. The Republican president also has struggled to recover from public blowback on other issues, such as his management of the federal government, and has not seen an approval bump even after congressional Democrats effectively capitulated to end a record-long government shutdown last month. Perhaps most worryingly for Trump, who's become increasingly synonymous with his party, he's slipped on issues that were major strengths. Just a few months ago, 53% of Americans approved of Trump's handling of crime, but that's fallen to 43% in the new poll. There's been a similar decline on immigration, from 49% approval in March to 38% now. |
| Trump still hasn't endorsed a plan to avoid impending Obamacare hikes for millions | |
 | President Donald Trump has not endorsed a plan to prevent Obamacare rates from spiking in three weeks, leaving Republicans without a clear path ahead of a key vote. On Thursday the Senate is expected to vote down the only GOP plan on the table, an effort by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Trump hasn't waded into the fray, instead talking broadly about his preferences without publicly supporting a specific plan. Absent a deal, Obamacare subsidies will spike for millions of Americans in less than a month. White House policy teams are "looking at a lot of different avenues" and doing their own "analysis," said one White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. There is no single White House-preferred plan emanating from Capitol Hill, where various options are circulating, and the White House is in touch with many offices. "We're doing our own analysis right now, and I think we need to get that figured out before we come out publicly," the White House official said. That has left Republicans on Capitol Hill without detailed direction from Trump and a very small legislative window to act, creating a chaotic scramble to coalesce around a solution. It also poses a politically potent problem for Republicans in the runup to midterms, where pocketbook issues are already top of mind. |
| U.S. Steps Up Campaign Against Maduro in Seizing Tanker Off Venezuela | |
 | The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, a dramatic escalation in President Trump's pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela. Speaking at the White House before an event on a new luxury visa program, Mr. Trump announced the operation and said it was "a large tanker, very large," adding, without elaboration, that "other things are happening." When asked about the ship's oil, Mr. Trump said, "Well, we keep it, I guess." He declined to say who owned the tanker. "It was seized for a very good reason," he added. Three U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a law enforcement operation, said the ship was carrying Venezuelan oil. They said there was no resistance from the crew and no casualties. The operation was the latest tactic in an expanding effort to squeeze Venezuela and pressure Mr. Maduro. The Trump administration has accused him of running a "narcoterrorist" cartel sending drugs to the United States, although many current and former officials in Washington say the campaign is ultimately aimed at regime change. |
| AI Hackers Are Coming Dangerously Close to Beating Humans | |
| After years of misfires, artificial-intelligence hacking tools have become dangerously good. So good that they are even surpassing some human hackers, according to a novel experiment conducted recently at Stanford University. A Stanford team spent a good chunk of the past year tinkering with an AI bot called Artemis. It takes a similar approach to Chinese hackers who had been using Anthropic's generative AI software to break into major corporations and foreign governments. Artemis scans the network, finds potential bugs -- software vulnerabilities -- and then finds ways to exploit them. Then the Stanford researchers let Artemis out of the lab, using it to find bugs in a real-world computer network -- the one used by Stanford's own engineering department. And to make things interesting, they pitted Artemis against real-world professional hackers, known as penetration testers. Their experiment is outlined in a paper that was published Wednesday. "This was the year that models got good enough," said Rob Ragan, a researcher with the cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox. His company used large language models, or LLMs, to build a set of tools that can find bugs at a much faster and cheaper rate than humans during penetration tests, letting them test far more software than ever before, he said. |
| U. of Mississippi Chancellor responds to Lauren Stokes' First Amendment lawsuit, seeks dismissal | |
| On Wednesday, University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce, who was sued in his official and personal capacities, responded to Lauren Stokes' First Amendment violation claims. Stokes filed suit against Boyce after she was dismissed from University employment for resharing a social media post that compared slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk to a white supremacists and reimagined member of the KKK. The same post expressed a lack of remorse over his death. Boyce is seeking dismissal of the case at the "pleading stage," a remedy available when a lawsuit, taken with every inference available in the plaintiff's favor, still fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. It is a high and hard standard to reach, legally speaking. In these type of First Amendment cases, which turn on a balancing test between a government employee's right to speak on matters of public concern versus a government employer's right to efficiency in its operation, it is rare, but not impossible, for dismissals to occur this early. |
| USM receives $2M gift to name Criminal Justice Building | |
| The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) announced a $2 million gift through the USM Foundation from alumnus Paul H. "Bud" Holmes, whose generosity will name the newly renovated Criminal Justice Building. Currently undergoing a $16.6 million renovation, the facility will soon serve as the new home of the School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Security. Holmes' $2 million gift will assist with the completion and furnishing of the newly renovated facility. The remaining funds will provide lasting support through an endowment that will bolster resources for the School in perpetuity. "We are deeply grateful for Mr. Holmes' generosity and are honored that he has chosen to enhance the campus in this way," said Stace Mercier, executive director of the USM Foundation. "Our students will benefit not only from the beautifully renovated space outfitted with modern equipment, but the ongoing support of the program will also impact generations to come." |
| LSU breaks ground on $200M freshman dorm as growing enrollment puts pressure on housing | |
 | LSU broke ground on the new South Quad freshman dorm Wednesday, keeping the project on track to welcome students in fall 2027. The $200 million project will add 1,266 beds between two residence halls, located across from the Business Education Complex on South Quad Drive. They will house students in the College of Engineering and the E.J. Ourso College of Business. The additional residential space is long anticipated as LSU struggles to meet housing and parking demand due to an increasing number of students. Last fall, enrollment increased by around 4% at the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, system President Wade Rousse said at the groundbreaking ceremony. South Quad is part of the multiyear public-private partnership strategy to increase residential capacity across campus. The university is partnering with RISE Real Estate and The Lemoine Co. on delivering the South Quad project. Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Residential Life, said LSU wanted to emphasize "living and learning here on campus." |
| This Arkansas City Shows How to Slash Emissions and Save Money, Too | |
| Fayetteville, Ark., has proudly worn colorful descriptors over the years. Crunchy. Funky. "Kind of a granola, hippie environment," said Jeff Pummill, who chairs the city's environmental action committee. Set in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of the state, a region of lush, rolling hills crisscrossed by rivers and creeks, Fayetteville drew back-to-the-land enthusiasts in the 1960s. It's a city where, 25 years ago, a 53-year-old grandmother tried unsuccessfully to stop mature oaks from being razed for a retail development by taking up residence in a tree for a few weeks. The city's tree-hugger ethos has endured as Arkansas has moved further to the right. "We're definitely a blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup, that's for sure," said Peter Nierengarten, the city's environmental director. It has also underpinned Fayetteville's clean energy and sustainability projects, which have helped the city save money, slash emissions and weather storms. Last year, Fayetteville adopted an ambitious climate plan that won special recognition for including nature-based solutions such as protecting wetlands and forests. It also pledged to improve natural habitats to mitigate flooding and reduce what's known as the "heat island effect," where cities are warmer than surrounding countryside because of the way pavement and buildings absorb heat. |
| U. of Oklahoma professor weighs in on rising ChatGPT, AI use among students | |
| Generative artificial intelligence, like the large language model ChatGPT, has become increasingly popular among college students despite environmental impact and academic and ethical concerns. According to OpenAI, usage is especially high among college students with more than one-third of users ages 18-24 using the chatbot. Around one-fourth of their questions relate to learning, tutoring or schoolwork. Paul Feller-Simmons, an assistant professor in musicology at the University of Oklahoma, regularly utilizes AI to support his research. "I use it for many things, including brainstorming, cleaning text I work with," Feller-Simmons said. "I'm mainly a researcher, and I work with very old documents. It's a very mechanical thing, working from the documents to the digital stage, so I often use it to correct basic things like grammatical errors or help me with punctuation." Still, using ChatGPT has limitations, especially with accuracy. "The main issues, I think, come mostly to sycophancy, meaning that ChatGPT is trained to give you what it thinks," Feller-Simmons said. "Thinking in a loose way, but to give you what it thinks you want." |
| Employers Confident in How Higher Ed Is Preparing Students | |
 | While fewer than half of Americans have confidence in higher education, new data shows that 85 percent of employers believe colleges and universities are adequately preparing students for the workforce. And they especially value degrees from institutions that emphasize constructive dialogue and disagreement. Those are two of the big takeaways from "The Agility Imperative: How Employers View Preparation for an Uncertain Future," a new report the American Association of Colleges and Universities published Thursday. In the ninth iteration of the report since 2006, the group commissioned Morning Consult to survey 1,030 executives and hiring managers in August about their attitudes toward higher education. "This is our strongest case yet that the separation between workforce and civic skills is false," said Ashley Finley, author of the report and vice president for research at AAC&U. "In the face of a public narrative that questions the value of college education, employers are higher education's biggest fans. They value the ways in which colleges are preparing students to be nimble and agile for an uncertain future." |
| Without affirmative action, elite colleges are prioritizing economic diversity in admissions | |
| Some of the country's most prestigious colleges are enrolling record numbers of low-income students -- a growing admissions priority in the absence of affirmative action. America's top campuses remain crowded with wealth, but some universities have accelerated efforts to reach a wider swath of the country, recruiting more in urban and rural areas and offering free tuition for students whose families are not among the highest earners. The strategy could lead to friction with the federal government. The Trump administration, which has pulled funding from elite colleges over a range of grievances, has suggested it's illegal to target needier students. College leaders believe they're on solid legal ground. At Princeton University, this year's freshman class has more low-income students than ever. One in four are eligible for federal Pell grants, which are scholarships reserved for students with the most significant financial need. That's a leap from two decades ago, when fewer than 1 in 10 were eligible. "The only way to increase socioeconomic diversity is to be intentional about it," Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement. "Socioeconomic diversity will increase if and only if college presidents make it a priority." |
| Higher Education Plans for a Future Markedly Changed by A.I. | |
| It is a tough time to be a college president. Campus leaders are grappling with declining public trust in the value of a college degree, a society-changing technology in artificial intelligence and, for many, unprecedented attacks by the federal government. "It's clearly a very challenging moment in higher education," said Ron Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Daniels was one of seven presidents and chancellors gathered at last week's DealBook Summit task force on higher education. Much of the public attention on colleges and universities focuses on high-profile news such as political protests, Congressional hearings and the Trump administration's withholding of federal research money. But higher education leaders on the panel, while also speaking about those very real issues, acknowledged that for many students, there is a more immediate concern: Will my (often very expensive) college degree land me a job? |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs juggle staff and personnel changes with unexpected bowl opportunity | |
| Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby had a much bigger smile than expected on Wednesday, especially for someone who doesn't like mayonnaise. His Bulldogs began preparation this week for a matchup with Wake Forest on Jan. 2, 2026, in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, a postseason game that has become infamous for the cooler full of the condiment that gets dumped onto the winning team's head coach after the final whistle. "I do not," Lebby said when asked if he likes mayo, "but I've never been more excited about having the opportunity to get it dumped on me." The Bulldogs were not expecting to be selected for a bowl game, even in the case that some 5-7 teams qualified, so the call on Sunday was a surprise for Lebby. The second-year head coach had set bowl eligibility as one of his team's goals for the 2025 campaign, and welcomed the opportunity to give his team another runout despite one problem; he was in the process of a pretty drastic personnel shakeup. Lebby had already dismissed defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Coleman Hutzler and replaced him with former MSU head coach Zach Arnett on Sunday morning. Arnett, who is staying in Starkville to begin the transition back as the head of the defense, has already begun work at the Leo Seal Complex, but will not call the defense for the Mayo Bowl. |
| Why Mississippi State accepted Duke's Mayo Bowl invite vs Wake Forest | |
 | Jeff Lebby woke up just like every other Mississippi State football fan on Dec. 7. The second-year coach wasn't expecting his team to be in a bowl game when the selections were announced later in the day. Dominoes began to fall when Kansas State and Iowa State declined bowl invitations. That opened the door for the Bulldogs (5-7), who accepted an invitation to the Duke's Mayo Bowl despite not clinching bowl eligibility. They'll play Wake Forest (8-4) on Jan. 2 (7 p.m. CT, ESPN) in Charlotte, North Carolina. "We definitely didn't think we'd be playing in a bowl game on Sunday morning," Lebby said on Dec. 10. "Then we get a phone call, I guess mid-morning, to talk to us about the possibility of it, and making sure we were in great alignment on what we wanted to be able to go do." While Lebby called it a "no-brainer" for MSU, it wasn't for everyone. According to On3's Brett McMurphy, seven 5-7 teams declined bowl invitations: Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Kansas, Rutgers and Temple. Mississippi State, which is playing in its first bowl game since the 2022 season, saw it as an opportunity. The bowl doesn't just come with an additional game, but also three weeks of additional practices besides a three-day break for Christmas. |
| Jones, Smith and Thompson reel in postseason honors | |
| Mississippi State football is preparing to go bowling this December, but three standout players were honored for their regular-season performances this week. The Bulldogs finished the season with a 5-7 record, going 1-7 through SEC play, but still featured some of the brightest talents in the conference at skill positions on both sides of the ball. Wide receiver Brenen Thompson and cornerback Kelley Jones were both named to the 2025 Coaches' All-SEC Third Team this week, making it the second consecutive year with a player making the team at both positions. Last, but not least, is Isaac Smith, who earned Third Team All-American honors from Pro Football & Sports Network on Wednesday. The Fulton, Miss. native started nine games this season, playing as a hybrid safety/linebacker at the heart of the MSU defense. He battled his way back from injury late in the season to play in the Egg Bowl, and finished the year with 64 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack, one interception and three pass breakups. |
| Fired Michigan coach Moore in custody, suspect in alleged assault | |
| Sherrone Moore was in custody in the Washtenaw (Michigan) County Jail on Wednesday night as a suspect in an alleged assault, just hours after he was fired as Michigan's football coach for having what the school said was an "inappropriate relationship with a staff member." Moore was initially detained by police in Saline, Michigan, on Wednesday and turned over to authorities in Pittsfield Township "for investigation into potential charges." Pittsfield police released a statement Wednesday night saying they responded at 4:10 p.m. to the 3000 block of Ann Arbor Saline Road "for the purposes of investigating an alleged assault. ... A suspect in this case was taken into custody. This incident does not appear to be random in nature, and there appears to be no ongoing threat to the community. Michigan fired Moore on Wednesday following an investigation into his conduct with a staff member. "U-M head football coach Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately," the school said in a statement. "Following a University investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member." |
| After Notre Dame's exclusion and ensuing drama, does College Football Playoff need expansion? 'Absolutely' | |
| Jim Phillips didn't hesitate in his answer to the question. Should this year's College Football Playoff selections trigger expansion to the postseason field? "Absolutely," the ACC commissioner said Wednesday morning from the Sports Business Journal's annual college athletics forum at the Aria Casino. "If you're leaving teams out of the playoff that could win a national championship, then you don't have the right number." About 24 hours prior to Phillips' comments, somewhere within a conference room at the nearby Bellagio Casino, three of the power conference commissioners -- Phillips, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and the SEC's Greg Sankey -- gathered in person, with a fourth joining virtually (Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti), to discuss exactly that: expanding the playoff field. College leaders didn't arrive at any formal decision, but out of the gathering came a clear direction and more momentum toward expanding the field from 12 to 16 teams -- perhaps sooner rather than later. The commissioners are expected to meet again soon and, at some point, present a model or models to the full playoff governing board, the CFP Management Committee, made up of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director. If expansion is to happen by next season, they must make a decision by Jan. 23, a deadline set by ESPN that's been moved from an original date of Dec. 1. |
| YouTube TV Creates Lower-Priced, Sports-Focused Subscription Option | |
| YouTube TV will introduce a sports-focused subscription package early next year, the company announced Wednesday, after signing new carriage agreements with top channel operators. The last of those deals came after a protracted standoff with Disney that saw ESPN's channels go dark on the platform for two weeks in November. The YouTube TV Sports Plan will include broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC), ESPN's networks, FS1, NBC Sports Network, TNT and USA. Regional sports networks were not mentioned in a blog post unveiling the product. A full channel list and price point remain unannounced. Other sports-focused cable-alternatives operated by DirecTV and Fubo with their own sets of included channels range from $56 to $70 per month (not accounting for discount offers). Direct-to-consumer services, such as ESPN's $30/month product and $20/month Fox One, give fans the option of cobbling together their own streaming combinations as well. YouTube says it will release more than 10 genre-specific packages in total, such as news and family-centered channel bundles. The offerings are intended to give customers a lower-priced entry point and more optionality. |
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