Archive

2023

Browsing

For 82 minutes, the U.S. men’s national team was frustrated against a shorthanded, but resolute Trinidad and Tobago side on Thursday night in Austin.

But in the space of just eight head-spinning minutes, the USMNT finally made its man advantage count, scoring three times in the blink of an eye to earn a 3-0 win in the first leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal.

The prospect of a nerve-racking trip to Port of Spain for Monday’s second leg loomed large throughout most of a frustrating evening for Gregg Berhalter’s side, which played up a man after a 38th-minute red card for T&T. 

But the U.S. will now travel to the Caribbean with a comfortable, if not completely unassailable advantage, after late goals from Ricardo Pepi, Antonee Robinson and Gio Reyna at Q2 Stadium.

The USMNT controlled the first half but was unable to make its huge possession advantage count for much, as the visitors frustrated a home side that looked bereft of inspiration without the injured Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah.

But the U.S. got a true gift with 10 minutes remaining in the first half when Noah Powder, already on a yellow card, made an ill-advised challenge from behind on Weston McKennie to pick up a second booking.

Still, the U.S. struggled to trouble the T&T back line, managing zero shots on goal in a first half that saw it have 75 percent possession.

The second half saw the U.S. push harder to solve the 10-man visitors, finally getting a few shots on target after the break. Yunus Musah had perhaps the best chance with a screamer from distance that Denzil Smith did well to palm away.

The USMNT’s frustrations grew when referee Oshane Nation awarded it a penalty, only to take it away after a VAR review.

Just when it looked like Berhalter’s men may not find a way through, the dam broke.

Pepi finished off a Robinson cross with a stylish flick to open the scoring, before Robinson doubled the advantage four minutes later with a deflected strike from distance.

Reyna completed the scoring after a neat layoff from Folarin Balogun, giving the U.S. some breathing room heading into Monday night.

The job isn’t completely done, but the U.S. will now feel much better about its chances of reaching the Nations League semifinal — and earning the berth at the 2024 Copa América that comes along with it.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

The Hudson County Democratic Organization, a left-wing campaign group for New Jersey politicians that Sen. Bob Menendez once chaired, endorsed state governor first lady Tammy Murphy on Wednesday.

‘From her strong record of advocating for progressive policy initiatives like protecting women and children’s health, to her incredible success raising millions of dollars for families in desperate need during the pandemic, to her business background and her long political record as a renowned Democratic fundraiser, it’s clear that Tammy Murphy is a uniquely qualified candidate for the U.S. Senate,’ said Anthony Vainieri, the organization’s chairperson, in a statement.

‘The Hudson County Democratic Organization is honored to give Tammy Murphy our full, unequivocal support,’ he wrote. ‘We look forward to working closely with Tammy and her team to reintroduce her to Hudson County voters and help her become the first woman to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.’

Murphy announced earlier Wednesday that she is running for the Senate seat currently occupied by Menendez.

The county’s endorsement is a blow to the disgraced senator who is facing federal bribery charges. He has also been an officeholder in the Democrat organization for the last 40 years.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy previously called for Menendez’s resignation. 

‘The Hudson County Democratic Organization’s decision today to endorse Tammy Murphy only proves why Phil Murphy rushed to call for my resignation,’ Menendez said in a statement, the New Jersey Globe first reported. ‘It was a politically motivated power move in an effort to hand his wife a Senate seat. To those who’ve caved into the political pressure, the people of New Jersey deserve better than an out of touch, life-long Republican (sic) millionaire who will never understand their lived experiences or fight for their communities if she is elected.’

Menendez is facing federal charges of acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to benefit the Egyptian government through his ‘power and influence as a Senator,’ according to the superseding indictment filed by a grand jury in Manhattan last month.

Menendez previously beat separate indictment charges in 2017.

Menendez, along with his wife, Nadine, and three other New Jersey businessmen – Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes – were first charged in the federal bribery scheme on Sept. 23.

‘Among other actions, MENENDEZ provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt,’ the indictment states.

‘It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, and others known and unknown, being a public official, directly and indirectly, would and did corruptly demand, seek, receive, accept, and agree to receive and accept something of value personally and for another person and entity, in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act and for being induced to do an act and omit to do an act in violation of his official duty,’ the indictment reads.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Menendez for comment.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Disney on Tuesday released a study showing its economic impact in Florida at $40.3 billion as it battles Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees over their takeover of the district that governs the entertainment company’s massive theme park resort in central Florida.

Disney accounted for 263,000 jobs in Florida, more than three times the actual workforce at Walt Disney World, according to the study conducted by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Disney, covering fiscal year 2022. Besides direct employment and spending, the study attributed the company’s multibillion-dollar impact to indirect influences, such as supply chain and employees’ spending.

The jobs include Disney employees as well as jobs supported by visitor spending off Disney World property. Disney employs 82,000 workers in Florida, not only at Disney World outside Orlando, but also Disney Cruise Line in Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, as well as a resort in Vero Beach.

In central Florida, Disney directly accounts for 1 in 8 jobs, and for every direct job, another 1.7 jobs are supported across Florida, Oxford Economics said.

The time period in the study is before the takeover earlier this year of Disney World’s governing district by DeSantis and his appointees after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Disney officials in the past year have said the company plans to invest an additional $17 billion over the next decade in central Florida, including potentially adding another 13,000 jobs. However, the company has shown a willingness to pull back investing in the Sunshine State.

Earlier this year, Disney scrapped plans to relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development, an investment estimated at $1 billion.

Disney World already has four theme parks, more than 25 hotels, two water parks and a shopping and dining district on 25,000 acres (10,117 hectares).

Disney is battling DeSantis and his appointees in federal and state courts over the takeover of what was formally called the Reedy Creek Improvement District but was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District after DeSantis appointees gained control. The district was created by the Florida Legislature in 1967 to handle municipal services like firefighting, road repairs and waste hauling, and it was controlled by Disney supporters until earlier this year.

Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company. The new DeSantis appointees said the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court in Orlando to have the contracts voided. Disney has filed counterclaims, which include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable.

Disney also has sued DeSantis, a state agency and DeSantis appointees on the district’s board in federal court in Tallahassee, saying the company’s free speech rights were violated when the governor and Republican lawmakers targeted it for expressing opposition to the law dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics.

In an earnings report last week, Disney noted that while its theme parks worldwide had a year-to-year increase in operating income, it had decreased at the Florida theme park resort due to costs related to the closure of its immersive Star Wars-themed two-night experience and lower visitor spending from a decrease in hotel rates.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

With Black Friday only about a week away, there are signs consumers aren’t in a jolly, high-spending mood.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales by U.S. retailers were 0.1% lower in October than in September. The agency said department store sales fell 1% and clothing sales were unchanged from the previous month.

That total excludes sales at gas stations and auto parts retailers.

A survey from the National Retail Federation and CNBC, also released Wednesday, showed similar results, with sales unchanged from September to October.

The lack of improvement might be a sign shoppers are going to pinch their pennies over the holidays this year. Ted Rossman, an analyst who covers topics including personal finance for Bankrate, said the report is an ‘ominous’ sign for November and December.

‘Nonstore retailers, basically a proxy for e-commerce shops, only expanded their sales 0.2% from September to October. That’s surprising given all of the early holiday promotions,’ Rossman wrote, noting that Target, Amazon and Walmart all had major promotions. ‘Consumer sentiment remains depressed and retailers have to be getting nervous about the all-important holiday period.’

Consumers are indeed feeling more pressure lately, and that might leave them reluctant to spend.

Interest rates on credit cards are at longtime highs. People are carrying bigger balances on their cards than they had previously. Student loan payments just resumed after a long pause. And while the pace of inflation has slowed, prices are still notably higher than they were a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the job market isn’t quite as strong as it has been, although unemployment is very low. And more than three years after the last round of pandemic stimulus, people have spent most of what they’d saved up.

All of that is leaving consumers feeling gloomy. The University of Michigan says consumer sentiment has fallen for four months in a row, although it remains better than it was a year ago. The school found that people with lower incomes were most concerned.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index shows that almost 70% of respondents expect a recession in the next 12 months.

Not everyone thinks retailers are going to get the equivalent of a lump of coal. Chris Zaccarelli, the chief investment officer for the Independent Advisor Alliance, said Wednesday’s retail sales data was a bit better than Wall Street experts had expected.

‘Given expectations that retail sales would contract month-over-month, instead we saw slight gains in the data. In addition, the prior month’s data was revised higher as well, showing that this month wasn’t a statistical fluke,’ Zaccarelli wrote.

A group of Wells Fargo economists, including senior economist Tim Quinlan, economist Shannon Seery and economic analyst Jeremiah Kohl, wrote in October that sales will grow 5% compared to last year. That sounds pretty good, and is above a longer-term average, but they acknowledged that it might feel a bit sluggish to retailers because growth over the previous couple of years was unusually strong.

‘Purchasing power is fading and competition for consumer wallets is rising. Both of these factors have contributed to lower sales momentum and will likely remain a headwind to overall purchases this holiday season,’ they said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Halloween is done, scary season is ending, and the horrors of the housing market are getting more gentle — if only a little bit.

Mortgage rates are coming down slightly after a dramatic rise. The government-backed mortgage company Fannie Mae says the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was down to 6.73% on Thursday. It peaked at more than 8% in mid-October.

Since rates have come down, demand for mortgages is starting to tick higher. It’s a modest increase, as the Mortgage Bankers Association says demand in early November was 12% lower than the same time in 2022.

Borrowing costs for mortgages are at two-decade highs, but prices have continued to rise because so few houses are on the market. That’s put home ownership out of reach for large numbers of people.

The situation has changed because investors are becoming convinced that the Federal Reserve might really be done raising rates. It has raised its benchmark interest rate from near-zero in early 2022 to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% by July, and mortgage rates, along with interest rates on auto loans, credit cards and other financial products, moved higher in tandem.

The gap between typical interest rates and mortgage rates also got unusually large.

While the Fed hasn’t raised interest rates in more than three months, mortgage rates had continued to rise because investors thought the central bank was likely to keep raising them in the future.

But there are signs inflation is continuing to fade, and that the Fed might be satisfied with the progress it’s made in getting price gains under control. That’s let mortgage rates stabilize and start to come down

However, over the longer term, lower mortgage rates might not make houses more affordable, as home prices tend to rise when mortgage rates go down precisely because buyers have an easier time borrowing money.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Union members at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors have ratified a new 4½-year contract, locking in at 11% pay increases secured after a six-week strike in September and October.

The United Auto Workers said that roughly 67% of Ford employees represented by the UAW voted in favor of the contract, which will last through April 30, 2028.

Voting officially ends Friday, but with around 57,000 union employees at Ford, the contract appeared headed toward easy ratification.

The contracts were negotiated after members of the UAW went on strike from Sept. 15 until late October.

Union members will get a total pay increase of 25% over the course of the deal. The new contracts also reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, let workers reach top wages in three years instead of eight and protect their right to strike over plant closures.

Both the UAW and the carmakers described the deals as “record” contracts based on those pay increases. The union also said members were regaining some of the benefits they agreed to give up after the Great Recession to help keep the automakers alive.

Workers at GM approved the contract, but they did so by a much narrower margin than Ford’s employees did, with about 55% of workers voting yes.

While UAW President Shawn Fain has called the contacts a victory for workers, he has also said they are part of a larger plan to win back more benefits over the long haul.

According to the UAW’s ratification vote tracker, Stellantis employees were on pace to approve the deal at margins similar to Ford workers. With 17,391 votes tallied as of Thursday evening ET, about 66% of ballots had been cast in favor of accepting the contract.

While the general terms of the contracts are similar, workers at Detroit’s Big Three automakers are voting to accept or reject them independently.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Well, isn’t that too bad about Deshaun Watson. And by too bad, I mean a giant dose of much-deserved karma for both Watson and the Cleveland Browns.

Before you come after me for reveling in someone else’s misfortune, let’s remember that Watson is an unrepentant sexual predator, having settled lawsuits with more than 20 women who detailed unwanted touching and/or sexual harassment by the quarterback. Despite this, the Browns gave him a $230 million contract that was fully guaranteed, the most guaranteed money ever for an NFL player, and then defended the move by saying what Watson had done wasn’t that bad and the women weren’t worthy of sympathy, anyway.

So spare me any outrage at not feeling bad for Watson or the Browns following Wednesday’s news that the quarterback will miss the rest of the season with a fracture in his throwing shoulder. His career isn’t over and he’ll still get paid, and the Browns will lose like they always do — though at least this time they’ll have an excuse.

The women Watson harassed and abused, however, had their lives combed through and their motives and characters questioned. The pain of that will be with them forever, as will the anger and frustration that Watson was able to go merrily on his way without any real repercussions.

And no, an 11-game suspension doesn’t count when you’re still getting your fat paychecks and no one requires you to make amends for your abysmal behavior.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

“We’re devastated, we’re disappointed for Deshaun,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said Wednesday.

Actually, some of us have been waiting two-plus years for the universe to exact its payback on Watson and the Browns.

Watson’s misdeeds weren’t minor, regardless of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s attempts to portray them that way. He wasn’t caught speeding. He didn’t break team curfew. He didn’t get into a fight at a bar. He sexually violated women. Dozens of them.

According to the complaints against him, Watson exposed himself during massages and touched therapists with his genitals. He threatened at least one of the women, suggesting he could ruin her career if she told anyone.

While it’s true two grand juries declined to indict Watson — do some research on the difficulty in bringing charges in sexual-abuse cases before you think that clears him — a police detective said in a deposition in one of the civil cases that she believed his behavior was criminal. The NFL’s independent disciplinary officer, a former U.S. district judge, determined Watson had a “sexual purpose” for the appointments.

“He insisted on using a towel, increasing the probability of exposure. He insisted on having the therapists focus on areas of his body that not uncommonly triggered erections. And he engaged in this pattern of conduct multiple times,” Robinson wrote.

“I find this sufficient circumstantial evidence to support the NFL’s contention not only that contact occurred, but that Mr. Watson was aware that contact probably would occur, and that Mr. Watson had a sexual purpose — not just a therapeutic purpose — in making these arrangements with these particular therapists.”

Had Watson not been Watson, an elite NFL quarterback capable of leading a team to the playoffs, a damning finding like that probably would have cost him his job. Maybe even his freedom. Certainly his reputation.

Instead, the Browns rewarded him with a historic contract and, after an NFL-imposed timeout that didn’t even last three-quarters of a season, he returned as if nothing had happened.

“I’ve always been able to stand on my innocence and always said I never assaulted or disrespected anyone,” Watson said, defiantly, in August 2022. “But at the same point I have to continue to push forward with my life and career.” 

Watson is not the first athlete to do wrong. Michael Vick spent 21 months in federal prison for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring. Ray Rice lost his career after punching his then-fiancée out in an elevator.

The difference is Vick and Rice recognized what they had done was wrong. They apologized and have spent the time since trying to make up for it. Watson has learned nothing. He hasn’t tried to make amends because he doesn’t see a need to. These women were disposable to him. Their only value was to give him pleasure and sexual gratification, and he did not care that he did not have their consent and was doing them harm.

And Watson thought he got away with it. Until his season ended because of an injury suffered during his best game in a Browns uniform.

Karma, as the old saying goes, remains undefeated, and Watson earned every bit that he got.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — For son Charlie, Tiger Woods has played caddy. He’s gotten to play teammate. On Wednesday, at his 14-year-old’s first high school state golf tournament, Woods simply played dad.

Despite conflicting reports from Golf Monthly and SBNation’s Playing Through that he was on the bag − which would’ve been prohibited by FHSAA tournament rules − Tiger, donning an all-black getup, was waiting in the wings as Charlie celebrated his first state championship with his teammates at The Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

It was about as incognito as you could get being Tiger Woods on a golf course.

The green squished and sloshed under excited spikes after Benjamin sophomore Jake Valentine, the squad’s low-scorer with a total of 148 (72-76), left the 18th with a winning, one-stroke lead for the Bucs following his momentum-shifting birdie on No. 17. Valentine and Woods’ final scorecards were separated by six strokes, but the roster of competition in Class 1A, stacked per usual, saw Valentine tie for 8th and Woods for 26th.

Turning in his best round of 76 on Day 2 at Mission Inn Resort and Club, Charlie helped The Benjamin School stay just low enough to make the trip back to Palm Beach Gardens with the program’s fourth state title in tow.

Buccaneer teammates freshman Brooks Colton (149), junior Pavel Tsar (152), and senior Tyler Bruneau (156), a University of Rhode Island commit, tied for 12th, 19th, and 34th, respectively.

Tiger, the 15-time major winner on the PGA Tour, stood legs crossed and leaning on his umbrella, as if he were waiting for his own turn to sink a putt and deliver a classic fist pump.

That’s what Charlie was there for.

Tiger already had his turn to run the varsity fairways when he was a student at Western High School in Anaheim, California, after all.

‘You mean Tiger Woods played on a high school golf team, too?’

‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What is wrong with this picture? This isn’t the Junior Worlds. This isn’t the Junior Nationals. It’s not a PGA event.’

That was an ESPN broadcaster’s introduction of a 17-year-old Tiger as he walked alongside three other players during a high school golf match in a feature back in 1993.

He’d already won the World Junior title six times and the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship the last two years, carrying the title of the ‘world’s best junior golfer.’

The broadcaster continued.

‘This is a high school event? You mean Tiger Woods plays on a high school golf team, too?’

Touting an above-average swing speed of upwards of 117 miles per hour with a drive that averaged between 260 to 270 yards, Charlie had already outdriven dad − ‘by a yard’ in Tiger’s words − in December 2022. As of Wednesday, Charlie can thank the California Interscholastic Federation’s decision to not host a statewide championship for his latest bragging rights.

California was divided into Southern and Northern halves by the CIF when Tiger was coming up in the ranks. Therefore, his highest win in high school was the CIF SoCal Region, which he won as a freshman in 1991. In four years as a Western Pioneer, Tiger was the CIF’s Southern Section individual champ in 1991, 1993, and 1994, earning the Orange County League’s Most Valuable Player award each season.

Thirty years later, the same questions that once surrounded a growing Tiger could be asked for Charlie, who grew up under the microscope of a golf scene waiting to see if he would carry on the legacy of his father who spent much of his own youth in the public eye.

Tiger’s response then appears to be something he’s instilling in Charlie now.

‘It’s normal. I’m a normal teenager. It’s just that I do one thing a little better than the average teenager. And that’s play golf,’ Tiger said.

One of Tiger’s former teammates chimed in: ‘If it were me, I’d be all cocky and everything. But he’s always just real mellow about it.’

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Charlie Woods plays on a high school golf team, too.

‘C-Dub’ keeps it cool

A young man of mellow himself, Charlie makes being followed by groups in sizes you’d expect only at professional tournaments look easy.

Having the attention of the world and playing with Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm hasn’t deterred the youngster from cheering in the stands at high school football games. Or going through the same four-day qualifier everyone else has to compete in to make Benjamin’s golf team. Or getting a cool nickname like ‘C-Dub’ that transcends the hallways to the course.

School was a chance for his dad to escape. Pictured at work behind a desk in that 1993 clip, Tiger, then a high school junior, likened the classroom to his ‘sanctuary.’

Somewhere ‘away from the media.’

‘But when the media comes in, you’re not a high school teenager anymore. You’re somebody else,’ Tiger said.

It could be argued that Charlie’s cool demeanor is something he inherited from his predecessor’s undeniable, but humble swagger that took the country by storm decades ago.

Alternatively, Charlie just embodies the similar, surprising desire to just be ‘normal’ and play golf.

His status as a first-year freshman didn’t stop him from being a quick favorite among his Buccaneer teammates. Four Benjamin seniors saw Charlie as an easy pick to be the team’s fifth man to make the trek to Cypress Woods Golf and Country Club in Naples when the crew competed in the South Florida PGA Tour’s West Coast High School Tournament in September.

‘When we went to Naples, I told the kids I’ve been the coach of this team for 40 years and that was the most fun trip I’ve ever been,’ Benjamin coach Toby Harbeck said.

‘Ever.’

Younger Woods earns stripes in first year on varsity fairways

‘The fact that he won and we won was a bonus,’ Harbeck said of Charlie.

Charlie’s team-best scorecard of 102 saw Benjamin come back with arms full of new loot. That was about a week after Tiger caddied Charlie’s low-round victory at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship Last Chance Florida Regional.

At the proceeding National Championship in Louisiana two weeks ago, Tiger went viral on the march for Charlie, who tied for 17th (77-78-65). Having recently started practicing again after time away due to an ankle surgery that saw his withdrawal from the 2023 Masters, a limp-less Tiger caddying 54 holes was the focus of the media.

Meanwhile, Charlie was trying to card what could be deemed a solid few practice rounds before state after not approaching the tee box for Benjamin at districts or regionals.

According to Harbeck, those were lessons that come with being on a team. Ones that every Buccaneer has had to endure at some point or another.

‘He’s having a good year. He’s having a good time,’ Harbeck said in October. Benjamin had just placed runner-up in The Classic in The Palm Beaches High School Invitational and Charlie carded a 154 (79-75).

Sopping wet grounds and windy conditions saw the younger Woods finish in a tie for 42nd among players from 30 schools nationwide, encountering the anticipated growing pains most every young golfer endures, but with his own finesse.

On the 14th hole at PGA National, just before the infamous ‘Bear Trap’ begins, Harbeck scurried back via cart as Charlie prepared to tee off on the par 4.

‘My player in front took his driver and he knocked it right through the fairway into the hazard,’ Harbeck recalled. Looking to avoid more havoc, Harbeck asked Charlie what he saw on his rangefinder.

‘I got 340,’ Charlie responded. The yardage from the gold tees was 442.

Heeding a warning about Charlie’s victimized teammate, Harbeck said: ‘Okay, you pull it.’

‘He got up there and just ripped it up the middle,’ Harbeck laughed.

As Charlie walked back to the tee box, he admitted defeat.

‘You were right, Coach.’

After that tournament, it was Harbeck’s ‘hope’ that Charlie would have a tee time at states. With upwards of eight high-caliber golfers to choose from, Harbeck had a ‘heck of a decision to make’ that was going to make a few somebodies ‘unhappy’ as Benjamin went on to clinch the championships for District 13 and Region 4.

‘When you go to five, it’s really hard,’ Harbeck said. ‘But all the guys that have played on this team for years, they’ve had to go through the same thing.’

‘I think he’s really now grasping what team golf is all about. It is a lot of fun because he’s used to playing by himself,’ Harbeck said.

‘Now, he’s got teammates that love having him around.’

The young Tiger on Benjamin’s roster earned his stripes in his first season of high school golf.

These just happen to come with a championship ring for Charlie and the Bucs.

Emilee Smarr is a sports reporter for the Palm Beach Post. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

It’s a busy if not particularly compelling schedule in Week 12 of college football season, as the primary concern for most ranked teams is avoiding the dreaded lookahead with rivalry games on deck. With that being the case, however, there might be some upset potential for our expert prognosticators to consider.

All of the top 25 teams in the US LBM Coaches Poll are in action, with just three pairings of ranked opponents. The headliner is in the Pacific Northwest, where No. 10 Oregon State hosts No. 5 Washington for what might just be the last time. Top-ranked Georgia looks to complete another sweep of the SEC East at No. 19 Tennessee, and No. 16 Utah takes on No. 22 Arizona elsewhere in the soon-to-be-smaller Pac-12.

Read on to see how our expert pickers see those games unfolding, as well as a few other key contests in the still up-for-grabs Big 12 and ACC.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

There are going to be some consequential football games in Week 11 of the 2023 NFL season – starting with the fact all four AFC North teams will be in divisional matchups, starting with Thursday night’s matchup of the battered Cincinnati Bengals and battered Baltimore Ravens.

The New York Jets will head to Buffalo to face the Bills and new offensive coordinator Joe Brady in a matchup that could be a de facto playoff elimination game. Sunday night’s contest between the surging Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos appears far more appealing than it did just two weeks ago.

But make no mistake, the Week 11 lineup is mere preamble to Monday night’s Super Bowl 57 rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs – which could also well be a Super Bowl 58 preview. Looking forward to seeing two Kelces (Chiefs TE Travis and Eagles C Jason) and at least one Swift (Eagles RB D’Andre).

And now the weekly predictions from our expert panelists:

(Odds provided by BetMGM. Access more BetMGM odds here.)

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore RavensDallas Cowboys at Carolina PanthersPittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland BrownsChicago Bears at Detroit LionsLos Angeles Chargers at Green Bay PackersArizona Cardinals at Houston TexansTennessee Titans at Jacksonville JaguarsLas Vegas Raiders at Miami DolphinsNew York Giants at Washington CommandersTampa Bay Buccaneers at San Francisco 49ersNew York Jets at Buffalo BillsSeattle Seahawks at Los Angeles RamsMinnesota Vikings at Denver BroncosPhiladelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs

Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY