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Lane Kiffin stood in front of the cameras last week to celebrate the best recruiting class he’d gotten as the Mississippi football coach, and praised one staff member by name initially – general manager Billy Glasscock – for “putting everything together.”

What that meant to Kiffin didn’t become clear until a few minutes later, as he spoke about college football’s transfer portal and the anticipated arrival of revenue sharing. Through a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and the power conferences, schools would be able to directly give current players in any sport money from a pool of millions for use of their name, image and likeness.

“I think you’re going to see outrageous prices in this portal,” Kiffin said. “It’s great for players, but you’re going to see guys get paid way more than you could ever imagine because now everybody has this money that will be coming in and, again, there’s no structured system. It’s not like the NFL. Everybody doesn’t have great general managers and have this nailed how to do it.”

Everybody might need to, though.

The latest movement in the professionalization of college sports is the addition of a general manager to the hierarchy of a football program to oversee personnel and scouting departments separate from the coaching staff. Industry experts expect the role (and money) tied to these positions to expand while athletics departments adjust on the fly to the ever-changing landscape presented by the introduction of name, image and likeness benefits and the looming reality that the players likely are soon to be paid directly by their schools.

When the general manager title began to surface within college football programs earlier this decade, the hires were often made with traditional high school recruiting in mind. The role morphed in recent years to take on the additional scouting required when transfer restrictions were loosened and the transfer portal became so significant to roster construction. Today, with revenue sharing set to begin as soon as next season, the concept of a general manager in college football is being reimagined, and increasingly more in the mold of its NFL counterpart.

The pool of candidates athletics departments are beginning to hire, consider and consult with include NFL personnel from legal and business backgrounds, as well as CEOs from companies outside football, now that it appears contract negotiations with players and their agents and salary cap management have become instrumental to a team’s success.

There is no consensus yet on what the best model will be to navigate this new frontier of college sports. Only that the football infrastructure most schools relied upon for years wasn’t built to handle what’s about to happen.

“It used to take a village,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said last week. “Now it takes an army.”

How much are college football GMs worth?

The rise in importance and the uncertain terrain of a college football general manager can be seen through the varying titles and increasing salaries, as well as recent job hopping at some of the country’s top teams, according to open records requests by USA TODAY Sports in conjunction with its annual examination of college football assistant coaches and strength coaches pay across the nation.  

Alabama’s Courtney Morgan is believed to be the highest-paid general manager in the country after several moves in recent years. Coach Kalen DeBoer brought Morgan with him from Washington, after DeBoer had previously hired the former Michigan lineman away from former coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines. Morgan initially signed a contract worth $500,000 annually and Alabama paid $162,504 to buy out Morgan’s contract at Washington. But Alabama then had to fend off reported interest from Southern Cal last offseason by giving Morgan a three-year contract worth nearly $2.47 million this summer. He is set to earn a base salary of $775,000 this season.

Similar moves include:

Michigan and coach Sherrone Moore signed Sean Magee to a three-year contract worth $1.08 million to rejoin the program as its general manager after Magee spent two seasons as the chief of staff for the NFL’s Chicago Bears. He will earn $350,000 this season.
LSU lured Mississippi general manager Austin Thomas with an associate athletics director position and a three-year contract featuring an annual base salary of $425,000. Mississippi then poached Glasscock from his job as director of player personnel at Texas with a two-year contract and a base salary of $425,000. 
Marshall Malchow will earn a base salary of $550,000 this season to be Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s chief of staff after Malchow had stints as a general manager at Texas A&M and the director of player personnel at Georgia. Ohio State general manager of player personnel Mark Pantoni, who previously helped build Urban Meyer’s best teams, will make $351,488 this season with the chance to earn more than $270,000 in incentives if the Buckeyes win the national championship. Texas general manager Brandon Harris will earn $264,500.
Elko wanted to bring general manager Derek Miller with him to Texas A&M from Duke badly enough last offseason that the Aggies gave Miller a two-year, $375,000 deal and Texas A&M paid an additional $125,000 to buy out Miller’s contract at Duke. 
Less than two weeks ago, Stanford made waves when it announced former star quarterback Andrew Luck would be returning to campus as the Cardinal football program’s general manager and indicated Luck’s role would include coach and roster management, as well as business operations typically handled by a team president at the professional level of sports. “This change represents a very different way of operating our program and competing in an evolving college football landscape,” Stanford athletics director Bernard Muir said in the school’s announcement about Luck’s hiring.

For years, Power Four conference teams expanded their payrolls by adding a collection of analysts and administrators to their coaching staffs. As recently as 15 years ago, most staffs designated one of their assistant coaches as a recruiting coordinator. But resources are now shifting towards personnel equipped to take on roster management roles traditional coaching staffs were never meant to handle.

“In order to compete at the highest level, you have to set up essentially a front office,’ former American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said. ‘It’s not just going to be the GMs. It’s going to be the cap manager because you’re going to have the $20 (million) or $23 million you’re spending on players … and the AD is now presiding like a team president. You’re going to have all these people under you doing things that were not done before, and where are Olympic sports going to be in this equation? Schools are going to get hit because it’s just hard to construct this so quickly. It’s going to be extremely complicated.’

‘A mad scramble’ to make college football more professional

University of Oklahoma is addressing this looming complexity in an unorthodox manner. The school announced the hiring of former AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson to be executive advisor to the president and athletic director to oversee Oklahoma’s implementation of the House settlement payments. Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione said Stephenson’s role will include restructuring the athletics department budget, carving out a more expansive role for the program’s general manager and creating a football structure ‘with elements similar to professional sports teams.’

This comes on the heels of the Oklahoma athletics department using Huron Consulting Group, which advises dozens of Power Four conference athletics departments, to assess its organization earlier this year before announcing structural changes. Oklahoma hired former player Curtis Lofton as its new general manager before this season and created a partnership with former Philadelphia Eagles vice president of football administration Jake Rosenberg as part of its changes.

What were once thought of as recruiting jobs are becoming positions that suddenly carry significant financial and contractual responsibilities.

“The schools that were hesitant about building out this infrastructure have quickly come to realize that their slowness in moving this direction is costly because their coaches are stressed,” said Tim Walsh, the managing director of strategy and operations at the Huron Consulting Group. “There’s a mad scramble to get these structures in place and these people in place.”

But the job description of a general manager remains as amorphous as the NCAA policies revolving around the issues of NIL and revenue sharing.

Buffalo coach Pete Lembo compared the role at South Carolina, where he spent the previous three seasons, as a buffer for coach Shane Beamer to maintain positive relationships with the players and their families (and their agents) in much the same way his agent acts as a buffer between a coach and athletics director during contract negotiations.

“Shane didn’t have to bear the brunt of a lot of those conversations,” Lembo said. “If the head coach doesn’t have to be dealing with a line of guys outside his door every day dealing with NIL and things like that, it just allows the day-to-day operation to be a lot smoother.”

“Someone’s going to have to work on this full-time,” added Walsh. “That’s why this role has evolved over the past year so much because the coaches are going crazy. They have no capacity to deal with this and run the team. … It’s going to be a little inconsistent across the country at first, as institutions try to find that sweet spot, what the coach is willing to accept in terms of delegation of authority to those GMs, but over time I think the GMs are going to become more sophisticated, have better financial people working for them to manage all these contracts and commitments in a way that’s sustainable, and then the coaches will be free to coach.”

Sports attorney Darren Heitner, whose current NIL clients include recent Michigan quarterback signee Bryce Underwood, said it’s still rare that he negotiates with a program’s general manager on contracts. He usually speaks with “collectives, sometimes directly with boosters, oftentimes with head coaches or position coaches, to get an understanding of what offers are, what the terms are, get the terms in writing and negotiate them.”

But Heitner sees the need for a GM more in the professional mold in light of the House vs. NCAA settlement.

“It would be an absolute nightmare for the current structure of the athletic department to try to manage the division of capital up to the cap of the revenue sharing among all athletes,” Heitner said. “The role is a very, very important one, perhaps it’s going to become one of the most important positions in an athletic department under the athletic director.”

That really hit home this year for Lembo. 

His son told him he wanted to work in football but had no desire to become a college coach after being there with his father, from Lehigh to Elon to Ball State, and then from Maryland to Rice to Memphis to South Carolina and now Buffalo, where Lembo just completed his first regular season as head coach. 

AJ, who’s about to graduate from TCU, is “working with personnel,” Lembo explained, and he encouraged the move because that’s who college football teams are hiring these days.

“You really need a person dedicated to helping the head coach and the football staff manage all this,” Pete Lembo said. “The way this is evolving, I’m very grateful that I got a business degree from Georgetown because this is becoming a lot less about X’s and O’s.”

Follow the reporters on social media @mgiannotto and @ByBerkowitz.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

A U.S. district judge in Oregon has blocked a $25 billion bid by supermarket giant Kroger to take over rival Albertsons, ruling that the Federal Trade Commission’s concerns about the merger’s impact on market consolidation were valid.

Judge Adrienne Nelson said Tuesday afternoon that a merger between the two companies would end up harming consumers.

The two companies ‘engage in substantial head-to-head competition and the proposed merger would remove that competition,’ Ferguson wrote. As a result, the proposed merger would be likely to lead to outcomes that ‘unilaterally’ harm consumers and is thus ‘presumptively unlawful. ‘

Ferguson also ruled the merger would be bad for workers, arguing that increased consolidation would reduce workers’ bargaining power.

Albertsons said in a statement that it is ‘disappointed by the U.S. District Court’s decision to grant the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction.’

‘We believe we clearly outlined during the proceedings how the proposed merger would expand competition, lower prices, increase associate wages, protect union jobs, and enhance customers’ shopping experience. We are carefully reviewing the Court’s opinion and are evaluating our options in accordance with the merger agreement,’ it said.

A spokesperson for Kroger also expressed disappointment and said the company ‘is currently reviewing its options.’

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has said a court ruling like this one would effectively scuttle the merger.

The FTC applauded the decision, saying the agency “scored a major victory for the American people, successfully blocking Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons.’

‘This victory has a direct, tangible impact on the lives of millions of Americans who shop at Kroger or Albertsons-owned grocery stores for their everyday needs, whether that’s a Fry’s in Arizona, a Von’s in Southern California, or a Jewel-Osco in Illinois,’ the FTC said in a statement.

Kroger shares closed up 5% Tuesday, while shares of Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, finished 2% lower.

Kroger had argued the deal was necessary for it to continue to compete with big box retailers like Walmart and Target, as well as Amazon, that have significantly grown their grocery businesses.

But Nelson said that ‘supermarkets’ still represent a distinct, niche market within the U.S. consumer landscape and that the impacts from the proposed merger must be accounted for.

The ruling is a victory for the Biden administration and especially FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has taken an unprecedentedly aggressive approach to countering mergers likely to create monopolies.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Salt Lake City has grown from a winter sports venue to a vibrant technology hub in just two decades, leveraging the legacy of the 2002 Winter Olympics to transform into one of America’s fastest-growing business destinations.

Known as part of Utah’s “Silicon Slopes,” the city has become a magnet for entrepreneurial spirit, venture capital and a flourishing workforce. Over the past decade, wages have risen by 51%, and the population has increased by 10%, according to the Census Bureau.

Former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt credits the Olympics with spurring major infrastructure projects in Salt Lake City, attracting technology talent and establishing an economic legacy that continues to shape the region’s identity.

“The Games were a great catalyst. And big economic growth needs a catalyst like that,” Leavitt told CNBC for the upcoming “Cities of Success: Salt Lake City” special, premiering Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.

In 2002, the world watched as Salt Lake City welcomed athletes and spectators to the Winter Olympics. But for Leavitt, who served as governor from 1993 to 2003, the Games meant much more than 17 days of sporting excitement. 

“The 17 days of the Games is very important,” Leavitt said. “But it’s what happens in the seven or eight years in advance — and what happens in the 10 years after — that ultimately makes the Games a worthwhile experience, both economically and culturally.”

The 2002 Games utilized 10 facilities, all of which continue to serve the community and attract major events, including the Olympic Oval, a premier speed skating venue still used by aspiring Olympians today. 

The multimillion-dollar facility is said to have the “fastest ice on Earth” by athletes who have broken records on it.

Experts say the high altitude — more than 4,600 feet above sea level — reduces air resistance, which may help give skaters an edge when it comes to speed.

In preparation for the Games, Leavitt said, Utah invested in infrastructure improvements, including light rail and major highways, creating lasting benefits for both residents and visitors.

“It’s a lot like having a party at your house — a lot gets done with that deadline,” Leavitt told CNBC. “We competed with the world and realized we can win.”

Salt Lake City’s 2002 Olympics cost about $2 billion and turned a profit. The University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute reports the state’s allocation for the Games resulted in a $164 million surplus, with $59 million returned to taxpayers.

In the 15 years following the Games, skier visits to Utah increased by 43%, hotel and lodging revenue grew by 70%, and visitor spending soared by 66%, according to the Gardner Institute.

″[The early 90s] was at a time when technology was just beginning to emerge,” Leavitt said. “Up until that point, Utah had been both agriculturally based as well as defense — but there was an ambition on our part to become a tech capital.”

During preparations for the Olympics, Leavitt met with Adobe co-founder and Salt Lake City native John Warnock in Silicon Valley to discuss building a tech community in Utah.

Leavitt recalled a comment Warnock made to him: “If you want [me] to come to Utah, I need engineers.”

Acting on Warnock’s advice, in 2001, Leavitt and the state of Utah launched the Engineering and Computer Science Initiative. The program aimed to improve higher education in these fields by expanding faculty and programs, ultimately doubling the number of engineering and computer science graduates over two decades with a cumulative $40.1 million investment.

With state funding, colleges and universities rose to the challenge, aligning programs with student interests and industry demands. Since then, public and private investments have continued to grow, driven by the region’s increasing need for tech workers.

Adobe years later acquired Utah-based Omniture for $1.8 billion, signaling Utah’s capacity to build competitive tech enterprises, Leavitt said.

“It was the combination of a clear vision, dramatically ratcheting up the number of engineers we were educating, and having the Olympics and a place they wanted to live,” Leavitt said. “All of that came together into what’s become one of the most robust economies in the country around technology.”

With the 2034 Winter Games set to return to Salt Lake City, Utah aims to build on its existing infrastructure with an estimated $31 million in upgrades — a modest cost compared with the $286.7 million spent in 2002.

The state expects the upcoming Games to generate $6.6 billion in economic activity, create 42,000 job-years of employment — the equivalent of 4,200 full-time jobs for 10 years — and add nearly $3.9 billion to Utah’s economy, solidifying the Olympics’ role in Utah’s flourishing tech landscape.

“We now have advantages we didn’t have,” Leavitt said. “We have all of the infrastructure that’s there, and we have a reputation. The Games will be done well in 2034. There’s just no question about it.”

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

No one can argue that Denver Nuggets All-NBA and three-time MVP center Nikola Jokic isn’t having a great season.

As long as Jokic continues to post triple-double averages, he will be part of the 2024-25 NBA MVP discussion.

However, in this installment of NBA MVP power rankings, we’re going to take a look at wins and losses and where a team sits in the standings and give special consideration to MVP candidates whose teams are at or near the top of the standings.

Winning should mean something for MVP consideration. That doesn’t rule out Jokic or Giannis Antetokounmpo, and there’s plenty of time left in the season for the Nuggets and the Bucks to move up in the standings.

Here is the second installment of USA TODAY’s NBA MVP power rankings (stats and team records before Tuesday’s games):

5. Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic

It’s odd to say Luka Doncic is doing this quietly, given he is a statistical demon, but he has helped spark a massive run for the Mavericks, who have won seven consecutive games and 11 of their past 12. Dallas (16-8) has crawled back to tied for third in the West, and Doncic won the Western Conference Player of the Week award after he put up nearly 30 points per game and added 11.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists over that span.

4. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo

After a 2-8 start, the Bucks are now 12-11, including a seven-game winning streak that has put the Bucks in sixth place in the East, and Antetokounmpo is right in the middle of Milwaukee’s ascent in the standings. Antetokounmpo leads the league in scoring (32.5 points per game), is No. 6 in rebounding (11.6 per game) and also averages 6.2 assists, 1.3 blocks and 61.1% from the field. Last season, he was the first player in NBA history to average at least 30 points on at least 60% shooting from the field, and he’s on pace to do it again this season.

3. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum

The continuing knock against Jayson Tatum’s case for MVP is the sheer amount of talent and help he has on the 19-5 Celtics. With the return of Kristaps Porzingis, that has only become amplified. That’s why a pair of average performances recently — a 17-point game in which he went 1-of-10 on 3s in a loss against the Grizzlies and an 18-point night (3-of-12 from 3) in a victory against the Heat — slightly dull his chances when compared to others higher up on this list. Still, Tatum is having an efficient season (28.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists per game, 45.3% shooting) for a team that looks like a real threat to repeat.

2. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic

Nikola Jokic is on a sensational run, scoring 104 points and collecting 30 rebounds and dishing 16 assists in his past two games. That said, the Nuggets, who in seventh place in the West at 12-10, have hit a bit of a rough patch, losing seven of their last 12. Still, Denver would be lost without Jokic, who ranks second in the NBA in scoring (32.3 points per game) and first among qualifying players for player impact estimate (21.3), which is a comprehensive measurement of a player’s contribution which includes 13.6 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game and 56.1% shooting from the field for Jokic.

1. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, finished second in MVP voting last season, and he’s making a push to win his first MVP this season. The Thunder were 8-2 when Chet Holmgren was sidelined with a pelvic fracture. Since then, they are 10-3, and Gilgeous-Alexander has made sure the first-place Thunder (18-5) haven’t faltered. In those 13 games without Holmgren, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.7 points, 6.5 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.0 blocks and is shooting 52.3% from the field and 36.4% on 3-pointers. For the season, he is the only player averaging at least 29 points, 6.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks.

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They’ve used words like unsustainable and unrealistic, forecasting doom for college football and their job of coaching and developing players suddenly flush with cash and free movement.

Then this new world for coaches was proven to be financially and operationally sustainable. And very realistic.

And now here we are, steamrolling into a fourth year of seismic player procurement change in college football, and coaches have a new boogeyman and another level of accountability. 

Because no university president in his or her right mind is going to place a multimillion-dollar budget in the hands of a football coach.

“This is a new landscape that we are in,” says LSU coach Brian Kelly. 

That may be the understatement of the year. 

We haven’t begun official pay for play – college athletes sharing media rights revenue of a multimillion salary cap as the result of a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, and beginning with the 2025 season – and already schools are moving forward to supplement coaching staffs by adding ‘general managers’ and ‘vice presidents of operations’ and ‘executive advisors’ to their football programs.

Whatever the title, the job description is clear: manage the money. Coaches wanted guidance and assistance from their universities in this ever-changing world with untold and unintended tentacles.

Now they’ve got it — with an added layer of scrutiny some may soon regret.

More to the point: they have another pair of eyes watching over their program, closer than anyone – including their athletics directors – has ever been. This one also managing and controlling a salary cap for as many as 105 players, or nearly double the amount of contracts the NFL has per team.

A salary budget that will quickly become the lifeblood of winning football, and a quicker path to unemployment for those who can’t manage it properly. Nothing says it’s time for a new vision for the program quite like a coach who misses on player procurement and costs the university millions.

If you thought NFL owners had quick hooks for their coaches, wait until university presidents get further involved in winning and losing because of GM and advisor hires. There’s no avoiding it once they go down the road of adding another layer of management.

Ohio State’s boosters and NIL backers spent $20 million this season on the Buckeyes’ roster, an all-in moment to try and catch Big Ten bully and defending national champion (and bitter rival) Michigan. The school spent more combined on coach Ryan Day ($10 million annual salary) and his assistant coaches and staff ($11 million).

Then scored all of 10 points at home in an ugly loss to the worst (non-pandemic) Michigan team in a decade. The Buckeyes won 10 games, and advanced to the College Football Playoff, a salve of sorts for a gaping wound of four consecutive losses to the Wolverines.

How many more chances will Day get to spend $41 million and lose to Michigan?

Earlier this month, Oklahoma hired former AT&T president Randall Stephenson as an “executive advisor to the president and athletic director.” While Stephenson refused compensation for his role, there’s little doubt of the intent of his job.

Follow the money and make it work. 

The Sooners are struggling under third-year coach Brent Venables, and won only two league games in their first season in the SEC. In July, OU hired a general manager (former player Curtis Lofton), and partnered with former Philadelphia Eagles vice president of football administration Jake Rosenberg.

You don’t hire a monetary shark like Stephenson, who successfully ran one of the most prominent businesses in America for years, and not yield more power to him — intended or not.

It’s a short jump from coaches hiring hand-picked general managers — a job title used by coaches in name only, as a perk, and one that has no power resemblance to the cutthroat NFL gig — to advisors eventually taking over the hiring process and bringing in legitimate general managers who are salary cap experts.

Legitimate GMs who have direct lines to the athletics director and president, and have the ability to steer coaching evaluations one way or the other. 

Case in point: Stanford, which recently hired former Cardinal All-American quarterback Andrew Luck as its GM, and made it clear that Luck would have input with coach and roster moves. Stanford, folks, is far down the food chain.

How much longer before blueblood USC, which has lost 11 of its past 18 games under third-year coach Lincoln Riley, reaches out to former coach Pete Carroll and asks him to become an advisor to president Carol Folt or her successor after she steps down at the end of the academic year? Carroll loved his time at USC and won big, and only left after the 2009 season to challenge himself again in the NFL.

He’s currently an advisor for the Seattle Seahawks, after being pushed out of the head coach role after the 2023 season. He would be exchanging one role for another, only this job would be in his beloved Los Angeles.

How much longer before Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne decides he needs a closer, day-to-day look at how first-year coach Kalen DeBoer is running the program? Like all athletics directors, Byrne is managing more than 20 sports programs, each with its unique problems and demands.

Because football is the front porch of all athletics programs, because athletics directors can’t possibly know what’s going on day by day, it’s only natural to add another layer of oversight. Especially when there’s millions annually on the line.

Why would any major college football team not have a general manager or vice president of operations under the athletics director? It’s fiscally reckless to ignore the growing beast — and leave everything in the hands of a football coach.

Now that’s unsustainable and unrealistic.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on social media at @MattHayesCFB.

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The College Football Playoff playoff bracket has been unveiled and the 12-team field to compete for the national championship is set. But it hasn’t silenced any controversy.

One upset party is the SEC, which saw Alabama being the last team out in favor of SMU. The league also had two other three-loss teams in contention that fell short. Are their arguments valid?

On the field, the biggest impact on the playoff may be Georgia potentially playing without starting quarter Carson Beck due to an arm injury in the SEC championship game. The Bulldogs won that game with backup Gunner Stockton, which raised questions about Texas and its ability to win a national title ahead of its first-round matchup against Clemson.

Penn State lost to Oregon in the Big Ten title game but provided some hope for how they will look in the playoff, starting with SMU. Tennessee and Ohio State face off in the biggest first-round matchup that epitomizes the benefit of expansion. There is also an in-state matchup with Notre Dame facing Indiana. The Fighting Irish could be poised for a long playoff run.

Off the field, the transfer portal is open, the Heisman Trophy finalists are sorted and the coaching carousel keeps spinning. Is Bill Belichick really a good fit for North Carolina or is this destined to fail?

Dan Wolken and Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY Sports discuss these topics and more in this week’s version of the College Football Fix.

WHO WINS IT ALL: Our College Football Playoff bracket projection

PREVIEWS: Ohio State-Tennessee | Notre Dame-Indiana | Clemson-Texas | SMU-Penn State

TOUGH ROAD: Oregon gets difficult draw despite being No. 1 seed

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Republican tax hawks are worried that key Trump administration tax policies could expire at the end of 2025 if congressional leaders follow through on a plan to break up a massive conservative budget bill into two parts.

Reconciliation is a way to fast-track legislation on issues like taxes, the debt limit and federal spending by bypassing the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for passage, instead lowering it to a simple 51-vote majority.

It is a process normally used once per year, but incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., floated a plan earlier this month to split Republicans’ reconciliation priorities into two bills – one dealing with the border and defense and a second aimed at implementing President-elect Donald Trump’s tax policy. The plan was also backed by top Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

However, Republicans on the House Ways & Means Committee, including Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., are concerned it could put their goals – such as preserving Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – out of reach.

‘I think because we’ve already had some of the provisions expire or sunset, and the remainder of the legislation expires at the end of 2025, that waiting toward the second half of the year puts a lot of it at risk. And there’s no way we can allow these rates to expire,’ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. ‘Americans across the board will see a tax increase, and it really jeopardizes our quest to bring manufacturing home.’

She pointed out that Republicans are set to have a razor-thin majority in the next Congress.

‘I do get nervous that, you know, one person can hold it up, or two people could hold it up, and I think it’s best to try to do it as early as possible,’ she said. ‘I think that’s a belief that’s shared by many of the members on Ways & Means.’

Smith pointed out to Fox Business’ ‘Mornings With Maria’ that Congress has not passed two reconciliation bills into law in one year since 1997.

‘I am saying we need a reconciliation bill that has border, energy, permitting and tax. You put all four of those things together, we can deliver on that,’ Smith said.

He told Fox News Digital on Tuesday, ‘My focus all along is to make sure that we are best positioned to deliver on President Trump’s tax proposals and policies.’

The debate is putting top Republicans who will be in charge of crafting fiscal policy next year at odds, while both argue they are fighting for Trump’s agenda.

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said Smith was doing an ‘excellent job’ and echoed concerns about a slim margin.

‘I think it is a big challenge. We have a very slim majority, and there are at least, I believe, two people, if not three of the Republicans, who voted against it are still here,’ he said.

Thune and other Republicans who support the two-track plan argued that taxes are more complex of an issue and would take longer to hash out.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told ‘Special Report’ host Bret Baier on Tuesday night, ‘There probably will be at least two reconciliation packages. So, the determination right now is where does the tax piece fit and do we do that first out of the gates, or do you wait a couple of months to get all that done? Because it can be very complicated.’

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., similarly argued, ‘I think we need to prove to the American people that we can actually defend our borders… The bottom line is I think they need to be on almost parallel tracks. But I do believe that taxes are much more complicated.’

However, a senior House GOP aide asked what was complex about extending tax provisions that were already put in place in 2017.

‘It’s confusing — given that extending the Trump tax cuts has been on the agenda for seven years and is a central campaign promise of [Trump’s], how can including them in a reconciliation bill require extra time and consideration by Senate Republicans, many of whom have already pledged their support?’ the aide posed.

The discussion is a preview of what Washington will look like next year when Republicans hold the White House and both congressional chambers.

If Republicans are unable to harness enough momentum to pass a tax bill next year, Americans across the country could see their taxes rise.

Ways & Means member Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said it ‘could be more difficult’ to pass a tax bill if it’s separated from the first reconciliation bill, but said he was ‘not at all concerned’ about Republicans coming to an agreement.

Another member of the committee, Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., agreed with the committee chair that one bill ‘would be a much better solution for us to work and get that process done.’

However, Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., also on the panel, did not give insight into his stance but said he was optimistic.

‘I think this reconciliation process will be very different than what we did back in 2017, because I think members are better prepared, committees are better prepared, and I think the president’s going to be much better prepared,’ he said. ‘So I wouldn’t get too worked up over a division of the plans right now.’

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President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter after previously vowing he would not give his son a pass has the approval of only 20% of Americans, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found about half of adults disapprove of the pardon, which came after Hunter was convicted on felony gun and tax charges. 

About 18% of adults neither approved nor disapproved of the decision, while 8% said they didn’t know enough to say one way or the other, according to the poll.

While Democrats were more likely to approve of the pardon than Republicans and Independents, the poll showed just 38% of Democrats approve compared to 27% who said they disapproved of the about-face.

About 80% of Republicans and 51% of Independents disapproved of the pardon, according to the poll. 

Biden issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter on Dec. 1 after he stated on record multiple times that he would not pardon him should a jury convict his son.

The first son had been convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September, and was convicted of three felony gun charges in June after lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. 

The president argued in a statement that Hunter was ‘singled out only because he is my son’ and that there was an effort to ‘break Hunter’ in order to ‘break me.’

Reporters grilled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a day after the pardon, asking whether Biden and his surrogates lied to the American people. Jean-Pierre responded, ‘One thing the president believes is to always be truthful with the American people,’ and repeatedly pointed to Biden’s own statement on the matter.

Fox News Digital’s Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

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In a rare bipartisan push Wednesday morning, senators on both sides of the aisle called on President Biden to instruct his administration to brief the upper chamber by Dec. 20 on efforts underway to free Austin Tice from Syria. 

A letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital, was sent to the Oval Office by Sens. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md, calling on Biden to ‘seize’ the rapidly changing situation in Syria and secure Tice’s return.

‘Given the recent fall of the Assad regime and the rapidly changing dynamics on the ground in Syria, we think this moment presents a critical opportunity to secure Austin’s release and bring him home to his family,’ the letter, signed by 34 senators, read. 

The letter applauded comments issued by both Biden and his national security advisor Jake Sullivan affirming that Tice’s return was a ‘top priority’ amid the rebel takeover of Damascus, but lawmakers are looking to be briefed on detailed steps being taken to secure his release.

Multiple rewards systems have been initiated by both the FBI, which is offering up to $1 million, and the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, which is offering up $10 million, for information pertaining to Tice’s whereabouts. 

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday evening, ‘There are intensive efforts underway by the United States to find Austin Tice and bring him home to his family.’

Efforts to connect U.S. officials with on the ground sources who may have information on where Tice is have been renewed. 

Sullivan told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Monday that the U.S. was working with partners in Turkey through back-channel communications with people in Syria who may have information on which prison Tice was kept in, and the State Department confirmed that hostage-affairs envoy Roger Carstens has been engaging in a similar outreach approach in Beirut. 

The fall of the Assad regime on Sunday brought renewed hope for the return of Tice, who is still assessed to be alive despite his 2012 capture in Damascus and unknown condition, as rebel groups in recent days have begun freeing men, women and children held in Syria’s notoriously deplorable prisons.

‘For more than 12 years, Austin’s parents have demanded our government bring him home, and given the evolving situation in Syria, we urge you to seize this opportunity to launch an urgent effort to secure Austin’s release,’ the letter penned by Cronyn and Van Hollen stressed. ‘As a beloved son, brother, Eagle Scout, journalist, and veteran, Austin represents the best our nation has to offer and deserves the full and active support of our government to secure his release. 

‘Congress is committed and more than willing to work with you to return him to his loving family. We encourage your administration to utilize all available means to further discourage the hostage taking of American citizens,’ it added. 

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Outgoing Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said that she’s ‘concerned about fiscal sustainability’ and thinks the deficit must be decreased.

She made the comments during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit after Greg Ip, chief economic commentator for the outlet, noted that President Joe Biden and Yellen are leaving behind a big budget deficit. ‘Are you sorry you couldn’t make more progress on that?’ he asked. Ip also asked Yellen how much risk the issue presents to the economy.

‘Well I am concerned about fiscal sustainability. And I am sorry that we haven’t made more progress. I believe that the deficit needs to be brought down, especially now that we’re in an environment of higher interest rates,’ Yellen replied. 

Yellen helmed the Treasury Department during President Joe Biden’s White House tenure, but will soon step down as Biden’s term ends next month.

In that time, the already-massive national debt continued soaring to new heights, and has now surpassed $36 trillion.

‘Today, the U.S. economy is in strong shape, with a robust labor market and solid economic growth. Tune in as I join @Greg_Ip at the @WSJ CEO Council Summit to discuss the economic progress we have made under the leadership of @POTUS and @VP,’ Yellen declared in a post on X.

Trump decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential contest, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

The president-elect tapped Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury Department secretary in his upcoming administration.

‘Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists,’ Trump said in a statement last month.

Yellen previously served as chair of the Federal Reserve Board of governors from early February 2014 through early February 2018.

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