Michigan 50, Northwestern 6
The Best Tech Deals During Target's Black Friday Sale (So Far)The expanded Big Ten is poised to be a major player in this season's College Football Playoff. The 18-team conference had three of the top-four teams in the AP poll this week — No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 4 Penn State. A one-loss Indiana team is ranked 10th but is still very much a contender to make the playoff, given how many Southeastern Conference teams have three defeats or more. Indiana's rise has been perhaps the Big Ten's biggest story this season. Much of the spotlight was on newcomers Oregon, Southern California, UCLA and Washington, but aside from the top-ranked Ducks, that foursome has struggled to impress. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers won their first 10 games under new coach Curt Cignetti before losing at Ohio State last weekend. Oregon beat Ohio State 32-31 back in October, and if the Buckeyes beat rival Michigan this weekend, they'll earn a rematch with the Ducks for the Big Ten title. And it's entirely possible another matchup between those two teams awaits in the CFP. Dillon Gabriel has quarterbacked Oregon to an unbeaten record, throwing for 3,066 yards and 22 touchdowns in 11 games. But don't overlook Iowa's Kaleb Johnson and his 21 rushing TDs, and quarterback Kurtis Rourke has been a big part of Indiana's improvement. Penn State's Abdul Carter has eight sacks and two forced fumbles and could be one of the top edge rushers drafted this year. Oregon (11-0, 8-0), Ohio State (10-1, 7-1), Penn State (10-1, 7-1), Indiana (10-1, 7-1), Illinois (8-3, 5-3), Iowa (7-4, 5-3), Michigan (6-5, 4-4), Minnesota (6-5, 4-4), Washington (6-5, 4-4), Southern California (6-5, 4-5), Nebraska (6-5, 3-5) and Rutgers (6-5, 3-5) have already reached the six-win mark for bowl eligibility. Michigan State (5-6, 3-5) and Wisconsin (5-6, 3-5) can join them. There may not be many firings in general at the top level of college football. The prospect of sharing revenue with athletes in the future might lead schools to be more judicious about shedding one coach and hiring a new one. Who should be most worried in the Big Ten? Well, Lincoln Riley is struggling to stay above .500 in his third season at USC. Purdue is 1-10, but coach Ryan Walters is only in his second season. Maryland's Mike Locksley has been there six years and his Terrapins are 4-7, but this was his first real step backward after guiding the team to three straight bowl wins. Cignetti has shown it is possible for a coaching change to push a previously moribund program to some impressive heights in a short amount of time — but the improvement has been more incremental at Michigan State following Jonathan Smith's arrival. Sherrone Moore wasn't a completely unknown commodity at Michigan after he won some massive games in place of a suspended Jim Harbaugh last year. But in his first season completely at the helm, the Wolverines have declined significantly following their national title a season ago. The Big Ten is home to one of the most dynamic freshmen in the country in Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith. He has 52 catches for 899 yards and nine touchdowns. Highly touted quarterback Dylan Raiola has teamed up with fellow freshman Jacory Barney (49 catches) to lead Nebraska to bowl eligibility. Ohio State is on track to land the Big Ten's top class, according to 247 Sports, but the big news recently was quarterback Bryce Underwood flipping from LSU to Michigan. If the Wolverines do in fact keep Underwood in his home state, that would be a big development for Moore. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Jayden Daniels and Michael Penix Jr. trained and went through the NFL draft process together on the way to becoming two of the five quarterbacks taken in the top 10. After going off the board earlier with the second pick by the Washington Commanders, Daniels has been their starter all season and one of football's breakout stars . Penix, taken eighth in a move coach Raheem Morris joked “shocked the world," waited behind Kirk Cousins until usurping the veteran and making his first pro start last week. On Sunday night, they'll face off in the league's first prime-time showdown of rookie QBs selected in the first round, and the spotlight is bright with significant playoff implications at stake. “I'm happy for him — he waited his time,” Daniels said of Penix. “He's a phenomenal player in my eyes, and I'm excited to be able to match up against him.” Daniels and the Commanders (10-5) are in the playoffs with a win. They might already be in before kickoff if Tampa Bay loses at home to Carolina, though the Buccaneers are 8-point favorites on BetMGM Sportsbook. Washington is favored by 4 against the Falcons (8-7), who are vying with the Bucs for the NFC South title and a home playoff game and also in contention with the Commanders and others for the conference's wild-card spots. “The reality is that you fight, you fight, you fight and you put yourself in a position to go out there and win your division,” Penix said. "You put yourself in a chance to get yourself to qualify for extra play. We’re right in the mix of doing that, and we’ve got to go do it and finish.” Daniels, who threw five touchdown passes to beat Philadelphia last week and end the Eagles’ winning streak at 10 games, is the prohibitive favorite to win AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Penix completed 18 of 27 passes for 202 yards in a rout of the New York Giants that included two touchdowns by Atlanta's defense and two on the ground from running back Bijan Robinson. “I was really pleased with his composure, his poise, his ability to click through progressions,” Morris said. "Realistically, it was a pretty clean game at the quarterback position. I’m very pleased with what he did and how he did it and the support that he had around him.” Coaching connection Washington's Dan Quinn is facing the Falcons as a head coach for the first time since they fired him in 2020. He was replaced then on an interim basis by Morris, who was an assistant on his staff in Atlanta the entire time Quinn was in charge, including the run to the Super Bowl in the 2016 season. “It’s always fun to play against your friends, your confidants, your mentors — whatever you want to look at it as — that we’ve been able to grow up with throughout this whole process,” said Morris, who was an assistant in Washington from 2012-14 under Mike Shanahan and interviewed for the Commanders job last winter. “Dan coaching me in college," Morris added, "and then having a chance to work together and then having a chance to really follow the same path to the National Football League and then to now being in a fortunate position to be head coaches in this awesome league and having a chance to compete against each other at a very high level with high stakes on the line in prime time and all of those things — I just enjoy those moments of being able to go against guys that you care about.” Morris said conversations from their close working relationship, which dates to their time together at Hofstra, are on a break right now. “Obviously you swap texts on normal weeks,” Morris said. “I won’t talk to him this week. I’ll ban him. I’ll block him on the phone.” More zip leads to more drops Penix's results would have been even more impressive if not for some drops by receivers. Ray-Ray McCloud and Drake London had miscues on Atlanta’s opening drive. Tight end Kyle Pitts bobbled a pass later that led to Penix's interception. Serving as scout-team QB while Cousins was the starter , Penix had little practice time with the first-string offense before last week. As a left-hander, Penix gives receivers a different look, but perhaps the biggest adjustment was the added zip on his passes when compared with Cousins. “We kind of talked about that,” Morris said. “We figured that would happen. ... We talked about the reps with these guys, not having as many. So, things like that are going to happen. But I do like the fact that we’re able to keep playing and pushing and watch the guys get better and better as we went. Fuller strength The Commanders are expected to get two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jonathan Allen back after surgery in October to repair a torn pectoral muscle initially looked to be season-ending . “We know the caliber of Jon and what he can bring,” Quinn said. “He’s strong. He’s tough. So when that does happen, that’ll be something that will definitely bring energy to our defense.” Allen had 15 tackles and two sacks in five-plus games before getting injured at Baltimore on Oct. 13. Sacks on the rise After ranking last in the league with 10 sacks through the first 11 games, Atlanta’s long-struggling pass rush has enjoyed a dramatic surge. The Falcons have at least three in four consecutive games, the longest active streak in the league, with 16 total over this stretch. Arnold Ebiketie recorded his fifth sack and recovered a fumble against the Giants, and Kaden Elliss had a strip sack. Elliss also has five sacks and has dropped opposing QBs in four consecutive games: the longest streak by a Falcons defender since Patrick Kerney's five in a row in 2001. ___ AP Sports Writer Charles Odum contributed. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press
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The Willis family is growing. Tallulah Willis, 30, the youngest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, announced Monday on social media that she is engaged to her partner, music artist Justin Acee. “Everyday @justinacee,” she wrote in the caption of a series of photos and a video of the engagement set up. Her sisters sounded happy. Their other sister, Scout Willis, 33, posted on her Instagram stories as well. Their stepmother, Emma Hemming Willis, put two heart emojis in the comments of the engagement announcement. Bruce Willis has been married for more than 16 years to Heming Willis, with whom he shares two young daughters, Mabel and Evelyn. Over the weekend, Hemming Willis shared a few memories of her husband on her Instagram stories, including an undated video of Willis yodeling, writing, “Him. Always” over the clip. It was announced in 2022 that the actor would be stepping away from his career due to cognitive issues. He has since been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which is a progressive brain condition and affects his ability to speak. Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Willis are the 69-year-old star’s adult daughters with his former wife, Moore. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000.Commentary: Are we becoming a post-literate society?
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CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Cade Klubnik threw for three touchdowns, backup running back Jay Haynes scored twice on the ground and defensive tackle Payton Page had a 57-yard pick-6 score as No. 17 Clemson routed The Citadel 51-14 Saturday to move to 39-0 all-time against FCS opponents. The Tigers (9-2) won their third straight and still held on to feint hopes of reaching the Atlantic Coast Conference title game and the College Football Playoff. Clemson, which finished ACC play at 7-1 with last week's 24-20 win at Pittsburgh, needs No. 11 Miami to lose at Syracuse next week to play for a league crown for the eighth time in 10 seasons. Clemson cranked it up early in this one, looking a lot like the offense that averaged better than 48 points during a six-game win streak earlier this season instead of the one that had not surpassed 24 points in any of its past three contests. Klubnik connected with Antonio Williams for a 30-yard TD to start the scoring and then the 315-pound Page stretched out for an interception and rumbled along the left sidelines — losing momentum with each step — for Clemson's first score from a defensive lineman in four years and a 14-0 lead. And Page wasn't the only defender to score. Clemson's All-American linebacker Barrett Carter playing his next-to-last home game, had a 4-yard TD run on Senior Day to end the Tigers' scoring. The Citadel (5-7), of the FCS Southern Conference, went on to its 19th straight loss to Clemson since 1932. Klubnik completed 12 of 16 passes for 198 yards. He headed to the sidelines after his second TD pass to Williams that gave the Tigers a 42-0 lead in the third quarter. Haynes got the bulk of the work after starter Phil Mafah achieved his 1,000-yard rushing season with three first-quarter runs. Haynes had scoring runs of 70 and 9 yards. The Citadel: The Bulldogs are the leaders among FCS teams in victories over FBS opponents with nine since the college football split into Division I and Division I-AA in 1978. They couldn't stay competitive, but did roll up a season-high 288 yards rushing and scored a touchdown against Clemson for the first time in the past four games in the series. Clemson: The Tigers reached nine wins in a season for the 14th-straight time. Only Alabama, which entered the season with 16 straight nine-win seasons, had a longer current streak. The Citadel's season is complete. Clemson closes the regular season with its rivalry game with South Carolina on Saturday. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballJakarta: Indonesia’s new leader, President Prabowo Subianto, is seeking closer cooperation with the UAE on Jakarta’s industrialization efforts as he made his first official trip to Abu Dhabi since taking office last month. Indonesia’s relations with the UAE grew under former President Joko Widodo, who in 2021 secured a more than $46 billion investment commitment from the Gulf state. The two countries signed a free trade deal a year later, which came into force last September. The UAE was Prabowo’s last stop in his first foreign trip since becoming Indonesia’s new leader in October. “Now that I have earned the trust from my people to lead Indonesia, I want to continue our good relations,” Prabowo told UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan during their first official meeting in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Jakarta’s priorities are focused on defense, food security and energy security, he said, adding that the government also wants to implement a downstream policy that includes domestic processing of raw materials. “This means we want to perform a massive industrialization,” Prabowo said. “In this context, we see that the UAE and Indonesia have similar priorities. We can work together across different sectors and we want to invite the UAE to actively participate in our economy.” The two leaders also presided over the signing of several agreements as part of their meeting, covering areas such as technology, renewable energy, infrastructure and health. “They agreed to increase trade between the two countries, specifically by optimizing the utilization of Indonesia-UAE CEPA,” Indonesian foreign ministry spokesperson Roy Soemirat told Arab News on Sunday. “President Prabowo welcomed the UAE president’s invitation to strengthen cooperation in infrastructure and collaboration in international forums to resolve global issues, including peaceful conflict resolution.” Prabowo’s visit to Abu Dhabi was his second this year, following a trip in May as president-elect. He was concluding his first overseas trip as president, which also included stops in China, the US, and the UK.Influential people who died in 2024
SINGAPORE: With Allianz out of the picture, Income Insurance is now back to the drawing board . German insurance multinational Allianz withdrew its S$2.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) bid to acquire 51 per cent of Income on Dec 16, ending a five-month contentious saga that saw public backlash and the Singapore government stepping in to stop the deal. A core consideration is the social mission of Income. Formerly a co-operative founded in 1970 under the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to provide essential, affordable insurance to underserved workers, it became a corporate entity in 2022 to achieve flexibility and growth options. In blocking the acquisition , the government also revealed that there was a surplus of about S$2 billion at corporatisation that received ministerial exemption to be carried over to the new entity. The surplus would otherwise have had to be returned to the Co-operative Societies Liquidation Account to benefit the sector generally. The last straw was Allianz’s intent to reduce Income Insurance’s share capital and return some S$1.85 billion in cash to shareholders within three years. This is tantamount to value capture of public money for private gains. With this new information revealed – disclosed publicly in parliament in October – the capital reduction plan by Allianz completely weakened initial assurances that it would maintain Income Insurance’s social mission. SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE BUYER Where does the Allianz withdrawal leave Income Insurance? An immediate option is to look for an alternative acquirer. Earlier arguments for the acquisition revolved around keeping it competitive. Majority stakeholder NTUC Enterprise had revealed that Income had lost on several key contracts . In the current state, Income Insurance will need to continually attain financial resilience, especially during crises. To protect policyholders, it must be competitive and earn its return to capital. More importantly, it must meet the regulatory capital adequacy requirements. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there were financial injections by majority stakeholder NTUC Enterprise amounting to S$100 million and another S$300 million on standby to safeguard the solvency. In addition, Income Insurance itself had to issue S$800 million in subordinated bonds. While Income Insurance’s capital adequacy ratio is currently at a healthy level, it cannot rely always on NTUC Enterprise or the broader labour movement for support, particularly as a bailor of last resort. A LOCAL WHITE KNIGHT? So who may be a possible white knight in acquiring Income Insurance? Given public sentiment arising from the Allianz episode, it is less likely that a global player will be acceptable to the stakeholders and the public, even if there are no lack of possibilities from Europe or North America or even Asian countries such as China and Japan. How about local entities such as Temasek or DBS Bank? As a state-owned global investment company, Temasek seems a suitable entity to own Income Insurance directly. It has a strong social mission and a portfolio of key companies across the world. But should Temasek move into insurance simply to prop up any company? Will this, on the contrary, result in inefficiencies? Something will have to give and someone will have to pay the bill. Less returns for Temasek means less contribution to the national budget and some other social needs may be displaced. DBS Bank, a global award-winning and the largest Southeast Asian bank by assets, may be poised as a possible local bank to acquire Income Insurance. It has historically owned the Insurance Corporation of Singapore which was subsequently sold in 2001. Compared to the other two big local banks which have insurance subsidiaries – OCBC Bank has Great Eastern and UOB has United Overseas Insurance – DBS Bank may merge its existing insurance offerings with those of Income Insurance to achieve economy of scale as well as cross-product benefits with the rest of the bank. But any move by DBS Bank must be driven by solid finance, especially now that the S$2 billion surplus is probably off-limits. The acquisition must make commercial sense even if the social mission is retained – it cannot be national service. PURSUIT OF ORGANIC GROWTH Another option is for Income Insurance to grow from within itself or organically. This is a most obvious and viable choice as new strategies for market and product development can be actively pursued. New ideas and talent will be needed for organic growth. It may strengthen its distribution strategy, such as through the financial advisory channels which it is already pursuing. The key challenge may be one of contradiction: Income must go mass market yet focus on the target worker market – a dual market strategy may be considered but this is difficult to manage. Diversification into related financial products may be considered. But this risks diluting its insurance focus and distracting management attention. New sources of capital will have to be sought. One suggestion has been to list on the stock exchange. But this has to be weighed carefully considering the compliance requirement and the shareholder pressure for financial returns. Income Insurance probably cannot revert to its original co-operative model. There may be merits but the key question is where future funding may come from. Should the trade unions foot the bill thus draining resources from other areas of worker welfare? Will mass market customers support its social mission and buy into products that aren’t the most competitively priced? The choice of strategic options to get to Income Insurance 2.0 is complex. It needs to retain its social character but must also be able to withstand the global market test. This is a tall order. And if it fails, the broader question will be: What would Singapore lose in the insurance space especially on the social front and should public funds be allocated accordingly? Lawrence Loh is Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability of NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore, where he is also Professor in Practice of Strategy and Policy.KBC Group NV grew its stake in The ODP Co. ( NASDAQ:ODP – Free Report ) by 88.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,844 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 868 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in ODP were worth $55,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ODP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ODP by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,982,531 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $211,273,000 after purchasing an additional 16,584 shares during the period. DME Capital Management LP lifted its position in ODP by 29.9% during the second quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 2,222,470 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $87,276,000 after buying an additional 511,890 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in ODP by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 832,871 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $32,707,000 after buying an additional 136,730 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in ODP by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 337,447 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $17,902,000 after buying an additional 12,262 shares during the period. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its stake in shares of ODP by 106.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 330,177 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $12,966,000 after acquiring an additional 170,149 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.56% of the company’s stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets ODP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of ODP from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of ODP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. ODP Price Performance ODP stock opened at $27.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $821.07 million, a PE ratio of -29.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $29.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.90. The ODP Co. has a 12-month low of $23.69 and a 12-month high of $58.98. ODP ( NASDAQ:ODP – Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.60 by ($0.89). The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. ODP had a negative net margin of 0.52% and a positive return on equity of 12.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The ODP Co. will post 3.26 EPS for the current year. About ODP ( Free Report ) The ODP Corporation provides business services and supplies, products, and digital workplace technology solutions for small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company operates through four divisions: ODP Business Solutions, Office Depot, Veyer, and Varis. Further Reading Five stocks we like better than ODP What is the S&P/TSX Index? Vertiv’s Cool Tech Makes Its Stock Red-Hot Basic Materials Stocks Investing MarketBeat Week in Review – 11/18 – 11/22 How to Invest in Biotech Stocks 2 Finance Stocks With Competitive Advantages You Can’t Ignore Receive News & Ratings for ODP Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for ODP and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
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