Trump selects longtime adviser Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and RussiaINDIANAPOLIS — There’s more than just school pride and bragging rights to all that bellyaching over who might be in and who might be out of college football ‘s first 12-team playoff. Try the more than $115 million that will be spread across the conferences at the end of the season, all depending on who gets in and which teams go the farthest. According to the College Football Playoff website, the 12 teams simply making the bracket earn their conferences $4 million each. Another $4 million goes to conferences whose teams get into the quarterfinals. Then, there’s $6 million more for teams that make the semifinals and another $6 million for those who play for the title. Most of this bonanza comes courtesy of ESPN, which is forking over $1.3 billion a year to televise the new postseason. A lot of that money is already earmarked — more goes to the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference than the Big 12 or Atlantic Coast — but a lot is up for grabs in the 11 games that will play out between the opening round on Dec. 20 and the final on Jan. 20. In all, the teams that make the title game will bring $20 million to their conferences, all of which distribute that money, along with billions in TV revenue and other sources, in different ways. In fiscal 2022-23, the Big Ten, for instance, reported revenue of nearly $880 million and distributed about $60.5 million to most of its members. The massive stakes might help explain the unabashed lobbying coming from some corners of the football world, as the tension grows in advance of Sunday’s final rankings, which will set the bracket. Earlier this week, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark lit into the selection committee, which doesn’t have a single team higher than 15 in the rankings. That does two things: It positions the Big 12 as a one-bid league, and also threatens to makes its champion — either Arizona State or Iowa State — the fifth-best among conference titlists that get automatic bids. Only the top four of those get byes, which could cost the Big 12 a spot in the quarterfinals — or $4 million. “The committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes,” Yormark said this week, while slamming the idea of teams with two losses in his conference being ranked worse than teams with three in the SEC. The ACC is also staring at a one-bid season with only No. 8 SMU inside the cut line of this week’s projected bracket. Miami’s loss last week all but bumped the Hurricanes out of the playoffs, a snub that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said left him “incredibly shocked and disappointed.” “As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field,” Phillips said in a statement. The lobbying and bickering filters down to the campuses that feel the impact. And, of course, to social media. One of the most entertaining episodes came earlier this week when athletic directors at Iowa State and SMU went back and forth about whose team was more deserving. There are a few stray millions that the selection committee cannot really influence, including a $3 million payment to conferences that make the playoff. In a reminder that all these kids are going to school, after all, the conferences get $300,000 per football team that meets academic requirements to participate in the postseason. (That’s basically everyone). Get local news delivered to your inbox!
5 top tech gifts for the holidaysThe dividend yield on the average stock has fallen over the past year due to the surge in the stock market. For example, the S&P 500 's dividend yield has declined from 1.6% a year ago to around 1.2% these days, which is near its lowest level in over 20 years. However, some stocks still offer higher-yielding dividends . Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD 1.51% ) , Clearway Energy ( CWEN 0.46% ) ( CWEN.A 0.91% ) , and Brookfield Renewable ( BEP 1.59% ) ( BEPC 2.24% ) stand out to a few Fool.com contributors as great stocks to buy as we head into the new year. Here's why they're great income stocks to buy right now. Enterprise Products Partners is built to pay you well Reuben Gregg Brewer (Enterprise Products Partners): How about buying an investment-grade-rated energy company with a shockingly reliable business and a 6.5% yield? If that sounds good to you, then you may want to buy North American midstream giant Enterprise Products Partners before 2024 is over. From a business perspective, this high-yielder owns the energy infrastructure that helps move oil and natural gas around the world. The energy sector couldn't operate without the pipelines, storage, transportation, and processing assets Enterprise owns. And its customers are happy to pay the fees necessary to use Enterprise's infrastructure, making the master limited partnership (MLP) a simple toll-taker business. The big takeaway -- volatile commodity prices aren't the main driver of financial results. This is a big part of the reason it has been able to reliably increase its distribution for 26 consecutive years. Throw in an investment-grade-rated balance sheet and the fact that distributable cash flow covers the distribution by around 1.7 times, and there's a lot of room for adversity before a distribution cut would be a material risk. Sure, the lofty yield will make up most of an investor's return here, but Enterprise does have around $6.9 billion in capital investment projects underway and the size to act as an industry consolidator. Slow and steady distribution growth looks likely to continue for years to come from this high yielder. The power to grow its dividend in 2025 and beyond Matt DiLallo (Clearway Energy ): Clearway Energy currently offers investors a 6.5% dividend yield. That's a hefty payout compared to the S&P 500 , which yields around 1.2%. The clean energy infrastructure owner is having another solid year. It's on track to meet or exceed its guidance of generating $395 million of cash available for distribution (CAFD) this year. That has given it the power to increase its dividend by 7% over the course of the year, hitting its goal of delivering dividend growth toward the high end of its 5% to 8% annual target range. Clearway has already lined up a lot of growth for 2025 and beyond. It expects previously funded investments to grow its CAFD to $420 million at the mid-point of its target range. That should enable it to increase its dividend by about 6.8% over the next year. The company already has more growth lined up for 2026 and is building toward 2027. It has secured several new investments in renewable energy projects that will enter commercial service over the next year and has started securing new contracts for its natural gas-fired power plants. These initiatives should help grow CAFD per share at a 7.5% to 12.5% compound annual rate in the 2026 to 2027 timeframe from next year's baseline. That should support another 6.5% increase in the dividend in 2026 and growth toward the lower end of its target range the following year. Beyond 2027, Clearway sees the potential to continue growing its CAFD and dividend at a mid- to high-single-digit annual rate as it continues investing in new renewable energy assets. Given its already high yield, Clearway has the potential to produce high total returns in the coming years as it grows its CAFD and dividend payments . That combination of yield and growth makes it look like a great income stock to buy before this year is over. Lots more dividend growth ahead Neha Chamaria (Brookfield Renewable) : Shares of Brookfield Renewable have significantly underperformed the S&P 500 in 2024. Still, Brookfield Renewable has big growth plans, is steadily growing its funds from operations (FFO ), and is sending out bigger dividend checks to its shareholders year after year. Brookfield Renewable grew its FFO per unit by around 7% during the nine months that ended Sept. 30 and expects to grow it by more than 10% in the full year, backed by its recent acquisitions and development projects. In fact, 2024 will be the company's strongest year for investments in growth as it continues to steadily raise cash to invest from two sources: cash-flow growth and proceeds from the sale of mature assets. In 2024 alone, Brookfield Renewable expects to commission 7 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity, a record for the company. Its total development pipeline soared to a whopping 200 GW at the end of the third quarter. Brookfield Renewable expects to grow its pipeline even further in 2025 and 2026 and believes it should be able to grow its annual FFO per unit by 10% or more over the next five years and beyond. For investors, Brookfield Renewable's FFO growth should translate into bigger dividends. The company expects to grow its annual dividend by 5% to 9%. Couple that with a high dividend yield -- its corporate shares currently yield 5.1%, while units of the partnership yield 6.3% -- and Brookfield Renewable looks like a solid dividend stock to buy before 2024 draws to a close. Note that purchasing corporate shares can help investors in the U.S. avoid filing a K-1 tax form and foreign tax withholding.
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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquise "Hollywood" Brown, who has missed the entire regular season with a sternoclavicular joint dislocation suffered during an Aug. 10 preseason matchup , could potentially return to practice soon. "According to multiple sources, the Chiefs are optimistic that Brown will rejoin his teammates on the practice fields in mid-December," Nate Taylor of The Athletic reported. Brown signed a one-year, $7 million contract with the Chiefs this offseason. The 27-year-old caught 51 passes for 574 yards and four touchdowns in 14 games for the Arizona Cardinals last year. This article will be updated soon to provide more information and analysis. For more from Bleacher Report on this topic and from around the sports world, check out our B/R app , homepage and social feeds—including Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and TikTok .
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