Month: January 2025

For Jimmy Carter, faith was inseparable from politics and life  The Washington Post
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Bill Bender
On Nov. 23, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney took a jab at the 12-team College Football Playoff and said, “We basically have an SEC-Big Ten Invitational.” 
 If Sporting News quarterfinal picks come true, then that will be the case for the final four teams, at least. The Big Ten is guaranteed at least one team in the semifinals. No. 1 Oregon and No. 8 Ohio State meet in the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1. That is part of a triple-header that also includes a Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl matchup between No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Texas and the Allstate Sugar Bowl between No. 2 Georgia and No. 7 Notre Dame. Will the SEC get a sweep there? 
The weekend starts with a New Year’s Eve matchup between No. 6 Penn State and No. 3 Boise State at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. The lower seed is favored in three of the four games, and if the favorites win then it will be Big Ten and SEC teams only in the semifinals. 
Invitation only, right? Here are our picks against the spread for the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff picks: 

Vrbo Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 Boise State vs. No. 6 Penn State (-11) 
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., ESPN 
The Nittany Lions are 7-0 S/U in the Fiesta Bowl, and the defense limited SMU to 253 total yards and forced three turnovers in a 38-10 victory in the first round. Penn State ranks sixth in the FBS in rushing defense at 100.5 yards per game. How does that stack up against Ashton Jeanty, who had 192 yards and three TDs against Oregon on Sept. 7? The Broncos are 3-0 S/U at the Fiesta Bowl all time, and Maddux Madsen has 22 TDs and three interceptions this season. Can Boise State force Penn State out of their comfort zone? Or will the tag team of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen – both backs averaged more than 6.0 yards per carry in the first round – have success against a Boise State defense that allowed 112.5 yards per game? 
Boise State is 16-2 S/U since Spencer Danielson took over last season, and those two losses were as an underdog to UCLA in the LA Bowl last season and the Ducks in Week 2. The Nittany Lions were 4-4 ATS when favored by double digits this season. Penn State moves on, but the Broncos hang around longer than the Mustangs did into the second half to pull out the cover. 
Pick: Penn State wins 31-21 and FAILS TO COVER the spread. 
SN’s PLAYOFF HQ: Live CFP scores | Updated CFP bracket | Full CFP schedule
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: No. 4 Arizona State vs. No. 5 Texas (-14) 
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ESPN 
This is a huge spread for a quarterfinal – and Arizona State can play the disrespect card here. Sam Leavitt had three TD passes or more in five of the Sun Devils’ last six games, and Cam Skattebo (1,568 rushing yards, 19 TDs) will test the Longhorns’ defense. Texas holds opposing quarterbacks to a 100.4 passer rating, which is second best in the nation. The Longhorns also rank ninth in the FBS in rush defense (109.5 ypg.). All-Americans Anthony Hill Jr. and Jahdae Barron are game-changers on that side. Arizona State receiver Jorydn Tyson (collarbone) has not ruled out a CFP comeback, but he would be doubtful for this game. 
Can Arizona State slow down the Longhorns? The Sun Devils allowed 3.8 yards per carry and forced 22 turnovers this season, so the challenge is slowing down Tre Wisner and Jaydon Blue, who combined for 256 yards and four TDs in the first round against Clemson and forcing a few mistakes from Quinn Ewers. Arizona State was 4-2 S/U and 4-2 ATS as an underdog this season, but this is the first spread of more than 10 points. Texas is 5-0 S/U and 2-3 ATS when favored between 10-20 points, and the covers were against Oklahoma and Clemson. 
Pick: Texas wins 38-21 and COVERS the spread. 
MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS:
Rose Bowl: No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 8 Ohio State (-2.5) 
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 5 p.m., ESPN 
This should be a fantastic rematch. The Ducks beat the Buckeyes 32-31 on Oct. 12 in a game where both teams left points on the board. Ohio State built momentum with a 42-17 victory against Tennessee in the first round. Will Howard was 4 of 5 for 125 yards and two TDs – both to Jeremiah Smith – and an interception on passes of 20 yards or more against Tennessee, according to Pro Football Focus. Howard had just four passing attempts of 20 yards or more in the first matchup against Oregon. Expect Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to be more aggressive in the rematch, and they can live with the mistakes if the running game is productive. 
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel was 4 of 4 for 177 yards and two TDs on 20-plus yard passes in the first matchup. That caught the Buckeyes by surprise in the secondary, and if that happens again then the Ducks will win the rematch. Dan Lanning has had time to add wrinkles in the running game with Jordan James, and the defense has four players with at least five sacks that will get after Howard. Rematches are difficult, and Ohio State is 3-0 S/U in postseason matchups against the Ducks. We picked Oregon to win the national championship when the bracket was released. We’ll stick with the pick knowing an Ohio State upset is possible. 
Pick: Oregon wins 31-28 in an UPSET. 
COLLEGE FOOTBALL AWARDS
Allstate Sugar Bowl: No. 2 Georgia (-1.5) vs. No. 7 Notre Dame
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m., ESPN 
The Sugar Bowl should be a classic defensive struggle between the Bulldogs and Irish. Georgia beat Notre Dame 20-19 in 2017 and 23-17 in 2019 in a tightly-contested home-and-home series, and we expect this to be the same kind of game. 
Georgia backup quarterback Gunner Stockton will be the focus. He is starting in place of Carson Beck (elbow), and he’s up against the Irish, the only team in the country with a passer efficiency defense rating below 100. That means Stockton must make high-percentage throws against a secondary that features SN All-American Xavier Watts. Will Georgia establish a running game with Trevor Etienne against Notre Dame’s interior defense with Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills (knee) out? 
Look for Notre Dame to take a cue from Georgia Tech in the running game with Riley Leonard, who has the benefit of three running backs who average more than 6.0 yards per carry in Jeremiyah Love (7.4 ypc.), Jadarian Price (6.8 ypc.) and Aneyas Williams (6.6 ypc.). That should open up the passing game. The Irish are 3-3 S/U and 4-1-1 ATS as an underdog with Marcus Freeman. Georgia was 0-2 S/U when favored by three points or less this season. Despite those trends, we will go with the rested Bulldogs. 
Pick: Georgia wins 24-17 and COVERS the spread.
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Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.

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If the Idaho Legislature succeeds in pushing through a school voucher scheme this session, which starts next week, rural kids stand to be the ones who lose out the most.
Only about one in 20 Idaho kids goes to a private school, and in about half the counties in the state, there is zero private school enrollment, as Ryan Suppe of Idaho Education News recently reported. In a whole lot of other counties, private school access his very limited. The bulk of private schools exist in just a few of Idaho’s counties near its largest urban centers.
But doesn’t that mean that rural kids simply won’t get the benefits of a voucher program? After all, proponents of vouchers have repeatedly asserted that a voucher program — or a school choice initiative, if you prefer the propaganda term — won’t divert money from the state’s public education system. So rural school quality shouldn’t degrade simply because a voucher system exists alongside it, right?
Here’s the truth: Everything in the state budget is in competition with everything else. The government gets so much money in taxes, and each of those dollars can be used for only one thing. A dollar that goes to the State Brand Inspector’s office can’t go to roads and bridges, though these two government activities have basically nothing to do with one another.
All attempts to wall off public school funding from voucher programs are ultimately futile. Using separate, dedicated funding streams for certain programs provides the appearance of insulating certain programs from the effects of others, but funding streams are redirected constantly.
Within just a few years, the Legislature created sharply rising residential property taxes by freezing the homeowners exemption and repeatedly attempted to relieve this rising burden by diverting income tax dollars through a “surplus eliminator.” The surplus eliminator funding mechanism was originally dreamed up as a way of plugging the chronic hole in state transportation infrastructure funding, something with no relationship to property tax relief.
All kinds of arcane things can and have been done to move money from one pot to another. Any assurance that one pot of money is safe from another should be treated like what it is: a politician’s promise.
So any voucher program will put public school funding in competition with private school funding (along with fraudsters who do things like claim vouchers for kids who don’t exist.)
The biggest losers will be in vast swaths of rural Idaho, especially eastern and central Idaho, which has exceedingly few private school options. The funding for their schools would be in competition with funding for expensive private schools in the western half of the state.
And even if there is some private school option available in your local area, what if the only local private school is Lutheran, and your family is Catholic? Now you have to choose between your kid receiving a religious education that goes against your beliefs and having no real access to this new voucher program.
This is why a religiously neutral, quality public education system is far and away the best option. Even the recent poll from the Mountain States Policy Center, which advocates for school choice policies, shows most Idahoans think more money should be spent on Idaho’s public schools. And working to improve the public school system is the option most Idahoans seem to prefer, particularly in rural areas.
Senate Education Chairman Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls, pointed out at a Statesman legislative preview that the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee, “did a survey, and overwhelmingly that was not a priority for them. They’re focused on things like quality of education, reading, writing and arithmetic and what can we do to better enable our public system to do that.”
This isn’t just the case in Idaho. As ProPublica reported, opposition to vouchers from rural conservatives is growing around the nation.
That’s because the push for vouchers isn’t meant to benefit their kids. Big national dark money groups are not interested in maintaining the public education system in the long term. They know it would be politically disastrous to just yank the rug out from under everyone. So the idea is to start small and get the ball rolling.
What’s at stake is not, as Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Chair Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, asserted at a recent debate, the “civil rights issue of our time.” What’s at stake is a whole lot of money for whoever owns the schools receiving these vouchers.
A privatized system will never be as good for students as a whole as a public one. The foundation of private school comparative success is the ability to exclude students in the greatest need. Any school that receives public funding should have no right to hand-pick its student body.
Privatization also comes with bad incentives. Many private schools operate on a for-profit basis. So every dollar they don’t spend on your kid they can give to their owners or shareholders.
For-profit colleges have been, by and large, a national boondoggle, eating up huge swaths of federal education funding while providing often useless degrees to unsuspecting students. But they were very good at paying dividends to their shareholders. Imagine an entire primary and secondary education system built on the for-profit college model.
And if you’re in rural Idaho where there isn’t a profit to be made off your kids? Expect that your kids will get to pick through the scraps left over after the fraudsters and shareholders have had their feast at the public trough.
Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman.
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On the first day of the New Year, Archbishop Makarios of Australia visited the Greek-dominated suburb of Marrickville in Sydney and exchanged greetings with the devout members of the Parish of St. Nicholas.
His Eminence, accompanied by the priestly head of the vibrant Greek Orthodox Parish, Fr. Michael Tsolakis, and Fr. Socrates Dokos from the Parish-Community of the Resurrection of Christ in Kogarah, celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the commemoration of St. Basil the Great.
He then presided over a Doxology service to mark the beginning of the New Year 2025, blessed and cut the parish’s Vasilopita, and finally joined the large congregation in singing traditional New Year’s carols with heartfelt emotion.
In his brief address, Archbishop Makarios wished everyone an abundance of God’s blessings in their lives and families, while also encouraging them to find strength to face any challenges or trials the new year may bring.
He also encouraged them paternally to include spiritual goals alongside their worldly aspirations and to broaden their spiritual perspectives.
“For the New Year, we all make plans,” he noted, “and it is good that we do so. But we must also set spiritual goals,” he emphasized, “because worldly and human plans can easily be disrupted.”
He continued, “We should aim to set spiritual goals—not necessarily grand or difficult ones, but small and meaningful ones, such as resolving never to lie again or to refrain from judging our neighbor. These small steps can help us progress spiritually, alongside our advancements in other areas.”
Present at the Eucharistic gathering and the cutting of the Vasilopita were, among others, the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis, and the Chief Justice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Greek criminal lawyer Athanasios Kechagioglou.
The Consul General, who received a piece of the Vasilopita as a representative of the Greek State, delivered a brief address at the invitation of Archbishop Makarios.
In his remarks, he wished everyone a “Happy New Year” and shared the traditional New Year’s greeting from his native Kefalonia—a wish for freedom from the burdens, sorrows, and sins of the past year. He also conveyed the heartfelt wishes of the Greek government to the expatriate community, warmly encouraging them to “always hold aloft the flag of Greece, as you are already doing.”











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