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ARLINGTON, Texas — Kind of a weird week in the Big 12, yeah? One of the conference’s former flagship programs (Texas) is playing for the SEC championship in its first season away from the Big 12. One team it passed over (SMU) is ranked higher than any of its current members and will contend for an ACC championship. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark publicly squabbled with the College Football Playoff committee and Group of Five competition on two separate occasions. Saturday’s conference championship game at AT&T Stadium yielded an announced attendance of 55,889, which, outside of the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season, was the lowest in the event’s 28-year history; last year’s, between Texas and Oklahoma State, drew a record 84,523 for what it’s worth. The secondary ticket market get-in price for the Big 12 championship game was as low as $16 on Saturday morning, according to Vivid Seats, and their cheapest SEC championship game tickets started at $110. And, yet, Arizona State gave the Big 12 a reason to cheer. The Sun Devils (11-2) throttled Iowa State, 45-19, to win the Big 12 championship in their first season as a member after the Pac-12 folded. Senior running back Cam Skattebo (208 total yards, 3 touchdowns) rumbled up and down the field, paced a blowout and helped give the Big 12 exactly what it needs: a team that looks like it might be worthy of a top-four playoff seed. “We’re 11-1 with our starting quarterbacking, having beat four ranked teams, having won the Big 12 championship,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “I think there should be a real chance we get a first-round bye, and I definitely think we should host a game.” Wouldn’t that be something? Yormark, before Saturday’s game, said that the conference is “building something special.” He talked up the conference’s “magical” November in which half the league remained in contention for a title game berth and a four-way tiebreaker (which also included BYU and Colorado) was called upon to decide Saturday’s matchup. Still, the Big 12 lacked a marquee contender this season. The kind that looks like a legitimate perennial postseason player. Like, say, a Texas or Oklahoma. The Longhorns and Sooners combined for five of the Big 12′s six playoff appearances under the original four-team format before they jumped to the SEC prior to this season. Texas will play for a top-four playoff seed on Saturday against Georgia in the SEC championship game. Oklahoma is, well, at least in better shape than their in-state rival Oklahoma State still in the Big 12. Internally, BYU had a chance to plant its flag this season but floundered late; Colorado has star power, a baseline of success but no serious postseason berth to show for it; TCU could’ve been in the driver’s seat after its CFP berth two years ago but is just 13-11 since. “I think, within time, you’re going to find that certain schools will distance themselves from others,” Yormark said. “I think that’s the evolution we’re going to go through. Parity and depth right now is what I’m selling, candidly, but moving forward I think it might be a little different.” Arizona State, in Year 1 of the new-look Big 12 and the expanded playoff, might’ve been the first to raise its hand. The Sun Devils were picked to finish dead last in the conference’s preseason poll but won five straight games to finish the regular season and force their way to JerryWorld. Dillingham, 34, is a rising star. Freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt (219 yards, 4 total touchdowns) is too. Skattebo — who surpassed 2,000 scrimmage yards on Saturday — is “the best player in the nation,” according to his quarterback. Their collective performance Saturday left no doubt that they belong in the CFP. It’s just a matter of whether they’ve done enough to convince the committee that they belong in that cushy top four where Yormark believes they do. The Sun Devils, ranked No. 15 in last Tuesday’s playoff poll, could certainly still be seeded No. 12 in Sunday’s final playoff bracket as the fifth highest-ranked conference champion. The four highest-ranked conference champions — who, according to the most recent rankings, are the winners of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Boise State of the Mountain West — will receive first-round byes. Boise State (No. 10) beat UNLV in the MWC championship game on Friday night to secure safe passage into the playoff. Yormark teed off on the selection committee on Wednesday and argued that no Group of Five team should be ranked higher than the Big 12 champion. He doubled down on Saturday, referenced his conference’s strength of schedule and claimed that there’s “no comparison” between the Big 12 and “any G5 conference champion.” The Sun Devils might have a chance to prove that a truth. If they remain the No. 12 seed and if Boise State remains the No. 4 seed, the two would be in line to meet in the quarterfinals if Arizona State wins its first-round game on the road. If their blowout win versus Iowa State sways the committee enough to move them above Boise State and into a top-four seed in Sunday’s final rankings, that same aforementioned quarterfinal Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Skattebo rank No. 1 and No. 2 in all-purpose yards per game this season. Jeanty is a Heisman Trophy candidate, though Yormark said Saturday that he doesn’t think “there’s any competition” for the award with Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter also a finalist. Yeah, if you hadn’t noticed, he’s not too fond of anything that has to do with the Group of Five right now. He’ll see which side of the argument the playoff committee falls on come Sunday. The Sun Devils, at least, made it interesting. “I do think we need to have a really thoughtful conversation [about] the selection committee and how the ranking is being done,” Yormark said. “Again, look at resumes. Look at data. The data doesn’t lie. So we’ll see where that goes.” ©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.www.30 jili.com 。

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Online library drops its legal battle to provide free e-books without publishers' permission NEW YORK (AP) — A prolonged and closely watched copyright case involving an online library's unauthorized offering of free e-books has ended after the defendant, Internet Archive, decided not to challenge an appeal's court's ruling against it. Hillel Italie, The Associated Press Dec 6, 2024 1:22 PM Dec 6, 2024 1:35 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message NEW YORK (AP) — A prolonged and closely watched copyright case involving an online library's unauthorized offering of free e-books has ended after the defendant, Internet Archive, decided not to challenge an appeal's court's ruling against it. In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a Manhattan federal court's decision that found the Archive in violation of copyright law and granted a permanent injunction. The Archive had until this week to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to do so. In 2020, four major publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — sued the Archive, alleging that it had illegally provided free copies of more than 100 books, including fiction by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. The Archive had contended that its program of scanning and sharing books, “controlled digital lending,” was protected by fair use law. “After five years of litigation, we are thrilled to see this important case rest with the decisive opinion of the Second Circuit, which leaves no room for arguments that ‘controlled digital lending’ is anything more than infringement," Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement. The Archive’s director of library services, Chris Freeland, posted a brief statement on the Archive's web site saying that “While we are deeply disappointed with the Second Circuit’s opinion,” they would “continue to honor” an agreement to “remove books from lending at their member publishers’ requests.” Hillel Italie, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message More The Mix Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare's CEO left NYC on a bus after the shooting Dec 6, 2024 2:01 PM Health Canada says daily cannabis use hasn't changed much since legalization Dec 6, 2024 1:56 PM Tech stocks help lift S&P/TSX Friday, U.S. stock markets mixed after jobs report Dec 6, 2024 1:50 PM Featured FlyerNone

Money Research Collective’s editorial team solely created this content. Opinions are their own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how companies may appear. Many featured companies advertise with us. How we make money . By Julia Glum MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE December 6, 2024 Putting in the effort now to get your financial house in order will be worth it come January. We all know Santa’s making a list and checking it twice. But what kind of list, you ask? An end-of-year money to-do list, of course. Christmas and Hanukkah are fast approaching, and there’s less than a month until the ball drops, which means it’s prime time to conduct a financial checkup before the new year arrives. A lot of these tasks involve pre-planning to avoid playing catch-up or worrying about something you should have already done, according to Alanna Morey, a private wealth advisor with Ameriprise Financial. Your goal to shoot for, she says: “No surprises in 2025.” Putting in the effort now to get your financial house in order will be worth it later. With that in mind, here’s an end-of-year financial to-do list for 2024. Revisit your budget Jaime Eckels, a partner at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, says December is a great opportunity to look back at the previous year and determine whether you stayed on target. You should scrutinize your credit card statements and ask yourself: How did your plans work out? Were you able to follow your budget? Did you spend way more than you intended on, say, espresso martinis and the Eras Tour at the expense of your short-term savings for a new iPhone? “We always talk about budgeting and how important it is [but] it only works if you can actually check back and reflect and see how you did compared to what your goals were,” Eckels says. You can then take what you learned and apply it to your spending plan for 2025. For instance, if you weren’t able to stick to the recommended 50-30-20 breakdown in 2024, maybe you need to adjust those thresholds. If surging home and auto insurance premiums are dragging you down, maybe you need to shop around for better rates. Save for retirement Morey says to check in on your retirement savings plan next. If you have an individual retirement account , or IRA, there’s still time to max it out for 2024: The deadline for IRA contributions is April 15, 2025. You can put away as much as $7,000 ($8,000 for folks age 50 or older) in your traditional and Roth IRAs, though Morey points out that there are IRS income limits to consider. You can stash as much as $23,000 in your 401(k) for 2024 (people 50 and up can throw in an extra $7,500). These contributions generally have to be organized through work, but there’s still time to contact your company’s payroll department and ask to sneak in a bit more from your remaining paycheck(s). 401(k) contributions have to be made by Dec. 31. Meet end-of-year deadlines New Year’s Eve isn’t just for downing copious amounts of champagne and finally figuring out how in the world they’re going to make “2025” into glasses . It’s also the deadline for older Americans to make required minimum distributions, or RMDs, from their retirement accounts. (The rules on this recently changed because of the SECURE 2.0 Act, so pay close attention.) Dec. 31 is typically the last day to spend funds in your Flexible Spending Account , or FSA, too. (Some FSA plans have different deadlines.) This money is use-it-or-lose-it. Luckily, there are a ton of ways to use it: FSA-eligible items include sunscreen, vitamins, tampons, contacts, acupuncture, travel pillows and more. Review your portfolio Morey suggests speaking with your financial advisor about whether your investment portfolio still aligns with your goals. One easy place to start is by asking yourself whether you’re still comfortable with your asset allocation, which refers to how investments are divided among stocks, bonds and cash based on your risk tolerance, time horizon and goals. In general, investors can afford to take on more risk when they’re younger. The older you get, the less money you’ll probably want to have in stocks. Eckels says this time of year is also a good time to examine your brokerage accounts and see if there are any opportunities to harvest losses. Update your estate plan Death is not super-fun to think about when decking the halls and blasting *NSYNC’s Home for Christmas , but there’s no time like the present to establish what Eckels calls your crisis plan. Although you can create a basic will on your own through a service like LegalZoom, it’s probably smarter to reach out to an estate attorney. They can help you put together an airtight package of end-of-life documents , including medical and financial powers of attorney. Folks who are already ahead of the curve and have an existing estate plan aren’t off the hook. They should sit down and revisit everything, Eckels says. “Are the provisions appropriate? Are the individuals you named 10 years ago still the individuals you want to make your financial and health care decisions?” she says. “Because life changes, families change, and sometimes we just set it and forget it.” Give yourself a high-five Morey urges you not to forget the crucial step of self-congratulation. No, really: She says that amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays and working through this list of financial tasks, you should take a moment and hype yourself up for all the money goals you reached in 2024. That could be getting a raise at work, buying a house, taking a trip you’ve been saving for or paying for a flight with credit card points — whatever matters to you and will motivate you going forward. “Pat yourself on the back for the good work,” she says. “Congratulate yourself for the hard work you’ve been putting in, and then make a plan for what you want to do in the coming year.” Click below to begin applying to a Debt Relief program Recommended for debts above $20,000 Free consultation, 100% Confidential Serving customers with $15,000 of debt and more More from Money: The FSA Deadline Is Coming. Here Are 12 Last-Minute Ways to Spend Your Dollars Will 2025 Finally Be a Buyer’s Market in Housing? How Low Will Interest Rates Go? Julia Glum is Money's news editor, keeping her finger on the pulse of financial trends that affect Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. A 2014 graduate of the University of Florida's journalism school, she previously covered breaking news, politics and education at Newsweek and International Business Times.Julia joined Money in 2018; during her time as a reporter, she wrote frequently about Amazon, passive income, stimulus checks and creative ways people make money online (think: Vine compilations, Cash App Friday and Facebook gift groups). As an editor, she oversees Money’s tax coverage, which includes extensive reporting on tax credits, year-to-year policy changes, tax refunds and the IRS’s ongoing efforts to modernize. For several years, Julia has assisted with Money’s annual Best Colleges rating and Best Places to Live rankings. Recently, she also led Money’s 50th anniversary celebrations, producing the Money Classic newsletter and rolling out Changemakers, a project profiling 50 innovators working to revolutionize personal finance.Julia has interviewed National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, actor Danny Devito, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller, rapper Killer Mike, real estate guru Ryan Serhant and many others. Her work has been cited or otherwise shared by the New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, theSkimm, Mashable, CNBC and POLITICO. She’s appeared on Good Morning America, CBS News, PIX11, WGN, the Mountain West News Bureau and more. Julia is based in New York City. You can find her at juliaglum.com .

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