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This may surprise you: On two of the past three weekends I have attended a high school game on Friday night and a college game on Saturday. And I am going to get right to the point.

The high school games were by far more enjoyable and entertaining.

Here’s why: 

There were a certain continuity and flow to the Friday night games. There weren’t nearly as many stoppages. And the stoppages weren’t nearly as long. 

The high school players weren’t as big or as gifted or as fast. But the games were better.

That’s because the college games kept being interrupted by these men wearing a red cap and carrying a stick with a clock on it. We’ll call them TV commercial enforcers, who would step out onto the field three or four times a quarter and essentially stop the game for three minutes that seemed more like 10. This happened so that TV could show several different commercials selling everything from cars, to beer, to soft drinks, to insurance. You name it.

Meanwhile, in the stands, people baked or broiled. Or, in my case, stewed.

The average Division I college football game lasts three hours, 22 minutes. Some stretch to four hours and longer. Meanwhile, Millsaps and Sewanee played a two-hour, 37-minute, 27-21 game last Saturday. The difference? No TV timeouts.

You don’t notice it so much when you are at home, watching on TV, and use the three minutes to go fix a snack, or go get another beer, or go use the restroom. You sure as heck notice it when the restrooms are 50 yards and long lines away and the beer costs $10. 

And we wonder why there are huge gaps where people used to sit in the stands at stadiums these days. And we wonder why fans leave the stadium in droves beginning about halftime. We wonder why the student sections are often nearly empty in the fourth quarter. Boredom is a terrible thing.

Here’s the deal: In Division I college games these days, there are three TV timeouts in the first and third quarters, and four TV timeouts in the second and fourth quarters. They average about three minutes each. That’s an awful lot of dead time. These timeouts are known officially as “media timeouts.” Trust me, they are TV timeouts. Sports writers despise them. 

This won’t change soon. In college football these days, it is all about feeding the beast, and all the beast will eat is money. In Mississippi, the head coach at Ole Miss makes $9 million a year, or approximately 74 times as much as the state’s governor. Heck, the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss makes 16 times the annual salary of the governor. (No jokes about which one is more drastically overpaid.)

And that’s just the start. There are 61 employees listed in the Ole Miss football directory. Besides the 10 full-time coaches allowed by the NCAA, there are a lead analyst, three senior analysts and six more analysts. That’s a lot of analyzing. The head football strength and conditioning coach has four full-time assistants.

There are recruiters, lots of them, and assistant recruiters. And no, I am not picking on Ole Miss. This is everywhere at college football’s top level. The Georgia football employee directory lists a “head performance chef.”

What’s more, these programs at college football’s highest level are in a never-ending facilities race. They are in a never-ending struggle to keep up with their conference mates. 

And now we have name, image and likeness (NIL), which has raised the stakes still again. What used to be recruiting has become more like purchasing. College quarterbacks at the highest level have become millionaires. The left tackles who protect their blind side can’t be that far behind. Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., quite possibly the best player in college football, reportedly makes $1.3 million for his various NIL deals in this, his junior season. Somebody’s got to pay.

That somebody is TV. The SEC distributed $50 million to each of its member schools for the 2021-22 fiscal year. Most of that is TV money, which is why the guy with the red hat and the clock takes the field for three minutes at a time, 14 times a game, while thousands in the stands twiddle their thumbs.

This is coming from a guy who has spent, quite literally, a lifetime going to the games – games that used to last little over two hours and now often stretch to nearly twice that long. Too long. Too much dead time.

The post Here’s what’s ruining college football, three minutes at a time appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Brandon Presley announced on Tuesday that his campaign will begin airing a new ad on more than 20 radio stations that have predominantly Black audiences, the first such ad of the 2023 election cycle from the Democratic nominee for governor. 

The ad, a six-figure purchase, criticizes incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for his ties to the welfare scandal, his opposition to Medicaid expansion and his inaction on eliminating the state’s grocery tax — common themes of Presley’s campaign.

“Let me tell you about the man that is our governor,” the ad’s narrator says. “He looks down on us. Thinks Mississippians have no good sense. Was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And has spent his entire time as governor looking out for his big-shot friends instead of us. That’s Tate Reeves.”

Presley’s campaign has aired several ads this year, but the new ad will be the first one it has purchased to communicate directly to Black voters, who make up about two-thirds of Mississippi Democratic Party’s base. For the Democratic nominee to have a chance at an upset in November, he will have to draw high Black voter turnout.

Ron Owens, Presley’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the Democratic nominee’s campaign decided to invest in ways to connect with Black voters because there is “so much at stake in this election.” 

“This November, Mississippians will reject Tate Reeves because he’s had four years and done nothing to help hardworking families get ahead,” Owens said. 

Reeves has previously aired TV ads touting economic investment in the state, signing legislation into law that bans transgender youth from participating in public school athletics and tying Presley to the national Democratic Party.

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In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Dr. Andrea Hickerson, Dean of the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.

In this interview, Hickerson talks about her first year as dean, the future of the school, the effect of A.I. on journalism and the direction journalism is headed.

The post Mississippi Stories: Andrea Hickerson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The State Auditor has now branched into higher education policy thanks to a series of missives on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

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With the November general election less than two months away, no agreement has yet been reached for one or more debates between Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley.

But in an emailed response on Thursday, the Reeves campaign said, “We are looking forward to debating Brandon Presley, and working on plans as we speak.”

Michael Beyer, a spokesman for Presley, said the Presley campaign has agreed to a debate invitation from WJTV television in Jackson and television stations across the state owned by Gray Television, including WLBT in Jackson, WDAM in Laurel, WTOK in Meridian and WLOX in Biloxi.

Beyer said other entities have approached the campaign about possible debates or forums, ranging from union groups on the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi State Stennis Institute of Government/Capitol Press Corps to other television stations. Beyer said the campaign most likely would accept some of those invitations.

When asked about the possibility of debates at a Thursday news conference in Hattiesburg, Presley responded: “No update on debates. It’s obvious the governor is hiding out. He doesn’t want to debate. It’s going to take a search team to find him. He won’t even show up in his own TV commercials to talk to the people of Mississippi. So, I highly doubt he’s going to have the guts to stand toe-to-toe with me in a debate. His ads that he’s running are bald-faced lies, and he doesn’t have the guts to stand on a stage and look me in the face and say these lies and so he won’t agree to any debates. He’s scared and he knows he’s scared.”

Earlier this year on social media, Reeves, considered the front-runner for reelection on Nov. 7, challenged California Gov. Gavin Newsom to a debate on gun rights. At the time Presley said Reeves should focus on debating him.

There have been debates, in most cases multiple debates, in every Mississippi gubernatorial campaign since at least 1987 with the exception of one. In 2015, Phil Bryant, running for reelection, did not debate his Democratic opponent. In that year, the Democrats surprisingly nominated a long haul truck driver Robert Gray, who had no political experience. Bryant easily defeated Gray.

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More than 16,000 Mississippians were dropped from Medicaid in August during the latest round of the agency’s disenrollments. 

The pandemic-era federal regulations that prevented state Medicaid agencies from disenrolling beneficiaries ended in May. Since then, Medicaid divisions all over the country are reviewing their rolls for the first time in three years.

In June, 29,460 Mississippians were dropped. Another 22,507 people were disenrolled in July. 

August’s numbers bring the agency’s total number of disenrollments thus far to 68,626 people. Before unwinding began, the agency’s enrollment exceeded 900,000 people for the first time in the agency’s history.

Most concerningly, most of those who were disenrolled — 54,366 people or 79% — have not been kicked off because they’re ineligible. Instead, there were issues with their paperwork – it was either not turned in on time or was incomplete. That could mean some people have been kicked off Medicaid even though they’re still eligible. 

It’s unknown how many of the procedural disenrollments have been children. Children are most at risk of losing benefits during the unwinding process, federal research predicts, and many of them may still be eligible. Kids in low-income families comprise more than half of Mississippi’s overall Medicaid beneficiaries. 

“These are not good numbers,” said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “It’s very concerning to see … people, likely children and parents by and large, losing Medicaid for red tape or procedural reasons.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 13 states have higher procedural disenrollment rates than Mississippi. 

From June to July, 18,710 kids were unenrolled from Medicaid, when the first wave of disenrollments took place. 

Mississippi Today has requested to interview an agency official about the unwinding data, but the requests were not granted.

New enrollment numbers show that from July to August, another 12,882 children were dropped, bringing the agency’s total of children dropped since unwinding began to 31,592. 

Mississippi Medicaid’s monthly unwinding reports do not say what number of terminations were children, but Mississippi Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield confirmed that most of these disenrollments are due to unwinding.

The agency’s ex-parte rate, or automatic renewal rate, remains low. Westerfield previously told Mississippi Today that the agency wants to increase those rates, but August numbers show that of the 70,069 people up for renewal, only 10,817 were renewed on an ex-parte basis. 

That’s on par with the previous data release, which shows that of the 75,110 people up for renewal in July, 12,188 were renewed ex-parte. 

The agency in August requested permission from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for “four additional flexibilities that would reduce procedural disenrollments while increasing ex-parte renewals.” According to Westerfield, some were approved, while discussions continue about the others.

The agency’s backlog of beneficiaries to review also keeps growing. In June, about 5,000 renewals were not reviewed. About 15,000 additional reviews went uncompleted in July and another 10,000 in August. 

As unwinding continues for the next several months, the burden on the state’s already crumbling health care infrastructure grows. One report puts nearly a half of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure. 

State Republican leaders have adamantly opposed expanding Medicaid to the working poor, which research shows would bring in billions, though presumptive incoming House Speaker Jason White recently indicated he would consider expansion. His predecessor Philip Gunn largely led the effort to oppose the policy change. 

The Kaiser Family Foundation says at least 6,438,000 people nationally have been disenrolled from Medicaid as of Sept. 13.

The post ‘These are not good numbers’: Thousands more Mississippians, kids dropped from Medicaid appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Deep South is changing—and nowhere is that change more evident than in Mississippi. From shifting demographics to economic development, the state’s growing communities are proud, actively engaged hubs for tomorrow. But complex challenges remain—on criminal-justice reform, educational opportunity, climate change, and so much more.

On Nov. 30, Mississippi Today, in partnership with The Atlantic, will convene local leaders, policy makers, and journalists in Jackson to highlight the regional issues influencing the national dialogue and the importance of local journalism.

The event will be in person at The Faulkner, 518 E. Capitol St., in Jackson, and streaming virtually. Doors open at 9 a.m. The program runs from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. For questions, email events_audience@theatlantic.com.

The post Join us in Jackson for State of Our Union: Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sept. 14, 1940

With the Nazi army sweeping across Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Service Act, which required all men between 26 and 35 to register for the military draft. The decision also meant that Black men — unlike in the past — could join all branches of the U.S. military. 

“America stands at the crossroads of its destiny,” Roosevelt declared. “Time and distance have been shortened. A few weeks have seen great nations fall. We cannot remain indifferent to the philosophy of force now rampant in the world. We must and will marshal our great potential strength to fend off war from our shores. We must and will prevent our land from becoming a victim of aggression.” 

In December 1941, Japanese air forces bombed Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor, and the nation was thrust into war. With this attack on America, men, both Black and white, flooded recruitment centers to sign up.

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Everyone over the age of 6 months should get the latest COVID-19 booster, a federal expert panel recommended Tuesday after hearing an estimate that universal vaccination could prevent 100,000 more hospitalizations each year than if only the elderly were vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 for the motion after months of debate about whether to limit its recommendation to high-risk groups. A day earlier, the FDA approved the new booster, stating it was safe and effective at protecting against the COVID variants currently circulating in the U.S.

After the last booster was released, in 2022, only 17% of the U.S. population got it — compared with the roughly half of the nation who got the first booster after it became available in fall 2021. Broader uptake was hurt by pandemic weariness and evidence the shots don’t always prevent COVID infections. But those who did get the shot were far less likely to get very sick or die, according to data presented at Tuesday’s meeting.

The virus sometimes causes severe illness even in those without underlying conditions, causing more deaths in children than other vaccine-preventable diseases, as chickenpox did before vaccines against those pathogens were universally recommended.

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID has ticked up modestly in recent weeks, CDC data shows, and infectious disease experts anticipate a surge in the late fall and winter.

The shots are made by Moderna and by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, which have decided to charge up to $130 a shot. They have launched national marketing campaigns to encourage vaccination. The advisory committee deferred a decision on a third booster, produced by Novavax, because the FDA hasn’t yet approved it. Here’s what to know:

Who should get the COVID booster?

The CDC advises that everyone over 6 months old should, for the broader benefit of all. Those at highest risk of serious disease include babies and toddlers, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions including obesity. The risks are lower — though not zero — for everyone else. The vaccines, we’ve learned, tend to prevent infection in most people for only a few months. But they do a good job of preventing hospitalization and death, and by at least diminishing infections they may slow spread of the disease to the vulnerable, whose immune systems may be too weak to generate a good response to the vaccine.

Pablo Sánchez, a pediatrics professor at The Ohio State University who was the lone dissenter on the CDC panel, said he was worried the boosters hadn’t been tested enough, especially in kids. The vaccine strain in the new boosters was approved only in June, so nearly all the tests were done in mice or monkeys. However, nearly identical vaccines have been given safely to billions of people worldwide.

When should you get it?

The vaccine makers say they’ll begin rolling out the vaccine this week. If you’re in a high-risk group and haven’t been vaccinated or been sick with COVID in the past two months, you could get it right away, says John Moore, an immunology expert at Weill Cornell Medical College. If you plan to travel this holiday season, as he does, Moore said, it would make sense to push your shot to late October or early November, to maximize the period in which protection induced by the vaccine is still high.

Who will pay for it?

When the ACIP recommends a vaccine for children, the government is legally obligated to guarantee kids free coverage, and the same holds for commercial insurance coverage of adult vaccines. For the 25 to 30 million uninsured adults, the federal government created the Bridge Access Program. It will pay for rural and community health centers, as well as Walgreens, CVS, and some independent pharmacies, to provide COVID shots for free. Manufacturers have agreed to donate some of the doses, CDC officials said.

Will this new booster work against the current variants of COVID?

It should. More than 90% of currently circulating strains are closely related to the variant selected for the booster earlier this year, and studies showed the vaccines produced ample antibodies against most of them. The shots also appeared to produce a good immune response against a divergent strain that initially worried people, called BA.2.86. That strain represents fewer than 1% of cases currently. Moore calls it a “nothingburger.”

Why are some doctors not gung-ho about the booster?

Experience with the COVID vaccines has shown that their protection against hospitalization and death lasts longer than their protection against illness, which wanes relatively quickly, and this has created widespread skepticism. Most people in the U.S. have been ill with COVID and most have been vaccinated at least once, which together are generally enough to prevent grave illness, if not infection — in most people. Many doctors think the focus should be on vaccinating those truly at risk.

With new COVID boosters, plus flu and RSV vaccines, how many shots should I expect to get this fall?

People tend to get sick in the late fall because they’re inside more and may be traveling and gathering in large family groups. This fall, for the first time, there’s a vaccine — for older adults — against respiratory syncytial virus. Kathryn Edwards, a 75-year-old Vanderbilt University pediatrician, plans to get all three shots but “probably won’t get them all together,” she said. COVID “can have a punch” and some of the RSV vaccines and the flu shot that’s recommended for people 65 and older also can cause sore arms and, sometimes, fever or other symptoms. A hint emerged from data earlier this year that people who got flu and COVID shots together might be at slightly higher risk of stroke. That linkage seems to have faded after further study, but it still might be safer not to get them together.

Pfizer and Moderna are both testing combination vaccines, with the first flu-COVID shot to be available as early as next year.

Has this booster version been used elsewhere in the world?

Nope, although Pfizer’s shot has been approved in the European Union, Japan, and South Korea, and Moderna has won approval in Japan and Canada. Rollouts will start in the U.S. and other countries this week.

Unlike in earlier periods of the pandemic, mandates for the booster are unlikely. But “it’s important for people to have access to the vaccine if they want it,” said panel member Beth Bell, a professor of public health at the University of Washington.

“Having said that, it’s clear the risk is not equal, and the messaging needs to clarify that a lot of older people and people with underlying conditions are dying, and they really need to get a booster,” she said.

ACIP member Sarah Long, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, voted for a universal recommendation but said she worried it was not enough. “I think we’ll recommend it and nobody will get it,” she said. “The people who need it most won’t get it.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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