All “Hat,” no battle?

Heading into the season, Northwestern (+7) at Illinois (6:30 p.m. Saturday, Fox 32, 720-AM, 890-AM) didn’t project as a difficult matchup to size up. The Wildcats were scrapping toward being competitive again, while the Illini were coming off a 10-win season and widely viewed as a College Football Playoff hopeful.

But the visitors are 6-5 and trending up, and the hosts are 7-4 and needing to hold on to the Land of Lincoln trophy — “the Hat,” as it’s known — just to feel OK about where they’re at.

“Nothing better than the last opportunity together,” Illini coach Bret Bielema said about the regular-season finale at Memorial Stadium.

Home field should matter. Quarterback Luke Altmyer should give the Illini an edge. But the weather — cold, with snow in the forecast — is a factor not to be overlooked, and it’s the Wildcats who run the football far more reliably, averaging 174 rushing yards per game. Their QB, Preston Stone, also happens to be the Big Ten’s reigning offensive player of the week, and terrific wide receiver Griffin Wilde is coming off an 11-catch game.

“We’re treating this as postseason play,” Northwestern coach David Braun said. “I know it’s the regular season, but we’re playing for a trophy.”

A battle, it shall be, but I’ve got the Illini eking it out 27-24.

And now, let’s get to what Week 14 is really about: the games — including “The Game” — that will shape the playoff picture heading into conference championship weekend. (All games Saturday unless otherwise noted.)

No. 7 Ole Miss (-7) at Mississippi State (11 a.m. Friday, ABC 7): The Rebels have won four of the last five Egg Bowl games, none by fewer than seven points. Dak Prescott isn’t running through that tunnel for the Bulldogs. Rebs by 10 and on to the CFP.

No. 4 Georgia (-14½) vs. No. 23 Georgia Tech (2:30 p.m. Friday, ABC 7): It’ll be a great scene at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They don’t call it Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate for nothing. Georgia wins but doesn’t cover.

No. 2 Indiana (-28½) at Purdue (6:30 p.m. Friday, NBC 5, Peacock): Boiler Up? Oh, stop. Hoosiers, 38-14.

No. 1 Ohio State (-10) at No. 15 Michigan (11 a.m., Fox 32): OSU has become a stand-alone superpower, better than everybody else, no ifs, ands or Bucknuts. Also true, insanely: Michigan, which has a real shot at joining the Buckeyes in the playoff if it springs a stop-the-presses upset, has won the last four games over its bitter rival. The edge between the ears is real — until it isn’t. Buckeyes by 14.

No. 12 Miami (-7) at No. 22 Pittsburgh (11 a.m., ABC 7): It’s win or forget the playoff for the Hurricanes. The Panthers still have a path if they take down the U and either SMU or Virginia loses, putting them in the ACC title game with a shot at an automatic bid. Upset? Almost. ’Canes by a kick.

No. 6 Oregon (-7) at Washington (2:30 p.m., CBS 2): The Huskies have won three of the last four, and five of the last nine, in this underrated series. The Ducks are more likely than not to be in the playoff even with a loss, but the pressure on them against a dangerous three-loss team in a supercharged environment will be extreme. Upset? Yep, I’m calling it, 31-30.

LSU (+10) at No. 8 Oklahoma (2:30 p.m., ABC 7): Tigers quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr., in for injured starter Garrett Nussmeier, has done just enough the last two games to squeak past Arkansas and Western Kentucky. If that prepared him for the Sooners’ monstrous defensive front, I can’t imagine how. The Sooners — their offense puzzlingly stuck in low gear, too — are cooked on the playoff front, though, if they go down here. OU, 24-13.

No. 14 Vanderbilt (+2½) at No. 19 Tennessee (2:30 p.m., ESPN): Vandy still has a fair-to-middling shot to be the last at-large in — the Volunteers have no shot — but the dream has to die at some point, doesn’t it? Take Rocky Top.

No. 10 Alabama (-6) at Auburn (6:30 p.m., ABC 7): Weird things happen in the Iron Bowl, and weird things are expected by many in this one. I dig weird — who doesn’t? — but I’m rolling with the Tide, 27-14.

No. 9 Notre Dame (-32½) at Stanford (9:30 p.m., ESPN): The playoff committee can’t get away with ranking the two-loss Irish any higher, but eyeballs know there aren’t eight better teams out there. Blowout, 38-7.

Last week: 6-1 straight-up, 4-3 against the spread.

Season to date: 65-26, 45-46.

EAST LANSING – Quindarius Dunnigan is lunging for the tape in a marathon college career.

To mark the finale of the Michigan State defensive lineman’s seven years in college, 15 family members were hitting the pavement for Thanksgiving and his last game – one van for the passengers and another for the luggage.

Following practice on Tuesday, Dunnigan was about 24 hours out from their arrival and preparing to host a group through the weekend. Despite all his growth split between Middle Tennessee State and the last two years at Michigan State, making holiday plans isn’t a strength.

“I have no idea,” Dunnigan, a Chattanooga native, said with a laugh before anticipating some competitive board games. “With it being cold, they ain’t going to want to go outside anyway so it will probably just be a whole lot of fireplace action, movies and stuff.”

The Spartans (3-8, 0-8 Big Ten) are heading into the end of a miserable season by facing Maryland (4-7, 1-7) at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday (7 p.m., FS1). They’ve lost eight straight – the program’s longest losing streak in more than four decades – and are one defeat away from finishing winless in the Big Ten for the first time.

“All these games we’re playing, it’s bigger than the program, it’s bigger than us,” defensive lineman and Detroit native Jalen Thompson said, “so we’re just playing for the guys next to us, playing for our seniors.”

Michigan State’s last appearance at Ford Field ended in a 42-0 loss against Penn State to close the chaotic 2023 season a day before coach Jonathan Smith was hired. The Spartans return to Detroit amid more uncertainty about the direction of the program with athletic director J Batt still silent about Smith’s job status.

“I have no other way to look at it besides the way they’ve gone, call it the last month,” Smith said Monday of his team approaching the finale. “I totally anticipate that they’re going to bow up again, back to work tomorrow morning and come out flying around excited to play and finishing things right this Saturday.”

Although the brutal losing streak continues, the effort remains. Michigan State’s defense has upped its fight and a 20-17 loss at Iowa last week marked the second straight road defeat when leading with less than two minutes to play. Another game the Spartans were only a play or two from winning but couldn’t get it done.

Maryland is riding a seven-game losing streak but, unlike Smith, coach Mike Locksley received public support from Maryland athletic director Jim Smith for a ninth year with additional financial resources to build a roster. Smith and has staff remain in limbo.

“I think both programs are really hungry for a win,” offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said, “to take some momentum into the offseason.”

Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, whose midseason move from the booth to the sideline helped spark that side of the ball, quickly dismissed a mention of Saturday’s game as a matchup between two teams with 15 combined losses.

“I get to coach Wayne Matthews one last time – that’s a big deal to me,” Rossi said. of one of the seniors. “Grady Kelly, Malik (Spencer), Sam Edwards, Quindarius Dunnigan, Malcolm Bell, Joshua Eaton – I get to coach those guys one more time. That’s what I’m excited about.”

LANSING, MI – Around 7,000 Michigan families could lose access to housing assistance programs if a federal policy change announced this month is made permanent, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

That includes approximately 2,000 families with children, Nessel’s office said in a press release sent out with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness (MCAH), made up of more than 92 homeless service providers.

Sarah Rennie, MCAH senior director of advocacy, said in the coalition’s 35 plus years of operation, it’s “never encountered a threat as devastating and extreme to persons in poverty.”

“Lives will be lost,” Rennie said.

The policy change is to a federal Continuum of Care (CoC) program, created by Congress to provide nonprofits and state and local governments with funds to help end homelessness.

It’s offered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which Nessel and a coalition of 20 other states are now suing for “illegally upending support for tens of thousands of Americans experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.”

The lawsuit filed Nov. 25 alleges that the changes will limit access to long-term housing and other services by restricting funding and imposing illegal conditions on grants.

“If permitted to take effect, these changes will displace thousands of Michigan families,” Nessel said.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, HUD released the policy changes, described as “monumental reforms” to the CoC program, including with a $3.9 billion funding announcement.

The federal changes, first reported by POLITICO, also significantly cut funding for permanent housing programs.

Instead, more than half of 2026 funding would be shifted to transitional housing assistance programs with some work or service requirements.

According to an advocacy guide shared by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, permanent housing now accounts for around 87% of CoC funded programs. That would be brought down to 30%.

About 170,000 people nationwide could be at risk of experiencing homelessness because of this change, many with disabilities and complex health needs, according to the guide.

The new policy may also create gaps in funding that could leave participating landlords and staff unpaid, deter future private sector investment, stall construction and shift costs to local and state governments, the alliance wrote.

Last year, Michigan received more than $100 million through the CoC grant program, according to Nessel’s office.

Rennie said the federal order “completely misunderstands the root causes of homelessness.”

“Homeless rates in Michigan continue to rise, not because of a failure in the current homeless service delivery system, but because Michigan faces an affordable housing crisis,” she said. “Recent estimates show the state is short by over 290,000 affordable housing units. Additionally, real wages remain stagnant while inflation rises, putting many hard-working families on the brink of financial disaster.”

She said a shift in services, funding cuts and a lack of time for agencies to plan “will turn the state’s housing crisis into a housing catastrophe.”

HUD Secretary Scott Turner wrote that the change would align with a Trump administration executive order.

He said it would restore “accountability to homelessness programs and promote … self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans.”

HUD had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of publishing.

Nessel’s lawsuit contends that the changes to the CoC program dramatically reduces the amount of grant funds that can be spent on permanent housing without Congressional authority.

The changes aren’t incremental, she said, and will disrupt providers’ ability to both provide housing and budget for their programs.

The funding announcement also includes a requirement that 70% of projects be “competed,” meaning applicants must submit proposals for evaluation.

Turner wrote that the change would end “the status quo that automatically renewed funding without measuring success.”

Historically, around 90% of funding year to year is protected, Nessel’s office said, meaning a renewal of projects is guaranteed to ensure that individuals and families relying on them have stable housing.

But this figure has also been cut down – to around 30% – meaning 70% of projects will again compete for funds.

“These new policies virtually guarantee that tens of thousands of formerly homeless people in permanent housing nationwide will eventually be evicted through no fault of their own when the funds aren’t renewed,” Nessel said.

Her office added that the change also puts “new unlawful conditions” on accessing funding.

HUD’s longstanding policy is encouraging a “housing first” model, Nessel said, that provides stable housing without preconditions for access – like sobriety or a minimum personal income.

She said the change would make requirements more stringent for both providers and those seeking services.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the federal District of Rhode Island, was also signed onto by attorneys general in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

In addition to the lawsuit, groups like the National Alliance to End Homelessness have begun advocating against the change to Congress, requesting a one-year extension of existing CoC contracts.

On Nov. 13, over 40 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Turner criticising the change. U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, was among those who signed on.

On Oct. 28, before the change was formally announced, 22 House Republicans also sent a letter requesting the grants be renewed so programs would not be destabilized. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, was among those who signed.

Neither Slotkin nor Bergman could be reached for comment as of the time of publishing.