For many, higher costs to stay warm this winter

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Kimberly Adams (0:31)

The war in Iran will make staying warm this winter a lot more expensive for many.

From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. The US and Israel's war with Iran, plus the ongoing war in Ukraine, are keeping oil prices high, which we've already seen have a big impact on gas and diesel prices. But with winter coming, another type of fuel is also getting more expensive. Heating oil, which is used mostly in the Northeast to heat homes in the winter. Marketplace's Elizabeth Troval has more.

Elizabeth Troval (1:00)

Diesel's getting all the attention lately, but heating oil prices have shot up just like diesel because of how similar they are chemically, says Tom Closa with Gulf Oil.

Tom Closa (1:12)

Heating oil and diesel are really the same molecule.

Elizabeth Troval (1:16)

Between 4 and 5 million US households heat their homes during the winter with heating oil, according to the US. Energy Information Administration.

Tom Closa (1:26)

A typical household in the Northeast might use anywhere between 800 and 1,000 gallons during a heating season. Obviously, with the numbers we're talking about now, that's a $6,000 bill compared to maybe a $3,500 or $4,000 bill in previous years.

Elizabeth Troval (1:44)

It's just another way. War in the Middle East and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries are straining energy markets, and hurting consumers, says Rabobank's Joe DeLora.

Joe DeLora (1:56)

Everything is connected. It's one web and there's different tugs at different ends of the spider web.

Elizabeth Troval (2:02)

He says if we end up having a colder than expected winter, that would push up demand for heating oil even more.

Joe DeLora (2:10)

The induced demand from a colder winter, it just adds a little more stress onto an extremely stressed system.

Elizabeth Troval (2:16)

Increasing the price of heating oil and diesel. I'm Elizabeth Troval for Marketplace.

Kimberly Adams (2:47)

We're well into college football season. It's a huge poll for universities in terms of bragging rights and money. But just how much of that money goes to the athletes actually playing the game is a closely held secret of the various sports programs. But reporters from The Athletic went digging and came up with some numbers on just how much schools are paying their football roster. And there's a huge range. Some teams spend as little as $8 million to pay their players, others more than $50 million. Sam Kahn, Jr. is a senior writer at The Athletic and contributed to the project. Sam, welcome.

Sam Kahn Jr. (3:22)

Thanks for having me.

Kimberly Adams (3:23)

College football players have only been allowed to be paid directly since 2021, and schools can now pay them up to about $20 million.

But your reporting shows top programs are spending as much as three times more. How are schools getting around that limit?

Sam Kahn Jr. (3:41)

There's two different buckets of money that players can be paid from in college sports. One, there's the direct revenue sharing, which went into effect in 2025 after the House vs. NCAA settlement cleared the way for schools to directly pay players. Because up until that point, schools were not allowed to pay players directly. They had to funnel a three-third party. And even that only started, as you mentioned, in 2021

And that's the name, image, and likeness, the NIL bucket. Now, the House settlement in 2025 allowed schools to pay directly. And with a cap, initially, of $20.5 million, this year it's up to $21.3 million. Anything above that has to be through third-party NIL, which is subject to approval from the College Sports Commission, the governing body that enforces and overviews these deals.

Kimberly Adams (4:33)

So what did you actually find, though?

Sam Kahn Jr. (4:36)

When you look at the schools in the top 15, top 20 of this list, that's where most of the schools that are going to contend for the college football playoff and contend for national championship are going to come from. The schools at the bottom, are there going to be some that are going to be able to make it? Sure. And if you're able to have a set of circumstances that enable you to get there, that's absolutely possible every year. But there's no doubt that if you have more money and you have more resources, you're going to be able to attract the better players. And if you're going to attract the better players, that gives you a better chance to win, bottom line.