Ohio State announced they were self-imposing scholarship reductions on themselves (as regards their failure to monitor Booster Robert DiGeronimo) literally the day after Paterno was fired!
Give Gene Smith credit for this --- he knows how to take advantage of people looking at something else.
Sure ..... but myself, living in LA, it's virtually guaranteed some of the Lions' CBS/FOX games won't be on the local OTA network. So I'd need NFLST if I want to watch.
The consolidation in the streaming market --- WBD, Disney and Hulu just announced a bundle, of course, the other day. Plus, WBD, Disney and FOX's sports package announced in the winter. But they're just announcements, the devil will be the price point and in revenue distribution.
I'm dubious on those bundles actually occurring --- they play well in the press but I think the involved entities will squabble to much on rev distro. Disney may even try to buy WBD outright at some point.
If, of course, you're favorite team is the local team. Not so for me (and millions of others).
I'll say this for MLS. 90%+ of their broadcasts are now produced by Apple+ and don't have local announcers, but if you're an MLS fan, you get every game (even the ones aired on FOX, MLS still has an OTA/Cable package they've sold to FOX) no matter what on the Apple platform.
MLB is actually my favorite professional sport. They're still in this "RSN Limbo" era, as witnessed by this Bally/Comcast/Sinclair mess. But I think their future is bringing the production of all 2430 regular-season games in-house, selling the MLB.TV package without ANY blackouts EVER, regardless of geography or IP address, while also selling rights to individual games (using the MLB production, if they wish) to OTA/Cable networks as they wish to buy. MLB is already producing ARI, COL and SDP games, FWIW.
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So I'm not double-posting --- ESPN+ has rights to 1 International NFL game a year. Last year it was Falcons "at" the Jaguars. That's a pretty miss-able game, but I'm sure ESPN+ (and everyone else) is politiking for the best games they can get.
Maybe it's just me ---- but shoot, I wish something like this happened at my graduation. 95%+ of commencement speakers are BORING, boilerplate and forgettable. At least these guys have a story.
I obviously wasn't around for it, but at my parents' wedding reception they hired a band, the drummer got real drunk, passed out, smashed his head against a cymbal and had to get 45 stiches. My parents weren't thrilled at the time, but at a distance of 40+ years, my Mom now finds the story absolutely hilarious.
PSU is getting ZERO say on game time for OSU. Whatever network gets 1st pick of games that week - they are going to have a number of theoretically good games (including Oregon @ Michigan) to choose between and they're going to wait to see how the season plays out. They won't choose before late October.
It is what it is. I think the "officially branded PSU WhiteOut" (TM) is a bit played out, given folks wear white to basically EVERY PSU home game. But PSU wants to have an annual WhiteOut (TM) game, they want the WhiteOut (TM) at night and they want to preannounce the WhiteOut (TM). So I'd guess, much like 2022 & 2023, the WhiteOut (TM) will be a more "mid" game (like UCLA/PSU) where none of the networks particularly care if it's preannounced for 7:30.
That's a long way of answering your question --- the schools don't have much say anymore.
I don't think they're contractually obligated. There were 3 weeks last year where FOX had a 3:30 B1G game and no Noon B1G game. Week 5 (U-M/Nebraska) was one of them.
But I think it's going to be significantly more rare. Last year, CBS only had rights to broadcast 7 B1G games and they still had the SEC package. So they had only had 2 3:30 B1G games (1 was UNLV/Michigan). This year, CBS has rights to broadcast 15 B1G games and of course the SEC package is gone. So they're almost always going to have a 3:30 game now.
Add that to NBC having a nearly weekly prime-time B1G game --- and FOX would basically have* to have a Noon game to avoid competing against the other networks.
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*CBS/FOX could theoretically flip-flop: a CBS game at Noon & FOX at 3:30. But it would have to theoretically benefit both networks. It's tough to imagine too many scenarios like that. CBS wouldn't want to be completely dark at 3:30, and they have no other rights besides the Mountain West. The Big XII losing UT & Oklahoma makes it a lot tougher for FOX to put a great Big XII game at Noon and a B1G game at 3:30.
Today is the day the networks (FOX, CBS, NBC) are having their "draft" as to which weeks they get first pick of B1G game.
The "rules" of the draft: FOX has the 1st, 2nd and 3rd picks ... then the order is either CBS/NBC/FOX or NBC/CBS/FOX for all weeks following.
I'm sure some leaks will come out eventually. But about all we can safely say for now:
FOX will definitely choose Weeks 2 and Week 14 among their first 3 picks. And elect to show Texas @ Michigan (already announced) and Michigan @ Ohio State at Noon both weeks.
FOX's 3rd week? Can't say for certain. But it's probably either Week 3 (Alabama @ Wisconsin), Week 4 (USC @ Michigan) or Week 10 (several pretty good B1G games, but not sure at this point which one will be better).
If FOX chooses Week 4, then USC will undoubtedly be a Noon game. If FOX doesn't choose Week 4, then USC will very likely be either a 3:30 game (if CBS gets it) or a 7:30 game (if NBC gets it).
In other words ----- I just told you that "USC @ Michigan" could be at either Noon, 3:30 or 7:30. E.g., I broke no news. :-)
Beyond that ...... who the heck knows. We'll just have to wait for the leaks.
Schmeling was hated by most Americans in 1938. But the historical record has shown he was a pretty decent guy. Refused to fire his Jewish manager, despite Hitler's request, sheltered some Jewish children in Germany in the late 1930s, and eventually became good friends with Joe Louis and financed his funeral.
And as a boxer, he took on ALL comers. He wasn't afraid of competition. Credit to him for that.
He was used as a political pawn during the 30s and 40s. Like so many others, unfortunately.
He did it all with a bruised tailbone too, serious enough he struggled to touch his toes while bending down --- he banged it up 5 days prior during some campus prank!
I feel most folk know the story of Owens at the Big Ten Championships and the 1936 Olympics. Less folk know the story of his struggles in America following the 1936 Olympics. Even the President of the US wouldn't even acknolwedge his accomplishments or even him as a person. Owens struggled to find anything beyond menial jobs for several years before Willis Ward (a U-M grad and fellow competitor in collegiate and national-level track events) got him started and involved in civil rights affairs in 1942.
Even then, most (not all, but most) of the acknowledgments and honors of Owens have occured after his death --- which was in 1980, a full 44 years after Berlin. It took a long long while.
Owens deserved much better while he was living in his home country ........ SOOOO much better.
I was reading a severe weather message board* this morning ------ yes such things exist ----- and a poster there said today's setup looked A LOT like May 13, 1980. Which is when Kalamazoo got hit by an F3 tornado.
That dude absolutely nailed it with his forecast and the historical analogy.
You don't get higher-end events in Michigan often, only about once a decade. But they can occur. The Grand Rapids and Flint metros have both been hit by F5 tornadoes in the past.
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*my undergrad degree is in Meteorology, though I don't do anything Meteorology-related at all professionally. Thus the interest.
He completely fabricated something (hanging out with 2 former MSU players while they watched a Final Four semifinal together) that simply didn't happen.
Besides --- even if Richardson and/or Cleaves DID wind up attending the game, all the quotes Albom got from them would have been from their phone conversation a couple days prior. Albom wouldn't have been hanging out in the stands with them (as he implied) as the game occurred simulatenously.
Albom never hung out in the stands with Richardson and/or Cleaves at the 2005 Final Four, and the current Governor of the "Mount Rushmore State" never met with the leader of North Korea either. They are both bald-faced liars. And thus, IMO, unworthy of being in a high-profile position of trust.
I said what I said. Yes, I didn't proffer an answer to the "should Doyel be punished?" question. I said I CAN SEE both sides of the "should he be punished?" argument.
I know public discourse these days often demands folks to take an intractable and definitive position on every single topic while refusing to acknowledge the existence of the opposite opinion. I get that. But regardless of that, I'm not offering an opinion to the "should he be punished?" question.
But as for the IndyStar's wishy-washiness, yes I DO have an opinion on that. Their management is acting like an indecisive, wishy-washy "leader" with this punishment. They aren't leading, they are being a wimp.
If the IndyStar is going to punish Doyel (and I can see both sides of the argument, "yes he should be punished" and "no he shouldn't be") --- a 2-week suspension and not covering Fever games for a year isn't really much of a punishment.
He's probably on vacation as we speak, he still has his CBS gig, the Fever will still be a thing next year, and there's still plenty other sports to talk about in Indy (Pacers, Colts, Auto Racing, Purdue, IU).
Feels a bit like the Mitch Albom thing 15+ years ago. Albom absolutely should have been fired, IMO, but the paper just suspended him for a slight bit.
No you're not. Nearly everybody's current opinion on Franklin is "high floor* but limited ceiling" head coach.
The last 8 years, PSU has finished the season ranked 7, 8, 17, 9, NR but weird COVID year, NR, 7, 13. Given that context, a pre-season rank of #9 is not some wild outlier.
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*Outside the COVID year, Franklin has gotten every team he's ever coached, including 3 Vanderbilt teams and his first 2 PSU teams that had some structural roster and number issues post-sanctions (that's not an excuse, it's a reality), to at least .500 and Bowl eligiblity. That's not a completely worthless accomplishment in its own right.
WSU is a bit of a "unicorn." (1) A fairly well respected research university, that (2) doesn't compete athletically at the D-1 level and (3) is a commuter school with a lot of 1st & 2nd generation undergrads, a lot of students who have less "$$$ and support that provides a back-stop against failing" (for lack of a more eloquent way to put it).
Out of the 107 Carnegie R1 schools, only 7 don't compete at the D-1 level. Wayne, UC-Santa Cruz, Colorado Mines, CU-Denver, City University of New York, UT-Dallas, and Alabama-Huntsville.
I honestly think there's a good argument to be made for rolling WSU up into the U-M system (making it MUCH more like a CU-Denver or UT-Dallas). That will never happen, though, there are 1000 different political blockers for that.
No matter what, though, I don't think they should ever move up to D-1. The marginal extra viz that D-1 athletics would give them isn't worth it.
One can quibble about the definition of "flagship", but the MI State Constitution certainly DOES consider U-M, MSU and Wayne State as different and "above" the 12 other public universities in the state --- e.g., state-wide election of the Board members.
My "get off my lawn" comment: every state should have ONE license plate, and that's it, no exceptions. Make a design that is iconic for the state, and that's that.
Of course, I get why states have different license plates. To make $$$.
When I lived in Colorado --- Colorado's standard design is the best in the country (green and white with the mountains in the background). But they also had 75 other versions of the license plate. Barf. At one point, Colorado and New Mexico were literally suing each other as regards each other's alternate "Chile Pepper" license plates.
Anyway, my 5 favorite license plates: Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, Vermont, Oregon.
What??? No. What could possibly happen anyway, the helmeted players are going to start head-butting everyone?
Seriously - this reads like a "bad winner" post. Give your opponent the benefit of the doubt, they didn't do anything to prove otherwise. Michigan won and has a very good team that will be a tough out in the NCAA.
Worth calling out: Notre Dame can sell that it's a "tough schedule" because they only have 6 home games (most schools have 7 or even 8), but at the same time they only play TWO TRUE road games outside the state of Indiana:
At Texas A&M on opening weekend.
AT USC the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
They are at Purdue, but that's of course in Indiana.
Their game vs Georgia Tech got moved to the Falcons Stadium (more seats for ND fans).
Navy is in East Rutherford, and Army is at Yankee Stadium.
Anyway, if they can get by A&M in the opener --- it will be interesting to see if that game gets scheduled to be in the hot late August sun or if it is at night ---- there's no reason they wouldn't be 10-1 at worst going into the USC game. Like it or not, they will be in the CFP talk.
Agree that if U-M had beaten Rutgers, they'd be well-positioned for an at-large. Rutgers isn't even a bad team or a bad program, but as loss #6 it probably was a tipping point. I checked, nobody in the 2020s has been an at-large with 6 losses.
Lacrosse is a fun sport, I've enjoyed getting into it the last few years (I flew out to Philly for the 2019 Final Four when PSU made it)! Thanks for your posts, even if they miss tomorrow U-M's program has definitely turned the corner.
PSU beat Maryland 19-9. Even with a loss to U-M, Penn State is 99.8% likely in the NCAA tourney.
(I suppose they could get left out, if the committee didn't want 4 B1G teams in the tournament - it's only a 17-team tournament and JHU & MD are locks. But yikes, they'd be leaving out an 11-4 team with a 3-2 record against Top 10 schools. The B1G has a bunch of legit good teams, as they often do).
So, Michigan is playing a team that may have somewhat less motivation. Michigan is definitely win-or-out.
Preds fans throwing Catfish on the ice has always felt lame to me. I mean, I get it, it was started by folks in Nashville in direct reponse to Red Wings fans, but it's a blatant rip-off of the octupi.
Get your own thing Preds. And go Canucks tomorrow night, end this series (they should have ended it the other night, but blew it).
A cool piece of Presidential trivia: Obama gave 4 High School commencement speeches during his 2 terms --- one at Kalamazoo Central HS.
I always thought him making a point to do HS commencements was cool. Between the 4 Presidents that book-ended Obama, 2 to each side, they only combined for 1* HS commencement address (Bush 43 in Greensburg, KS, on the exact 1-year anniversary of a terrible tornado that tore through the town).
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*Technically 2, but I can't really count Clinton giving the commencement speech at his daughter's own HS graduation ceremony.
+1. I'm not begrudging you and your success ---- I'm not. And hopefully I don't sound bitter.
But your post speaks to another thing: simply getting admitted to an Ivy makes one less likely to experience the pain of struggling or even failing and realizing your dreams aren't necessarily achievable. Graduate from an Ivy, and those prestigious and powerful jobs, the networks of folks you meet, the connections, they are there for you throughout life.
I suppose that's what draws many folks towards sports. In the long run, it is so MUCH MUCH MUCH more of a meritocracy than other segments of life. If you're the son of a $400MM net worth Yale legacy and you dream of getting into business, your future is fairly assured. But if you're the son of a $400MM net worth Yale legacy and you dream of playing in the NHL, that doesn't mean anything at all if you can't skate well enough.
Yep. WAY back in the day, the 10-team B1G did that as well (Michigan/MSU were travel partners, OSU would play Michigan on a Thursday, IU would visit East Lansing, and then they would flip-flop for Saturday/Sunday).
If you look at today's announcement for other schools, every Eastern school is playing at either USC/UCLA or Washington/Oregon.
As recently as the late 1990s, when I graduated HS: I had a 3.85-ish GPA, a couple AP classes, not a ton of extra-cirrculars and something like 10th-15th ranked in my graduating class (from one of the big Detroit area Catholics). A good resume but hardly elite.
It was a GIVEN, a given on-par with expecting the sun to rise in the east tomorrow, that I'd get accepted to U-MAA, which I was.
Nowadays --- that's likely not good enough. It's a different world, 1 generation later.
Yep, great post and great solution. Legacy preference is terrible IMO.
To their credit, there ARE some elite private colleges --- Amherst, MIT, NYU and JHU among them --- that have recently eliminated legacy preference. And legacy preference is beginning to get SCOTUS scrutiny too (the scrutiny coming from both ends of the judicial spectrum).
But the Ivys, unfortunately, are only going to go down that road kicking and screaming.
The Ivy League schools in particular --- they have the resources and expertise to double or even triple their enrollment (could we not have a branch of Yale somewhere in the Midwest - and the South - in addition to New Haven?) if they wanted to. They couldn't do it overnight, but they could do it in a generation.
Will that ever happen? I doubt it. And that goes into a whole other discussion - why don't they do it? I'd argue it's because they prioritize exclusivity, pedigree and prestige more than they prioritize more true attempts at leveling the societal playing field.
I'm sorry, not meaning to get political, but the private elite schools, I feel they could do a lot better. The more elite public schools (like U-M), they walk the walk more in this regard.
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(on a side note, but tangentally related: there's some crazy fact that almost EVERY recent Supreme Court Justice in the last 30-50 years is either a Harvard or Yale Grad. Damn near all of them!)
Yep. What they call "downtiering" --- I call "monetization." A way to get more revenue, while adding minimal incremental value.
I saw a news item yesterday that Dave & Busters is introducing a gambling component to their in-store app. So that they can get a cut (while providing literally NO value) when a couple folk bet a few bucks on a game of Skee-Ball. Good God, I don't begrudge people making $$$, but folks should at least TRY to provide value for that $$$. So many corporations don't even try anymore!
There's still TONS of runway left, IMO. Business-men-and-women don't use the language, they couch it in more bengin terms, but "predatory monetization" is a business strategy that continues and continues to grow. Increasingly back-handed ways of opening a pipeline from your/my/our wallet into theirs.
All the in-game gambling ads and segments. Making your sports teams increasingly difficult to watch, across dozens of different networks such that you lose track of which ones you're even paying for. Video games, the increasing selling of "live service games" versus stand-alone complete games. Mobile video games in particular, the way they target your emotions in an attempt to get you to buy some stuff. All predatory monetization.
In the Diamondbacks case --- Bally literally stopped producing Arizona's games. MLB stepped in because there was no producer.
For the Tigers (and about 10 other teams in this current situation) --- Bally Sports will still be producing their games, like the Cardinals game this AM. It's just that it won't be distributed by Comcast.
I don't think there's much for MLB to do here. Unfortunately. Waiving the MLB.tv blackout rules is a non-starter. It's something Manfred actually wants to do, but it's definitely against the current legal agreements and the networks/TV folk would go crazy the second they even considered it.
I prefer listening to baseball on radio, but that's just me ........
But beyond that tangent, fuck all of these guys. Comcast, Bally, Sinclair, WBD, Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Yahoo, and whatever 30 other networks I missed. All these corporate goons get in these fights over whose net worth increases from $250MM to $350MM, and it comes on the backs of the sports fans who are seeing their overall bills increase.
Even MLB.TV isn't a real option here (unless you live out-of-market, and then you weren't getting Tigers' games on TV anyway) because of their blackout rules!
But, for those who postulate "maybe the sports bubble is about to break!", there was yesterday's news about how the NBA TV rights are likely to double, with Amazon entering the picture and NBC possibly replacing WBD. The bubble isn't breaking, but rather bills are just going to increase.
Well, on October 1, 2021, Iowa visited Maryland for a football game. Brian Ferentz was the Iowa Offensive Coordinator for that game.
Iowa scored FIFTY-ONE (51) points in that game, admittedly helped by 7 (!) Terrapin turnovers, while racking up 428 yards of total offense and never turning the ball over themselves.
In 2015, Iowa also played Maryland - Brian Ferentz was on the Iowa staff though not yet Offensive Coordinator. Iowa won 31-15, they didn't quite gain 300 yards but it wasn't a putrid offensive performance - Iowa had 1 turnover total in the game (Maryland had 4).
The reason I point out those 2 games --- that's the only 2 times in his career Locksley has coached against Brian Ferentz on the opposing sideline. If one is solely going by those 2 data points, he appears like someone associated with a fairly effective and efficient offense. So, shoot, hire him!
20 years ago ......... folks like Lewan simply disappeared into the ether once his football days were done.
But now we have social media and podcasts! The perfect platforms for an aspiring influencer and/or professional troll! And he can also take on a side job as a JumboTron mascot at Nashville Predators' games!
We're going to be hearing from this guy until 2050! Joy!
Good post --- +1. A few questions/thoughts on the Angels and where they could move.
Is the Inland Empire really mostly Angels fans? My feel is it is pretty split (SB County leaning Dodgers, Riverside County leaning Angels).
To me, Tustin/Irvine seems like a better landing spot than either Long Beach or the IE (Riverside). Tustin would be marginally more difficult (vs. Anaheim) for IE folk to get to. But there's a ton of people in the OC, a lot more $$$ in the OC versus the IE, and at their core the franchise is an OC team. Net: keep it in Orange County.
This isn't totally off --- Dodger Stadium does have all those parking lots but it's also surrounded by Elysian Park, which is nice enough (it does have some issues w/ trash and homelessness, Echo Park a mile to the W-SW has cleaned up better). And it's close to downtown. I do wish it were more walkable from downtown - there are currently some (rather crazy) proposals out there for a series of gondolas to connect Dodger Stadium and Union Station/DTLA.
Anyway, Angel Stadium --- I haven't personally seen the "personality" you have, I've mostly just seen views of (1) parking lots, (2) the Ducks' arena and (3) the Orange Crush (for the uninitiated, what is literally the most complex/complicated freeway interchange in America), with a fan-base of mostly utterly dispassionate uninterested OCers. Dodger Stadium has a vibe. Angels Stadium, I've never seen it at all.
Fenway vs Wrigley ........ Wrigley is under-the-radar a dump that hasn't been kept up well (while Fenway has). Another big thing, and admittedly plays into my consideration:
Boston fans are passionate, care about baseball and are knowledgable on it. And they want to win
Cubs fans are mostly there for the beer and the party. If they lose, they're not passionate about it anyway. Ask Lee Elia* and Marty Brennaman what they think about Cubs fans!
When I lived in Cincinnati (2008-2016), Cubs fans would invade town when they played the Reds. Oh wait ... that didn't happen ALL the time. It only happened from 2008-2010 and 2015-2016. Those middle years when the Cubs stunk, you could barely find them. Front-runners.
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*Actually, today is the 41-year anniversary of the Lee Elia rant!!! It's classic. April 29, 1983.
One of my old Direct Reports (at my 2020-21 job) was a dead-ringer for Hunter Dickinson. He and a few other co-workers joked about that when I was at that job. I still keep in touch with them and we'll joke about that --- last year the consensus was "wait, he's still playing college hoops?" The reaction is going to be even more so next season!
Many folks don't know, but Neale was coach of the Red Wings for part of one season ---- the Dead Wings season of 1985-86 where they 2003 Detroit Tigers/2008 Detroit Lions level terrible. Last in the league in goals for and goals against, but first in the league in penalty minutes (Bob Probert a rookie and Joey Kocur in his 2nd year).
Anyway, he went to CBC immediately after that. And he truly found his second calling. GREAT sense of humor!
Who in the hell is Mel Kiper anyway? He’s never ever put on a jock strap, he’s never been a coach, or administrator and all of a sudden he’s an expert. Kiper has no more credentials than my neighbor, who is a postman that doesn’t have season tickets to the NFL.
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Ohio State announced they were self-imposing scholarship reductions on themselves (as regards their failure to monitor Booster Robert DiGeronimo) literally the day after Paterno was fired!
Give Gene Smith credit for this --- he knows how to take advantage of people looking at something else.
Tigers (and everyone else, x the ESPN Sunday Night game) are free this weekend, an MLB.TV promotion.
Which means literally everyone except people in MI w/ Comcast can watch them. Absurdity.
Sure ..... but myself, living in LA, it's virtually guaranteed some of the Lions' CBS/FOX games won't be on the local OTA network. So I'd need NFLST if I want to watch.
The consolidation in the streaming market --- WBD, Disney and Hulu just announced a bundle, of course, the other day. Plus, WBD, Disney and FOX's sports package announced in the winter. But they're just announcements, the devil will be the price point and in revenue distribution.
I'm dubious on those bundles actually occurring --- they play well in the press but I think the involved entities will squabble to much on rev distro. Disney may even try to buy WBD outright at some point.
If, of course, you're favorite team is the local team. Not so for me (and millions of others).
I'll say this for MLS. 90%+ of their broadcasts are now produced by Apple+ and don't have local announcers, but if you're an MLS fan, you get every game (even the ones aired on FOX, MLS still has an OTA/Cable package they've sold to FOX) no matter what on the Apple platform.
MLB is actually my favorite professional sport. They're still in this "RSN Limbo" era, as witnessed by this Bally/Comcast/Sinclair mess. But I think their future is bringing the production of all 2430 regular-season games in-house, selling the MLB.TV package without ANY blackouts EVER, regardless of geography or IP address, while also selling rights to individual games (using the MLB production, if they wish) to OTA/Cable networks as they wish to buy. MLB is already producing ARI, COL and SDP games, FWIW.
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So I'm not double-posting --- ESPN+ has rights to 1 International NFL game a year. Last year it was Falcons "at" the Jaguars. That's a pretty miss-able game, but I'm sure ESPN+ (and everyone else) is politiking for the best games they can get.
Actually it's ELEVEN platforms. I missed Peacock.
In my defense, it's easy to lose track.
Gotham Knights, Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat 1, Suicide Squad.
Great timing (and awareness of the 22.3 year rule) by Brady then! We only recently crossed the 22.3 year "boundary" for 9/11 --- December 29, 2023.
Maybe it's just me ---- but shoot, I wish something like this happened at my graduation. 95%+ of commencement speakers are BORING, boilerplate and forgettable. At least these guys have a story.
I obviously wasn't around for it, but at my parents' wedding reception they hired a band, the drummer got real drunk, passed out, smashed his head against a cymbal and had to get 45 stiches. My parents weren't thrilled at the time, but at a distance of 40+ years, my Mom now finds the story absolutely hilarious.
PSU is getting ZERO say on game time for OSU. Whatever network gets 1st pick of games that week - they are going to have a number of theoretically good games (including Oregon @ Michigan) to choose between and they're going to wait to see how the season plays out. They won't choose before late October.
It is what it is. I think the "officially branded PSU WhiteOut" (TM) is a bit played out, given folks wear white to basically EVERY PSU home game. But PSU wants to have an annual WhiteOut (TM) game, they want the WhiteOut (TM) at night and they want to preannounce the WhiteOut (TM). So I'd guess, much like 2022 & 2023, the WhiteOut (TM) will be a more "mid" game (like UCLA/PSU) where none of the networks particularly care if it's preannounced for 7:30.
That's a long way of answering your question --- the schools don't have much say anymore.
The Chuck Norris thread is over there. ----------------->
I don't think they're contractually obligated. There were 3 weeks last year where FOX had a 3:30 B1G game and no Noon B1G game. Week 5 (U-M/Nebraska) was one of them.
But I think it's going to be significantly more rare. Last year, CBS only had rights to broadcast 7 B1G games and they still had the SEC package. So they had only had 2 3:30 B1G games (1 was UNLV/Michigan). This year, CBS has rights to broadcast 15 B1G games and of course the SEC package is gone. So they're almost always going to have a 3:30 game now.
Add that to NBC having a nearly weekly prime-time B1G game --- and FOX would basically have* to have a Noon game to avoid competing against the other networks.
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*CBS/FOX could theoretically flip-flop: a CBS game at Noon & FOX at 3:30. But it would have to theoretically benefit both networks. It's tough to imagine too many scenarios like that. CBS wouldn't want to be completely dark at 3:30, and they have no other rights besides the Mountain West. The Big XII losing UT & Oklahoma makes it a lot tougher for FOX to put a great Big XII game at Noon and a B1G game at 3:30.
Today is the day the networks (FOX, CBS, NBC) are having their "draft" as to which weeks they get first pick of B1G game.
The "rules" of the draft: FOX has the 1st, 2nd and 3rd picks ... then the order is either CBS/NBC/FOX or NBC/CBS/FOX for all weeks following.
I'm sure some leaks will come out eventually. But about all we can safely say for now:
Schmeling was hated by most Americans in 1938. But the historical record has shown he was a pretty decent guy. Refused to fire his Jewish manager, despite Hitler's request, sheltered some Jewish children in Germany in the late 1930s, and eventually became good friends with Joe Louis and financed his funeral.
And as a boxer, he took on ALL comers. He wasn't afraid of competition. Credit to him for that.
He was used as a political pawn during the 30s and 40s. Like so many others, unfortunately.
He did it all with a bruised tailbone too, serious enough he struggled to touch his toes while bending down --- he banged it up 5 days prior during some campus prank!
I feel most folk know the story of Owens at the Big Ten Championships and the 1936 Olympics. Less folk know the story of his struggles in America following the 1936 Olympics. Even the President of the US wouldn't even acknolwedge his accomplishments or even him as a person. Owens struggled to find anything beyond menial jobs for several years before Willis Ward (a U-M grad and fellow competitor in collegiate and national-level track events) got him started and involved in civil rights affairs in 1942.
Even then, most (not all, but most) of the acknowledgments and honors of Owens have occured after his death --- which was in 1980, a full 44 years after Berlin. It took a long long while.
Owens deserved much better while he was living in his home country ........ SOOOO much better.
I was reading a severe weather message board* this morning ------ yes such things exist ----- and a poster there said today's setup looked A LOT like May 13, 1980. Which is when Kalamazoo got hit by an F3 tornado.
https://stormtrack.org/threads/2024-05-07-event-in-oh-mi-il-ky.32715/
That dude absolutely nailed it with his forecast and the historical analogy.
You don't get higher-end events in Michigan often, only about once a decade. But they can occur. The Grand Rapids and Flint metros have both been hit by F5 tornadoes in the past.
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*my undergrad degree is in Meteorology, though I don't do anything Meteorology-related at all professionally. Thus the interest.
He completely fabricated something (hanging out with 2 former MSU players while they watched a Final Four semifinal together) that simply didn't happen.
Besides --- even if Richardson and/or Cleaves DID wind up attending the game, all the quotes Albom got from them would have been from their phone conversation a couple days prior. Albom wouldn't have been hanging out in the stands with them (as he implied) as the game occurred simulatenously.
Albom never hung out in the stands with Richardson and/or Cleaves at the 2005 Final Four, and the current Governor of the "Mount Rushmore State" never met with the leader of North Korea either. They are both bald-faced liars. And thus, IMO, unworthy of being in a high-profile position of trust.
I said what I said. Yes, I didn't proffer an answer to the "should Doyel be punished?" question. I said I CAN SEE both sides of the "should he be punished?" argument.
I know public discourse these days often demands folks to take an intractable and definitive position on every single topic while refusing to acknowledge the existence of the opposite opinion. I get that. But regardless of that, I'm not offering an opinion to the "should he be punished?" question.
But as for the IndyStar's wishy-washiness, yes I DO have an opinion on that. Their management is acting like an indecisive, wishy-washy "leader" with this punishment. They aren't leading, they are being a wimp.
If the IndyStar is going to punish Doyel (and I can see both sides of the argument, "yes he should be punished" and "no he shouldn't be") --- a 2-week suspension and not covering Fever games for a year isn't really much of a punishment.
He's probably on vacation as we speak, he still has his CBS gig, the Fever will still be a thing next year, and there's still plenty other sports to talk about in Indy (Pacers, Colts, Auto Racing, Purdue, IU).
Feels a bit like the Mitch Albom thing 15+ years ago. Albom absolutely should have been fired, IMO, but the paper just suspended him for a slight bit.
Sure, normally. But PSU's 2014/2015 teams, 2014 especially, DID have roster number limitations.
In 2014, 6-6 was a qualified success (IMO). It was a limited-talent team that easily could have gone 3-9 or 4-8.
No you're not. Nearly everybody's current opinion on Franklin is "high floor* but limited ceiling" head coach.
The last 8 years, PSU has finished the season ranked 7, 8, 17, 9, NR but weird COVID year, NR, 7, 13. Given that context, a pre-season rank of #9 is not some wild outlier.
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*Outside the COVID year, Franklin has gotten every team he's ever coached, including 3 Vanderbilt teams and his first 2 PSU teams that had some structural roster and number issues post-sanctions (that's not an excuse, it's a reality), to at least .500 and Bowl eligiblity. That's not a completely worthless accomplishment in its own right.
WSU is a bit of a "unicorn." (1) A fairly well respected research university, that (2) doesn't compete athletically at the D-1 level and (3) is a commuter school with a lot of 1st & 2nd generation undergrads, a lot of students who have less "$$$ and support that provides a back-stop against failing" (for lack of a more eloquent way to put it).
Out of the 107 Carnegie R1 schools, only 7 don't compete at the D-1 level. Wayne, UC-Santa Cruz, Colorado Mines, CU-Denver, City University of New York, UT-Dallas, and Alabama-Huntsville.
I honestly think there's a good argument to be made for rolling WSU up into the U-M system (making it MUCH more like a CU-Denver or UT-Dallas). That will never happen, though, there are 1000 different political blockers for that.
No matter what, though, I don't think they should ever move up to D-1. The marginal extra viz that D-1 athletics would give them isn't worth it.
One can quibble about the definition of "flagship", but the MI State Constitution certainly DOES consider U-M, MSU and Wayne State as different and "above" the 12 other public universities in the state --- e.g., state-wide election of the Board members.
My "get off my lawn" comment: every state should have ONE license plate, and that's it, no exceptions. Make a design that is iconic for the state, and that's that.
Of course, I get why states have different license plates. To make $$$.
When I lived in Colorado --- Colorado's standard design is the best in the country (green and white with the mountains in the background). But they also had 75 other versions of the license plate. Barf. At one point, Colorado and New Mexico were literally suing each other as regards each other's alternate "Chile Pepper" license plates.
Anyway, my 5 favorite license plates: Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, Vermont, Oregon.
What??? No. What could possibly happen anyway, the helmeted players are going to start head-butting everyone?
Seriously - this reads like a "bad winner" post. Give your opponent the benefit of the doubt, they didn't do anything to prove otherwise. Michigan won and has a very good team that will be a tough out in the NCAA.
Worth calling out: Notre Dame can sell that it's a "tough schedule" because they only have 6 home games (most schools have 7 or even 8), but at the same time they only play TWO TRUE road games outside the state of Indiana:
Anyway, if they can get by A&M in the opener --- it will be interesting to see if that game gets scheduled to be in the hot late August sun or if it is at night ---- there's no reason they wouldn't be 10-1 at worst going into the USC game. Like it or not, they will be in the CFP talk.
"Directionally correct" --- it works in corporate too. :-)
Agree that if U-M had beaten Rutgers, they'd be well-positioned for an at-large. Rutgers isn't even a bad team or a bad program, but as loss #6 it probably was a tipping point. I checked, nobody in the 2020s has been an at-large with 6 losses.
Lacrosse is a fun sport, I've enjoyed getting into it the last few years (I flew out to Philly for the 2019 Final Four when PSU made it)! Thanks for your posts, even if they miss tomorrow U-M's program has definitely turned the corner.
PSU beat Maryland 19-9. Even with a loss to U-M, Penn State is 99.8% likely in the NCAA tourney.
(I suppose they could get left out, if the committee didn't want 4 B1G teams in the tournament - it's only a 17-team tournament and JHU & MD are locks. But yikes, they'd be leaving out an 11-4 team with a 3-2 record against Top 10 schools. The B1G has a bunch of legit good teams, as they often do).
So, Michigan is playing a team that may have somewhat less motivation. Michigan is definitely win-or-out.
Preds fans throwing Catfish on the ice has always felt lame to me. I mean, I get it, it was started by folks in Nashville in direct reponse to Red Wings fans, but it's a blatant rip-off of the octupi.
Get your own thing Preds. And go Canucks tomorrow night, end this series (they should have ended it the other night, but blew it).
It's kind of a shame that's so rare.
A cool piece of Presidential trivia: Obama gave 4 High School commencement speeches during his 2 terms --- one at Kalamazoo Central HS.
I always thought him making a point to do HS commencements was cool. Between the 4 Presidents that book-ended Obama, 2 to each side, they only combined for 1* HS commencement address (Bush 43 in Greensburg, KS, on the exact 1-year anniversary of a terrible tornado that tore through the town).
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*Technically 2, but I can't really count Clinton giving the commencement speech at his daughter's own HS graduation ceremony.
+1. I'm not begrudging you and your success ---- I'm not. And hopefully I don't sound bitter.
But your post speaks to another thing: simply getting admitted to an Ivy makes one less likely to experience the pain of struggling or even failing and realizing your dreams aren't necessarily achievable. Graduate from an Ivy, and those prestigious and powerful jobs, the networks of folks you meet, the connections, they are there for you throughout life.
I suppose that's what draws many folks towards sports. In the long run, it is so MUCH MUCH MUCH more of a meritocracy than other segments of life. If you're the son of a $400MM net worth Yale legacy and you dream of getting into business, your future is fairly assured. But if you're the son of a $400MM net worth Yale legacy and you dream of playing in the NHL, that doesn't mean anything at all if you can't skate well enough.
Yep. WAY back in the day, the 10-team B1G did that as well (Michigan/MSU were travel partners, OSU would play Michigan on a Thursday, IU would visit East Lansing, and then they would flip-flop for Saturday/Sunday).
If you look at today's announcement for other schools, every Eastern school is playing at either USC/UCLA or Washington/Oregon.
As recently as the late 1990s, when I graduated HS: I had a 3.85-ish GPA, a couple AP classes, not a ton of extra-cirrculars and something like 10th-15th ranked in my graduating class (from one of the big Detroit area Catholics). A good resume but hardly elite.
It was a GIVEN, a given on-par with expecting the sun to rise in the east tomorrow, that I'd get accepted to U-MAA, which I was.
Nowadays --- that's likely not good enough. It's a different world, 1 generation later.
Yep, great post and great solution. Legacy preference is terrible IMO.
To their credit, there ARE some elite private colleges --- Amherst, MIT, NYU and JHU among them --- that have recently eliminated legacy preference. And legacy preference is beginning to get SCOTUS scrutiny too (the scrutiny coming from both ends of the judicial spectrum).
But the Ivys, unfortunately, are only going to go down that road kicking and screaming.
The Ivy League schools in particular --- they have the resources and expertise to double or even triple their enrollment (could we not have a branch of Yale somewhere in the Midwest - and the South - in addition to New Haven?) if they wanted to. They couldn't do it overnight, but they could do it in a generation.
Will that ever happen? I doubt it. And that goes into a whole other discussion - why don't they do it? I'd argue it's because they prioritize exclusivity, pedigree and prestige more than they prioritize more true attempts at leveling the societal playing field.
I'm sorry, not meaning to get political, but the private elite schools, I feel they could do a lot better. The more elite public schools (like U-M), they walk the walk more in this regard.
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(on a side note, but tangentally related: there's some crazy fact that almost EVERY recent Supreme Court Justice in the last 30-50 years is either a Harvard or Yale Grad. Damn near all of them!)
Yep. What they call "downtiering" --- I call "monetization." A way to get more revenue, while adding minimal incremental value.
I saw a news item yesterday that Dave & Busters is introducing a gambling component to their in-store app. So that they can get a cut (while providing literally NO value) when a couple folk bet a few bucks on a game of Skee-Ball. Good God, I don't begrudge people making $$$, but folks should at least TRY to provide value for that $$$. So many corporations don't even try anymore!
There's still TONS of runway left, IMO. Business-men-and-women don't use the language, they couch it in more bengin terms, but "predatory monetization" is a business strategy that continues and continues to grow. Increasingly back-handed ways of opening a pipeline from your/my/our wallet into theirs.
All the in-game gambling ads and segments. Making your sports teams increasingly difficult to watch, across dozens of different networks such that you lose track of which ones you're even paying for. Video games, the increasing selling of "live service games" versus stand-alone complete games. Mobile video games in particular, the way they target your emotions in an attempt to get you to buy some stuff. All predatory monetization.
Ugh, I'm getting depressed here.
In the Diamondbacks case --- Bally literally stopped producing Arizona's games. MLB stepped in because there was no producer.
For the Tigers (and about 10 other teams in this current situation) --- Bally Sports will still be producing their games, like the Cardinals game this AM. It's just that it won't be distributed by Comcast.
I don't think there's much for MLB to do here. Unfortunately. Waiving the MLB.tv blackout rules is a non-starter. It's something Manfred actually wants to do, but it's definitely against the current legal agreements and the networks/TV folk would go crazy the second they even considered it.
I prefer listening to baseball on radio, but that's just me ........
But beyond that tangent, fuck all of these guys. Comcast, Bally, Sinclair, WBD, Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Yahoo, and whatever 30 other networks I missed. All these corporate goons get in these fights over whose net worth increases from $250MM to $350MM, and it comes on the backs of the sports fans who are seeing their overall bills increase.
Even MLB.TV isn't a real option here (unless you live out-of-market, and then you weren't getting Tigers' games on TV anyway) because of their blackout rules!
But, for those who postulate "maybe the sports bubble is about to break!", there was yesterday's news about how the NBA TV rights are likely to double, with Amazon entering the picture and NBC possibly replacing WBD. The bubble isn't breaking, but rather bills are just going to increase.
OK, rant over.
Perhaps --- but I don't think that's been 100% proven quite yet.
Moving to Seattle is a good career move for him --- and will provide more data on the question.
Well, on October 1, 2021, Iowa visited Maryland for a football game. Brian Ferentz was the Iowa Offensive Coordinator for that game.
Iowa scored FIFTY-ONE (51) points in that game, admittedly helped by 7 (!) Terrapin turnovers, while racking up 428 yards of total offense and never turning the ball over themselves.
In 2015, Iowa also played Maryland - Brian Ferentz was on the Iowa staff though not yet Offensive Coordinator. Iowa won 31-15, they didn't quite gain 300 yards but it wasn't a putrid offensive performance - Iowa had 1 turnover total in the game (Maryland had 4).
The reason I point out those 2 games --- that's the only 2 times in his career Locksley has coached against Brian Ferentz on the opposing sideline. If one is solely going by those 2 data points, he appears like someone associated with a fairly effective and efficient offense. So, shoot, hire him!
20 years ago ......... folks like Lewan simply disappeared into the ether once his football days were done.
But now we have social media and podcasts! The perfect platforms for an aspiring influencer and/or professional troll! And he can also take on a side job as a JumboTron mascot at Nashville Predators' games!
We're going to be hearing from this guy until 2050! Joy!
Yep.
I've never gone through a divorce --- but man, A LOT of them get brutally ugly.
Choose your life partners wisely.
Good post --- +1. A few questions/thoughts on the Angels and where they could move.
Is the Inland Empire really mostly Angels fans? My feel is it is pretty split (SB County leaning Dodgers, Riverside County leaning Angels).
To me, Tustin/Irvine seems like a better landing spot than either Long Beach or the IE (Riverside). Tustin would be marginally more difficult (vs. Anaheim) for IE folk to get to. But there's a ton of people in the OC, a lot more $$$ in the OC versus the IE, and at their core the franchise is an OC team. Net: keep it in Orange County.
This isn't totally off --- Dodger Stadium does have all those parking lots but it's also surrounded by Elysian Park, which is nice enough (it does have some issues w/ trash and homelessness, Echo Park a mile to the W-SW has cleaned up better). And it's close to downtown. I do wish it were more walkable from downtown - there are currently some (rather crazy) proposals out there for a series of gondolas to connect Dodger Stadium and Union Station/DTLA.
Anyway, Angel Stadium --- I haven't personally seen the "personality" you have, I've mostly just seen views of (1) parking lots, (2) the Ducks' arena and (3) the Orange Crush (for the uninitiated, what is literally the most complex/complicated freeway interchange in America), with a fan-base of mostly utterly dispassionate uninterested OCers. Dodger Stadium has a vibe. Angels Stadium, I've never seen it at all.
Fenway vs Wrigley ........ Wrigley is under-the-radar a dump that hasn't been kept up well (while Fenway has). Another big thing, and admittedly plays into my consideration:
When I lived in Cincinnati (2008-2016), Cubs fans would invade town when they played the Reds. Oh wait ... that didn't happen ALL the time. It only happened from 2008-2010 and 2015-2016. Those middle years when the Cubs stunk, you could barely find them. Front-runners.
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*Actually, today is the 41-year anniversary of the Lee Elia rant!!! It's classic. April 29, 1983.
Somewhat related ----- the Carolina Panthers are the only NFL franchise that has never drafted a Clemson Tiger.
For those who remember, Carolina actually played their 1st season in Clemson's stadium!
Slowly encroaching on Evan Eschmeyer territory!
One of my old Direct Reports (at my 2020-21 job) was a dead-ringer for Hunter Dickinson. He and a few other co-workers joked about that when I was at that job. I still keep in touch with them and we'll joke about that --- last year the consensus was "wait, he's still playing college hoops?" The reaction is going to be even more so next season!
Many folks don't know, but Neale was coach of the Red Wings for part of one season ---- the Dead Wings season of 1985-86 where they 2003 Detroit Tigers/2008 Detroit Lions level terrible. Last in the league in goals for and goals against, but first in the league in penalty minutes (Bob Probert a rookie and Joey Kocur in his 2nd year).
Anyway, he went to CBC immediately after that. And he truly found his second calling. GREAT sense of humor!
Who in the hell is Mel Kiper anyway? He’s never ever put on a jock strap, he’s never been a coach, or administrator and all of a sudden he’s an expert. Kiper has no more credentials than my neighbor, who is a postman that doesn’t have season tickets to the NFL.