As the kids would say, the comments in this thread does not pass the vibe check.
Jesus, people here are weirdly uptight regarding select former players - even if the player did some shitty stuff back in the day - to the point that they are finding issue with this video or using any reference to the player to air their hatred of them a decade after the fact.
Not sure if it’s still the standard but the UT schools had hard caps on in-state class rank cutoffs to even get in. 10% was usually the auto-accept for UT and A&M, but that was a decade ago and I’m sure it’s smaller now.
The next cutoff was about 25% for the “good” feeder schools in the system such as UT Dallas/UTSA and the secondary school systems like Texas State and UH. But I’m sure 25% is the new 10%.
The selectiveness even at regional campuses of schools is getting wild. For example:
UC Irvine? Basically turned into an Ivy League school.
UT San Antonio? Basically has the requirements of an upper-tier public school from 10-15 years ago.
My grandfather loves how exclusive Michigan is in terms of academics etc - but will also be the first to tell you about that time he got 2 Cs in his junior or senior year of high school in the 1950s, and still got into Michigan no problem with a ~3.0 GPA. I was rejected from Michigan with a 3.8 GPA and upper-tier test scores in 2010. My kid will likely never go to a good school in 2041 because it'll be so insanely expensive by then ($100k/year+ unless this bubble pops). We put plenty away for her but it likely won't matter.
And the costs? Its so stupid how overpriced schools got in the past ~25 years or so in particular. A bunch of it is an arms race for the dumbest stuff too - like UT San Antonio with their lazy river (that was never operational) and multiple 50 foot climbing walls at their rec center, or half of the Penn State dorm blocks having a Ben & Jerry's-like ice cream and coffee cafe.
At this point, not to sound defeated, but its simply to expensive to live at this point. Homes, education, cars. I fear for most of us in the next few years.
They don't allow it, but players 100% get paid on the side. I think Brady was getting some similar setup with Kraft back in the day when he was diverting his salary mostly to signing bonuses etc to keep the cap open.
I always joke mostly about the trashiest/drunkest people I see at Angels games being from the Inland Empire because the have all the stereotypes associated with that area, but the IE and this entire greater LA area in general will always be 70-30 or 80-20 in favor of Dodgers fans. Its just how it is. That said, the Inland Empire seems to have a pretty surprising concentration of inland empire folk supporting the team - and the Angels minor league team is already based out there.
While moving all the way into the IE might be a tall order, moving to Corona (or Norco) might be best for them if they ever want lots of land at a cheap price. The main problem with OC is that most of the land is built out OR the Irvine Company owns it it seems.
The only big drawback is that the Inland Empire is certainly poorer than Orange County, and would likely impact free agents, sponsors, and much more.
Tustin
Angels should have moved to Tustin when the Marine Corps Air Station Tustin closed in 1999. However, the land is still mostly undeveloped minus a Costco/Target/Lowes and some high-end condos in the corner.
There has been a lot holding back development there because of the massive (I mean obscenely large) blimp hangars there. However, one burned down back in November, and the other is in only marginally better shape.
The only drawback to the area is that it would put a massive strain on local roads during the season since the highway is a ways off...however, the Rams/Chargers stadium in Inglewood has the same issue.
Regarding the area, its increasingly affluent, and Santa Ana (bordering the former base) is starting to gentrify pretty fast as high income people are being priced out of the beach cities and even Irvine has gotten prohibitively expensive.
Irvine
Irvine would be their overall best bet for both plentiful land and wealthy businesses & clientele. Tons of huge companies are based in the area, and your average local fan is going to have tons of disposable income in that area.
Within 10 miles, you have all of Irvine, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa
The best place for the team would be at the former El Toro base - aka the "Great Park". This is pristine land that is right along multiple highways (5, 405, 131 Toll Road, 241 Toll Road), and offers tons of space for development.
I was tempted to put the Nats park on my bottom 5. It was a great stadium when it opened, but it has aged quite poorly as both a venue and with the perceived value of the experience itself.
Aramark/Sodexo are all almost universally going to give you shitty food (and shitty shits). I try to find a local place to eat before games
I am interested in the Chargers and the Lions/Titans.
The Lions were my team when I lived in Tennessee and we didn't have pro sports yet. Then we got the Titans right as I was leaving, so they became my team. Since they were pretty good almost every year from from 1999-2008, they overtook my Lions love, but I still really liked the Lions.
The Chargers are my "oh are they winning today? Thats cool!" team that I am not nearly as interested in. Though, when we moved to LA, we certainly follow them more. Plus, with Harbaugh, we really like them a bit more now.
This season, I guess my storylines I will follow:
Titans:
This team is likely looking at 9-10 wins or 2-3 wins with little room between. It all comes down to how good Levis is in year 2.
Is Levis their QB of the future or just a placeholder? He has the weapons to succeed, but the OL is still a bit questionable (but much improved on paper vs last year). If he is not the QB of the future, the 2025 draft so far looks like one of the worst for QBs in years.
Lions:
In a stronger division now than ever, are the Lions able to keep ahead of the Pack (see what I did there?).
Assuming the Lions make the playoffs, do they finally take the next step and make the Super Bowl? Outside of San Francisco and Green Bay, I don't foresee any teams that you can really say "Oh this might be a tough one" if they were to play in the playoffs - injuries aside.
Chargers:
How does Harbaugh fare in his return to an NFL that has gone crazy pass-happy in the decade since he was last coaching at this level?
No stadium comes close to the view that PNC provides of downtown Pittsburgh. The stadium is small and intimate, and provides a minor-league park nostalgia while also having top tier amenities. It also used to be surrounded by parking lots (Like Philly below), but they are rapidly filling it in with development/bars/hotels etc.
Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia
Yeah its location is just a massive parking lot full of other stadiums, but the park is absolutely rocking when the Fightins' are good, and the place has some great amenities and sight-lines. The place is also extremely well-kept and is hardly showing any age after 20 years. It also is right next to one of the SEPTA subway lines (albeit a shitty one), so you can get downtown or wherever you need to go pretty fast once the game is over if you aren't heading across the street to Xfinity Live.
Target Field - Minneapolis
A fun and quirky stadium by new park standards. It has amazing views of downtown Minneapolis, and has incredible sight-lines. By far the most pleasant game experience too with regards to the fans and more, and by far the most family-friendly park I have been to.
Coors Field - Denver
Cool park and supposedly the birthplace of every hipster's favorite beer they pretend to hate - Blue Moon. The place is also absolutely massive. The only knock on the park is that it faces away from the city skyline despite being downtown, but also doesn't face the mountains unless you're sitting in the right field upper deck.
Petco Park - San Diego
Just a cool park that did an amazing job of integrating existing architecture and buildings in its footprint, while making a uniquely designed park in its own right. Its a unique situation of fans too - where the fan base has been great for years, but is experiencing a Golden State Warriors or Chicago Cubs-like gentrification of the fanbase to more of a wine and cheese crowd. Also, for better or worse, the stadium has plenty of "bring your dog to the park" nights.
Least Favorite
Angel Stadium - Anaheim
I lived literally 200 feet from it - which was awesome and makes it hold a special spot in my sporting heart. That said, its an eyesore in an otherwise rapidly gentrifying area. This stadium is in very rough shape and is pretty much falling apart. At this point, they need to build a new stadium in the parking lot, move down the road to Tustin/Irvine/Long Beach, or embrace the rednecks in their fanbase and move out to the Inland Empire. But seriously, Moreno needs to sell the team to someone who gives a damn.
Tropicana Field - St. Petersburg
The worst stadium I have been to for baseball. Its full indoors, leaky, humid inside, and just smells stale. Its also a pain to get to and the area around it is pretty lame. The place opens only about an hour before first pitch too. As for the atmosphere, its just dead unless the Yankees/Red Sox/Mets are in town.
Oakland Coliseum - Oakland
This thing is such a dump, but you can tell it was once a beautiful stadium before Mount Davis wrecked the outfield. Unfortunately, the A's ownership and the city are to blame for the current stadium, and the pending move to Sacramento and eventually Las Vegas.
Fenway Park - Boston
Nostalgia aside, this park sucks. To their credit, they put an honest effort to renovate it a few times to keep the place viable, but its time to look into tearing it mostly down and rebuilding it over a few years. The sight-lines aren't that great, and it suffers from the same issues FedEx Field in Washington DC suffers - they forcibly added seats in obstructed areas that should not have seats. That said, the fans are solid whether the game is at noon or night, and the surrounding area is coming up nicely. The bar built into the bottom right of the green monster is also pretty cool.
Kauffman Stadium - Kansas City-ish
Like Philly, this stadium is in the middle of a parking lot. Unlike Philly, the stadium itself is underwhelming and also isolated from the rest of the city, while the product on the field almost always sucks (except 2014-15). The area just vetoed a new downtown stadium a couple months back, so I could see the Royals either investing heavily into the stadium once more, or outright leaving for a sunbelt city that would pay a premium for a new sports team like Salt Lake City, OKC, Charlotte, Austin, Nashville, etc.
Anthony Edwards will be pushed as the face of the league starting this off-season. He is a 3 level scorer with explosive dunks and defense that is starting to show up more and more. He will be in Paris in a couple of months for the Olympics, and a good showing there (like in last year's FIBA) will launch him into the stratosphere. Literally the only thing holding him back then will be the fact that he plays in Minneapolis (considered an NBA backwater like Memphis/Orlando etc), and that he has some shitty social media posts/videos that might come back to hurt him. Thats it.
No other players come close at this point to matching his trajectory or the "requirements" to be the face of the NBA:
LeBron is just about done as the face - despite still playing at an absurdly high level at his age.
Durant and Curry are too old at this point, and were always in LeBron's shadow.
Jokic is the best player, but too boring, and not American.
Doncic is exciting, but not American.
Zion ate himself out of the conversation but has started to turn the corner again.
Tatum is good but bland.
Wembanyama is not American, but is so scary good (should be DPOY as a rookie) and is such a genetic freak that they could start to push him - despite not being American.
The NBA was starting to really prop up Ja Morant in this role - and he really is a game to game highlight real of dunks, crazy steals and passes, and "put the game on my back" moments. However, he made some really stupid choices in 2023 + the guy was/is on the verge of full-blown alcoholism. The NBA's over-the-top 25 game suspension for the 2nd offense was the nail in the coffin for him getting the "future face of the league" talk, and his injury this past January might be more problematic than it should have been.
Still setting my sights on a low win total, but I will up it to 13 wins - with gradual improvement that sets the team up for a 2008-09-style season where they get into the tournament as a lower seed. If everything goes right, I think 18 wins.
Small steps - even if the portal speeds things up way more than it used to in terms of program building.
We have the 2023 BMW X1 and we cannot wait to get rid of it - ideally asap but it’s gone when it’s lease expires in 2 years from today.
The thing flat out sucks. Went from a Mercedes C300 to it, and the drop in everything was massive. The speakers are worse than my Chevy Covalt from 2005, and everything feels like a downgrade.
And while the ride itself is fairly nice, the BMW just has so many issues. I’ve had the entire screen go off when driving, the delayed response to giving it gas when the light turns green, and the jerkiness of it is just awful.
Now it’s under a recall for the braking system.
Thinking of going back to Mercedes but open to other ideas. Wife wants a small-ish SUV but we need more room since there is a car seat in the back that forced the front passenger seat to be pushed up very far.
Trying to keep a lease payment under $800/month if possible.
SEC & B1G breaking off at once is enough to destroy the NCAA. Thats like 90% of the teams most people care about + almost all of the power players in one move.
Sprinkle in a few others like UNC, ND and its over.
Their solid - though I already thought their existing jerseys were great and in the upper tier of recent jersey upgrades.
Not really a big fan of the black jersey/blue helmet, though. However, seeing it in-game will probably be a massive upgrade than just seeing it in weirdly-lit promotional pics.
I just hate that Nike keeps putting team names/cities in huge letters on the front of nearly every jersey they redesign. It started with their disastrous Cleveland redesign about 8-9 years ago and they keep doing it.
University of Texas with another star golfer in Scheffler.
I don’t follow college golf, but is Texas considered pretty elite? Between him, Spieth, and some others of late, they have had some real talent come through.
Football has numbed me for some time to being a bridesmaid and never the bride, but man it feels this school gets so close in every sport to winning it all and then some cosmic force puts its thumbs in the scale in favor of the other team.
Its been hard for me to get into golf again of late.
I really want a young player to become another generational phenom (even 1/4 as good as prime Tiger), but it just hasnt happened yet. Also, ,ost of the guys are just uber-douchey or holier-than-thou and unlikeable to me.
The first true reality TV show. Day after day non-stop for a full season of TV - with a grand finale that saw 100-150M viewers - trouncing that year’s Super Bowl (83.4M viewers).
I don’t think there will ever be a court case as watched as that was.
Blake Griffin at that point was the 3rd-most dominant player I have ever seen in college (Michael Beasley and Kevin Durant in the 2 years before Griffin). At that time, Griffin was being talked about as one of the greatest prospects of all time. Just a 6-10 mega athlete with a complete game for the time. Michigan being competitive against Griffin and a fairly strong supporting cast on Oklahoma was crazy to watch.
Man, there was a ~5-6 year period where the NBA draft saw mega-freshman that were considered cant-miss prospects that you just haven't seen for the last 10 years or so at least. Not to say there haven't been great 1 and done prospects in that time, but the hype and NBA-ready talent that came out those years was wild.
Considering the mega superstar freshmen in that Duke team, the fact that the best one in the NBA is Tyus Jones is quite ridiculous.
Okafor got robbed of a career mostly due to the Rockets/Warriors revolutionizing basketball with the 3 points and analytics approach making traditional heavy footed bigs obsolete overnight. Add in his lack of d and he was screwed.
Winslow looked like an Andre Iguadola style guard/forward with arguably better athleticism, but was made of glass in the NBA and was never available.
Tyus became the best backup PG in the league in Memphis before going to Washington and being a very average starting PG on a terrible team…I mean any time Poole and Kuzma are your team’s veteran leaders is sad.
Grayson Allen was the only one who stayed more than a year at Duke and became the most hated college player in a generation. He was always a bit streaky if a shooter in the pros, but really found a home in Phoenix finally.
Big Ten schools have just largely never taken that next step to go to the championship tier in most major sports…the fact is been a quarter century since this conference won a basketball championship in itself is crazy.
The East/West NBA conference thing got so problematic for a while from the mid 2000s - 2010s when the West was having its 7-8 seeds be 50+ win teams and the East was seeing those same seeds winning 35-40 games.
The 2008 playoffs, for example, saw only 7 games separate the #1 seeded Lakers (57-25) from the #8 seed Nuggets (50-32) in the West, while the Eastern Conference saw 3 teams without winning records make the playoffs. In fact, the 48 win Golden State Warriors missed they playoffs in the West, but would have been the #4 seed had they been in the East.
The West got so much better during that period that this played out nearly every season for quite some time. Its only been since around the 2016 season that the conferences have balanced out - and even still, the West is almost always the slightly better conference.
The divisions don't bother me a ton but they feel somewhat pointless in the day and age of modern travel and ungodly cash flows in teams.
That said, the NHLs current model is by far the worst in sports.
I also think we will see at least one major pro sport do away with divisions and just have protected matchups in the coming decade or so - with the NFL being the most likely if they go up to a full 18 game schedule.
The Wings collapse over the last month has been breathtaking this season. Of course, this massive skid also aligns well with the fact they are playing nearly every game on the road.
Looks like the playoff cold streak is going to go on another year at this rate. Even though they are only a point or two out of a playoff seed, they are just so bad at this point.
As a resident Warde hater, Warde did quite well with the Dusty hire.
That said, all coaches/staffs of the major sports programs at Michigan (except women's BB) have been hired by Warde at this point. Like a GM in the NFL/NBA, he has his people now in the positions, so what happens is all on him.
Eh shes playing outside of herself because she has to. LSU has so much more individual talent than Iowa that they can all mostly play more comfortably and shoulder way less of a load than Clark,
Recent Comments
Is that the movie I keep seeing previews of where the two dudes are about to hook up with Zendaya?
As the kids would say, the comments in this thread does not pass the vibe check.
Jesus, people here are weirdly uptight regarding select former players - even if the player did some shitty stuff back in the day - to the point that they are finding issue with this video or using any reference to the player to air their hatred of them a decade after the fact.
Not sure if it’s still the standard but the UT schools had hard caps on in-state class rank cutoffs to even get in. 10% was usually the auto-accept for UT and A&M, but that was a decade ago and I’m sure it’s smaller now.
The next cutoff was about 25% for the “good” feeder schools in the system such as UT Dallas/UTSA and the secondary school systems like Texas State and UH. But I’m sure 25% is the new 10%.
When I graduated high school, it seemed most colleges expected early applications and only cared about your first 3 years anyway.
The selectiveness even at regional campuses of schools is getting wild. For example:
My grandfather loves how exclusive Michigan is in terms of academics etc - but will also be the first to tell you about that time he got 2 Cs in his junior or senior year of high school in the 1950s, and still got into Michigan no problem with a ~3.0 GPA. I was rejected from Michigan with a 3.8 GPA and upper-tier test scores in 2010. My kid will likely never go to a good school in 2041 because it'll be so insanely expensive by then ($100k/year+ unless this bubble pops). We put plenty away for her but it likely won't matter.
And the costs? Its so stupid how overpriced schools got in the past ~25 years or so in particular. A bunch of it is an arms race for the dumbest stuff too - like UT San Antonio with their lazy river (that was never operational) and multiple 50 foot climbing walls at their rec center, or half of the Penn State dorm blocks having a Ben & Jerry's-like ice cream and coffee cafe.
At this point, not to sound defeated, but its simply to expensive to live at this point. Homes, education, cars. I fear for most of us in the next few years.
There Bally debacle of the last 2-3 years will make for a perfectly adequate 30 for 30 at some point.
This thread could almost be titled “Ben Mason is now the only starting FB in the NFL”
Brinks Truck Coming!
They don't allow it, but players 100% get paid on the side. I think Brady was getting some similar setup with Kraft back in the day when he was diverting his salary mostly to signing bonuses etc to keep the cap open.
Corona / Inland Empire
Tustin
Irvine
I was tempted to put the Nats park on my bottom 5. It was a great stadium when it opened, but it has aged quite poorly as both a venue and with the perceived value of the experience itself.
Aramark/Sodexo are all almost universally going to give you shitty food (and shitty shits). I try to find a local place to eat before games
I am interested in the Chargers and the Lions/Titans.
The Lions were my team when I lived in Tennessee and we didn't have pro sports yet. Then we got the Titans right as I was leaving, so they became my team. Since they were pretty good almost every year from from 1999-2008, they overtook my Lions love, but I still really liked the Lions.
The Chargers are my "oh are they winning today? Thats cool!" team that I am not nearly as interested in. Though, when we moved to LA, we certainly follow them more. Plus, with Harbaugh, we really like them a bit more now.
This season, I guess my storylines I will follow:
Favorite
Least Favorite
Petition to make "Phat" cool to say again
Anthony Edwards will be pushed as the face of the league starting this off-season. He is a 3 level scorer with explosive dunks and defense that is starting to show up more and more. He will be in Paris in a couple of months for the Olympics, and a good showing there (like in last year's FIBA) will launch him into the stratosphere. Literally the only thing holding him back then will be the fact that he plays in Minneapolis (considered an NBA backwater like Memphis/Orlando etc), and that he has some shitty social media posts/videos that might come back to hurt him. Thats it.
No other players come close at this point to matching his trajectory or the "requirements" to be the face of the NBA:
The NBA was starting to really prop up Ja Morant in this role - and he really is a game to game highlight real of dunks, crazy steals and passes, and "put the game on my back" moments. However, he made some really stupid choices in 2023 + the guy was/is on the verge of full-blown alcoholism. The NBA's over-the-top 25 game suspension for the 2nd offense was the nail in the coffin for him getting the "future face of the league" talk, and his injury this past January might be more problematic than it should have been.
Lol they are walking out wearing whatever the hell they want to be introduced to job where they get millions to workout and play games
Goodell sounding like Mary Sue coleman
JayJay MaCharthey is my favorite Michigan athletics member since Jon Beelighne
Still setting my sights on a low win total, but I will up it to 13 wins - with gradual improvement that sets the team up for a 2008-09-style season where they get into the tournament as a lower seed. If everything goes right, I think 18 wins.
Small steps - even if the portal speeds things up way more than it used to in terms of program building.
We have the 2023 BMW X1 and we cannot wait to get rid of it - ideally asap but it’s gone when it’s lease expires in 2 years from today.
The thing flat out sucks. Went from a Mercedes C300 to it, and the drop in everything was massive. The speakers are worse than my Chevy Covalt from 2005, and everything feels like a downgrade.
And while the ride itself is fairly nice, the BMW just has so many issues. I’ve had the entire screen go off when driving, the delayed response to giving it gas when the light turns green, and the jerkiness of it is just awful.
Now it’s under a recall for the braking system.
Thinking of going back to Mercedes but open to other ideas. Wife wants a small-ish SUV but we need more room since there is a car seat in the back that forced the front passenger seat to be pushed up very far.
Trying to keep a lease payment under $800/month if possible.
SEC & B1G breaking off at once is enough to destroy the NCAA. Thats like 90% of the teams most people care about + almost all of the power players in one move.
Sprinkle in a few others like UNC, ND and its over.
Should have opted for a lower back tattoo
Their solid - though I already thought their existing jerseys were great and in the upper tier of recent jersey upgrades.
Not really a big fan of the black jersey/blue helmet, though. However, seeing it in-game will probably be a massive upgrade than just seeing it in weirdly-lit promotional pics.
I just hate that Nike keeps putting team names/cities in huge letters on the front of nearly every jersey they redesign. It started with their disastrous Cleveland redesign about 8-9 years ago and they keep doing it.
Reigning National Champions 🤝 Drunk Driving Issues
University of Texas with another star golfer in Scheffler.
I don’t follow college golf, but is Texas considered pretty elite? Between him, Spieth, and some others of late, they have had some real talent come through.
Feels like just days ago he was playing for Michigan - how time flies!
I was freshly shaven when I started reading this and now I have a 5 o’clock shadow
God I hate fanatics. Fuck Rubin and his shitty company.
Despite multiple failures, I fully expect Phoenix and Atlanta to both get teams within the decade once the NGL does their final major expansion.
Football has numbed me for some time to being a bridesmaid and never the bride, but man it feels this school gets so close in every sport to winning it all and then some cosmic force puts its thumbs in the scale in favor of the other team.
Its been hard for me to get into golf again of late.
I really want a young player to become another generational phenom (even 1/4 as good as prime Tiger), but it just hasnt happened yet. Also, ,ost of the guys are just uber-douchey or holier-than-thou and unlikeable to me.
The first true reality TV show. Day after day non-stop for a full season of TV - with a grand finale that saw 100-150M viewers - trouncing that year’s Super Bowl (83.4M viewers).
I don’t think there will ever be a court case as watched as that was.
...and news of OJ's death:
Blake Griffin at that point was the 3rd-most dominant player I have ever seen in college (Michael Beasley and Kevin Durant in the 2 years before Griffin). At that time, Griffin was being talked about as one of the greatest prospects of all time. Just a 6-10 mega athlete with a complete game for the time. Michigan being competitive against Griffin and a fairly strong supporting cast on Oklahoma was crazy to watch.
Man, there was a ~5-6 year period where the NBA draft saw mega-freshman that were considered cant-miss prospects that you just haven't seen for the last 10 years or so at least. Not to say there haven't been great 1 and done prospects in that time, but the hype and NBA-ready talent that came out those years was wild.
Dinkytown is where I take my S.O. every night.
"Hey babe, I am going to take you down to DinkyTown"
Considering the mega superstar freshmen in that Duke team, the fact that the best one in the NBA is Tyus Jones is quite ridiculous.
Okafor got robbed of a career mostly due to the Rockets/Warriors revolutionizing basketball with the 3 points and analytics approach making traditional heavy footed bigs obsolete overnight. Add in his lack of d and he was screwed.
Winslow looked like an Andre Iguadola style guard/forward with arguably better athleticism, but was made of glass in the NBA and was never available.
Tyus became the best backup PG in the league in Memphis before going to Washington and being a very average starting PG on a terrible team…I mean any time Poole and Kuzma are your team’s veteran leaders is sad.
Grayson Allen was the only one who stayed more than a year at Duke and became the most hated college player in a generation. He was always a bit streaky if a shooter in the pros, but really found a home in Phoenix finally.
Def wants to play for a team with a shit.
Ring culture has hurt pro basketball, but it’s quick creep into the college game will be absolutely devastating.
Hartford Yard Goats: “Am I a joke to you?”
Hurley is such a twat. Might be more annoying than his brother.
Big Ten schools have just largely never taken that next step to go to the championship tier in most major sports…the fact is been a quarter century since this conference won a basketball championship in itself is crazy.
Purdue is so done
The East/West NBA conference thing got so problematic for a while from the mid 2000s - 2010s when the West was having its 7-8 seeds be 50+ win teams and the East was seeing those same seeds winning 35-40 games.
The 2008 playoffs, for example, saw only 7 games separate the #1 seeded Lakers (57-25) from the #8 seed Nuggets (50-32) in the West, while the Eastern Conference saw 3 teams without winning records make the playoffs. In fact, the 48 win Golden State Warriors missed they playoffs in the West, but would have been the #4 seed had they been in the East.
The West got so much better during that period that this played out nearly every season for quite some time. Its only been since around the 2016 season that the conferences have balanced out - and even still, the West is almost always the slightly better conference.
The divisions don't bother me a ton but they feel somewhat pointless in the day and age of modern travel and ungodly cash flows in teams.
That said, the NHLs current model is by far the worst in sports.
I also think we will see at least one major pro sport do away with divisions and just have protected matchups in the coming decade or so - with the NFL being the most likely if they go up to a full 18 game schedule.
Those years for the Nats were wild...back to back years saw Strasburg and Harper come up
The Wings collapse over the last month has been breathtaking this season. Of course, this massive skid also aligns well with the fact they are playing nearly every game on the road.
Looks like the playoff cold streak is going to go on another year at this rate. Even though they are only a point or two out of a playoff seed, they are just so bad at this point.
I want Iowa and Purdue to win it all.
I expect UConn men to win it all, and either UConn women or South Carolina to win it all.
Gyatt Dayummn Moose Knuckle Bussy
As a resident Warde hater, Warde did quite well with the Dusty hire.
That said, all coaches/staffs of the major sports programs at Michigan (except women's BB) have been hired by Warde at this point. Like a GM in the NFL/NBA, he has his people now in the positions, so what happens is all on him.
I personally wanted Coach K with Boeheim, Jay Wright, and Roy Williams as assistants and Callipari and Sampson as recruiting coordinators.
But I guess Dusty was an ok option b.
Eh shes playing outside of herself because she has to. LSU has so much more individual talent than Iowa that they can all mostly play more comfortably and shoulder way less of a load than Clark,