sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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The chocolate chip cookie is the most popular cookie in America. It was invented after 1930, most likely in 1937 or 1938, by Ruth Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, when she added cut-up chunks of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate to a cookie recipe. Her Butter Drop Dough cookie recipe called for melted baking chocolate, which she did not have, so she cut up chunks of the Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate instead. Some believe she was hoping the chocolate would melt in the batter, and that she created the chocolate chip cookies by accident, but others believe she knew that it would not melt, and she was trying to create the new cookies on purpose. No matter the case, she gave us chocolate chip cookies!
People loved her recipe, and as it became more popular, more Nestlé's chocolate bars began being sold. Wakefield eventually made an agreement with Nestlé, where her recipe would be added to the chocolate bar's packaging, in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars, but by about 1940, Nestlé began selling chocolate in chip form. A few decades later, in 1963, Chips Ahoy! became the first brand selling pre-made chocolate chip cookies across the country. Since their invention, the affection for chocolate chip cookies has not subsided.
SU News
Orange Watch: Could Pac-12 players’ unification spread to Syracuse football? - The Juice Online (PS; Bierman)
Item: Thirteen players across the Pac-12 conference Sunday listed a set of grievances they want addressed by that league’s administrators and athletic departments. In a clear sign of the current atmosphere nationally, the players’ bullet points revolve around their identification, their health and safety, recognition of their role as student-athletes to fund a multi-billion dollar business enterprise, and subsequently a call to take a fresh look at the distribution of finances associated with the sport. Now time will tell how just fast this crusade multiplies to the other four Power 5 conferences, including the ACC and Syracuse football.
In a year in which the NFL franchise in Washington went from decades to days to discard its insensitive name, nationwide protests continue to flourish spotlighting racial injustice, and the importance of creating confinement of athletes in so-called bubbles to ensure the best chance of actual competition, comes a paradigm shift of college football players from a Power 5 conference making their voices heard loud and clear.
Call it the seismic summer of change in college sports, with the #WEAREUNITED hashtag defining the voice of those college athletes who drive the engine for the most profitable revenue sport on each major college campus.
The basic message from these student-athletes while simple, is fraught with many complex issues: The business of college football cannot continue with the status quo.
Although some of the players demands are unrealistic in the face of the nationwide decimation caused by COVID-19, and with colleges and athletic departments hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars from the loss of in-person teaching and the revenue of room and board, and the loss of competition on the playing fields, the subject of finances is certainly sensitive.
But health and safety, and escalating the financial opportunities with the ongoing saga of player’s making money off their name, image and likeness is real.
We don’t have any sense since Sunday’s Pac-12 players declaration where all of this sits with Syracuse athletics and the Orange program. SU has always been one of the most close-lipped athletic departments in the country, and the Dino Babers era has been defined by keeping the football program’s business low key and strictly in the “Family,” or “La Familia,” or to Babers’s Hawaiian background, “Ohana.”
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Syracuse's biggest preseason question: How to maximize the new defense? (theathletic.com; $; Gutirrez)
Maybe Syracuse will have a competitive defense again. Not the same unit that has spent much of the past two decades near the floor of the conference, yielding embarrassing point totals and failing to give its offense a chance. For much of Dino Babers’ tenure, Syracuse has been an offense-centric team desperately seeking balance. Now the Orange need a defense that sustains them. They’re counting on new defensive coordinator Tony White and his 3-3-5 formation to foster a competitive defense with a sizable front and intimidating athletes sprinting to the right spots.
“I just think it could be a good fit for us,” Babers said this spring of the 3-3-5 alignment. “I might be wrong; we’ll have to see.”
As they open preseason camp on Wednesday, the Orange face several questions, not the least of which concerns the defense. The talent is far from elite, but there are enough pieces to be at least solid. A few years of steady player acquisition has helped, with Babers and his staff emphasizing bigger, faster linebackers on the recruiting front. He knows he needs more athletic playmakers in the group. Outside of the 10-win season in 2018, it has been a long time since Syracuse had a defense that merited anticipation. SU hardly has exhibited any resemblance of consistency on the defense side. Yet it’s the unit expected to determine whether the Orange reach .500 this season.
There is a legitimate opportunity to emerge from a dark few seasons of a dumbfounding defense. Whether Syracuse capitalizes on it will dictate whether Babers can complete the turnaround and stick around for the long haul. What matters just as much, however, is that the team finally has something to believe in after years of struggling to find the right talent and having to work around major issues.
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Top Secret Fyles: With ACC’s revised football schedule, Syracuse looks like a 5-win team (nny360.com; Fyles)
From the drawers of the Top Secret Fyles:
The 2020 ACC season schedule was all set for the Syracuse University football team early in the spring.
Traditional games within the Atlantic Division were comprised of Boston College, Louisville, Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina State and Florida State. Next were a couple of ACC crossover games against Pittsburgh Georgia Tech, and lastly, four nonleaguers against Liberty, Western Michigan, Rutgers and FCS member Colgate.
This was a neat 12-game schedule over a 13-week span. This was before the coronavirus pandemic entered the picture, turning major college football schedules into an odyssey.
The Orange will now play 10 ACC games and one nonleague opponent, which will be played in Syracuse.
What the revised schedule now means for Syracuse is the following with a nonconference opponent still to be determined: five foes have been dropped off the slate, including Florida State, Rutgers, Colgate, Western Michigan and Liberty; and three ACC programs have been added, including Notre Dame, North Carolina and Duke. Seven opponents remain though playing venues have been shifted in some cases — BC, Georgia Tech, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, Louisville and Pitt.
In my opinion, SU’s slate got more difficult adding Notre Dame, a perennial Top 25 program that now can contend for the league title in December, and North Carolina, an excellent defensive team led by head coach Mack Brown.
Also, four potential wins against Big Ten weakling Rutgers, Western Michigan, Colgate and Liberty, which elevated its program to FBS status in just the past two seasons, have now gone bye-bye.
With the virus lurking, SU’s season may once again go topsy-turvy. I originally picked SU to go 5-7 overall, 3-5 league, before the switch, but now the records will be 5-6, 4-6.
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SU Top 100: #54 Rob Burnett – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; Unsworth)
There have been many notable pass rushers throughout the years of Syracuse football. The 46th addition to the Fizz’s Top 100 just so happens to also be a New York native.
Rob Burnett was born in Long Island, and attended Newfield High School. While his Newfield Wolverine football team wasn’t very successful, Burnett still managed to earn all-Long Island honors his senior year. He then came to Syracuse under the tutelage of Head Coach Dick MacPherson.
Burnett played for four seasons at SU (1986-89), and contrary to his high school experience, was a member of three great Syracuse teams. In 1987, Burnett’s sophomore year, the Orange finished undefeated, and a tie against Auburn in the Sugar Bowl was the only result keeping SU from a perfect 12-0 record. Burnett made a noticeable impact, starting at defensive tackle on a unit that gave up on average less than two touchdowns per game. Opponents only rushed for 3 yards a carry against the Orange defensive line, which also featured future pros Ted Gregory and Paul Frase. Burnett shone alongside the two upperclassmen, tying the Syracuse single-game sack record on the road in Pittsburgh.
Burnett, now the leader of the defensive line in 1988, helped SU to a 10-2 record, an AP poll ranking of 13, and unlike the previous year, a win over LSU in the Hall of Fame Bowl. In 1989, the Orange finished 8-4, but claimed another postseason trophy after beating Georgia in the Peach Bowl. Burnett wrapped up his career on the Hill tied for fourth in total sacks with 18. He was named to the Syracuse All-Century team while still in the NFL.
Burnett went on to have a 13-year NFL career. He was drafted by the Browns in the fifth round, and played in Cleveland for six years (including a Pro Bowl season in 1994) until the franchise moved to Baltimore. Burnett stuck with the Ravens for four more years, and recorded 10.5 sacks in 2000-2001, the same year that the team won its first Super Bowl. He spent two more years with the Miami Dolphins, then retired after the 2003 season.
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Recent conference decisions impacting Liberty's 2020 football schedule (newsadvance.com; Sordelett)
The Liberty football program opens training camp Friday in preparation for a season in which the Flames don’t know who they will play in the Sept. 5 opener or what the remainder of the 12-game schedule will look like in its entirety.
The schedule gained a bit of clarity in recent days thanks to a pair of Group of Five conferences announcing they were moving forward with full slates.
Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference are allowing their league members to play a full regular-season schedule, bucking a trend of conference-only scheduling from Power Five conferences SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12, and the ACC limiting its members to only one out-of-conference game. Those decisions to play a full schedule means one-third of Liberty’s schedule remains filled.
Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick told the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail on Friday that Conference USA is committed to keeping its eight-game conference schedule and permitting its league members to fill as many of the four remaining open weekends against nonconference opponents.
Three C-USA teams — Western Kentucky, Florida International and Southern Mississippi — are on the Flames’ schedule this season.
Spokespersons from WKU and Southern Miss told The News & Advance in emails Monday there were no changes to the respective football schedules with regard to games against Liberty. WKU is slated to host Liberty on Sept. 19, and the Flames welcome Southern Miss to Lynchburg for an Oct. 24 matchup.
Liberty hosts FIU on Sept. 26.
The Sun Belt’s decision means Liberty’s Oct. 10 home game against Louisiana-Monroe is still intact. ULM athletic director Scott McDonald told the News Star in Monroe, Louisiana, the program was committed to playing a full 12-game schedule despite losing $3.2 million in guaranteed money from canceled contests against Georgia and Arkansas.
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ACC and Notre Dame 2020: Almost Pregnant (RX; HM)
ACC and Notre Dame 2020: Almost Pregnant
"Which do you choose, the hard or soft option?" |
- from West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys |
| For our purposes, we will define those options as follows: |
| Soft option - remain chaste and try to win a husband based on your virtues. |
| Hard option - get yourself pregnant and try to force a man to marry you. |
Other conferences like the Big Ten have steadfastly held to their principles when it comes to wooing the most eligible FBS bachelor, but the ACC has taken a different approach. Assuming the 2020-21 ACC football season is actually played, the league has plans to win over the Fighting Irish by...
- letting Notre Dame play a 10-game ACC conference football schedule
- making them eligible to play in the 2020 ACC Football Conference Championship Game,
- and allowing the Irish to represent the ACC in the Orange Bowl if it works out that way.
So, just how serious is this football thing, anyway?
From SN: What if Notre Dame wins ACC in 2020? Analyzing Irish's past, present and future
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SN's Preseason Bowl Picks - 8/4/20 (RX; HM)
SN's Preseason Bowl Picks - 8/4/20
Let me start by saying if you think the regular season is iffy, imagine how shaky bowl season is! That said, if we assume that these bowl games will actually be played, might as well look at which teams are predicted to play in them...
From Sporting News: College football bowl predictions 2020
| College Football Playoffs / New Year's Day Six predictions | |
| BOWL | TEAMS |
| Goodyear Cotton Bowl | Texas vs. Boise State |
| Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl | Georgia vs. North Carolina |
| PlayStation Fiesta Bowl | LSU vs. Oregon |
| Capital One Orange Bowl | Notre Dame vs. Penn State |
| Rose Bowl Game (semifinal) | Ohio State vs. Oklahoma |
| Allstate Sugar Bowl (semifinal) | Clemson vs. Alabama |
| CFP championship game | Clemson vs. Ohio State |
The first thing we notice is the amount of love SN is giving the ACC here - three teams in the New Year's Six bowls? Yeah, I understand one of them is Notre Dame, but still... I'm not used to this level of respect!
| SN's Predictions for ACC minor bowls | |
| BOWL | TEAMS |
| Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl | Washington vs. Wake Forest |
| Outback Bowl | Michigan vs. Auburn |
| Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl | Virginia vs. South Carolina |
| Duke's Mayo Bowl | Michigan State vs. N.C. State |
| Camping World Bowl | TCU vs. Florida State |
| Fenway Bowl | Cincinnati vs. Pitt |
| New Era Pinstripe Bowl | Iowa vs. Virginia Tech |
| SDCCU Holiday Bowl | Arizona State vs. Miami, FL |
| TaxSlayer Gator Bowl | Louisville vs. Tennessee |
| Ticket Smarter Birmingham Bowl | Memphis vs. Georgia Tech |
Big 12 to allow teams to play 1 nonconference football game (AP; Russo)
Two people involved with the decision say the Big 12 will permit its teams to play one nonconference football game this year to go along with their nine league contests as plans for the pandemic-altered season continued to fall into place.
The people spoke Monday night to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the conference was still preparing an official announcement.
The Big 12 university presidents signed off on the conference’s scheduling model, which gives schools the ability to play one nonconference game at home. The conference's championship game is scheduled for Dec. 5, but one of the people told AP that the conference is leaving open the possibility of bumping it back a week or two.
The 10-team Big 12 already plays a nine-game, round-robin conference schedule. Unlike other Power Five conference that have switched to either exclusively (Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC) or mostly (ACC) league games this season, the Big 12 could not add more conference games without teams playing each other more than once.
Several Big 12 teams have already started preseason practice, with Kansas and Oklahoma slated to play FCS teams on Aug. 29.
As conferences take steps toward a football season that seems to be in precarious shape, the NCAA is expected to weigh in Tuesday on fall sports other than major-college football.
The association’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet and whether to cancel or postpone NCAA championship events in fall sports such as soccer, volleyball and lower-division football is expected to be a topic.
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Links, news and rumors - 8/4/20 (RX; HM)
Links, news and rumors - 8/4/20
From CBS Sports: Power Five, NCAA are now officially adversaries, and a breakaway may only be a matter of time
Today the NCAA is set to vote on whether to cancel Fall sports championships. If they do, that would isolate the CFP as the only college sport (football) championship - and could, as Dennis Dodd puts it,
I know for many of you readers it wouldn't hurt your feelings one bit if the ACC schools came out from under the tyranny of the NCAA.
__________
From ESPN: Big 12-approved scheduling model includes 9 conference games, 1 nonconference game
Although I don't expect to see any ACC-vs-Big XII games, to be honest.
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Other
How Mary Nelson found her voice by starting and leading a movement (PS; Linhorst)
Mary Nelson channeled grief from a personal tragedy into constructive help for others. She collected and distributed, for free, a few hundred backpacks to children in August 2002.
That first distribution started a movement that grew and grew. Now, every year on the third Saturday in August, she supplies thousands of children with free backpacks, school supplies, and festive encouragement for their return to school. The city closes a portion of Salina Street for the annual Youth Day Barbecue. Members of her church, Abundant Life Christian Center, pitch in. Businesses donate food, supplies, money, and time, and they line the street with informational booths. Volunteers barbecue and serve food to anyone who shows up. An emcee keeps music going and introduces a few speakers.
This year, Covid-19 changes all that. Inspired by the way the Jim and Julie Boeheim Foundation turned its annual fund-raising gala into a virtual event, Nelson said: “I can go virtual, too.”
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