sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Winnie the Pooh Day!
Winnie the Pooh Day is celebrated on the birthday of A.A. Milne, the English author who created the popular children's character, Winnie the Pooh. The name "Winnie-the-Pooh" first appeared in a story called "The Wrong Sort of Bees," on Christmas Eve in 1925, in The Evening News. The following year, Milne published a volume of stories about Pooh, simply titled Winnie-the-Pooh. He followed this in 1928 with The House at Pooh Corner.
A black bear named Winnie—short for Winnipeg, as she had come from Canada—was an inspiration for the character. Winnie had resided at the London Zoo, and Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne, liked to visit her; he even had the opportunity to feed her honey. Christopher named his own teddy bear Winnie the Pooh, after the real-life Winnie, as well as after a swan named Pooh, that the Milne's had seen while on vacation. Christopher's bear actually had originally been named Edward, and had been purchased at Harrods in London.
SU News
Syracuse sets new ticket prices for football and men’s basketball, timeline for Dome reseating (PS; $; Carlson)
Syracuse University announced new prices on season-tickets for football and men’s basketball that will coincide with the arrivals of new seats with chairbacks and a re-seating effort that will require season-ticket holders throughout the stadium to pick a new spot to sit.
The stadium reseating is necessary before next season because of the addition of chairback seating, which will shrink the number of seats that exist in the Dome. Most season-ticket holders will see a price increase.
The school also provided a more detailed timeline of how the reseating process will play out for current season-ticket holders.
“What we’re going through right now, it’s going to be a tough process for everybody,” Syracuse Deputy Athletics Director for Business Development Torrey Ball said. “I think we’ve prepared really well for it.”
The Dome’s new seats will reduce capacity for football by 7,000 seats and basketball by 5,000 seats. The school said the majority of the lost seats will be in the 100 level, the prime area closest to the football field and basketball court.
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Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
Orange in the NFL: How did Syracuse football alums fare during Super Wild Card Weekend )TNIAAM; Lincoln)
If you are a Syracuse Orange fan who follows the NFL, you might just have noticed that Super Wild Card Weekend went incredibly well for Orange alumni as the three remaining ‘Cuse grads all picked up wins across their separate matchups this weekend. Here is a short glimpse at their performances this past weekend
Ifeatu Melifonwu - Detroit Lions
In what was my opinion, the most captivating game of the weekend, Melifonwu showed the same consistency that he has demonstrated throughout the second half of the year. The big safety secured two solo tackles and three in total across 52 snaps. Melifonwu’s final tackle of the game was most significant as he used his massive frame to bring down Ram’s rookie sensation Puka Nucua. In what could have been more than a 35-yard gain, Melifonwu was critical in making the 4th quarter stop to seal the Lions win.
Kingsley Jonathan - Buffalo Bills
Jonathan was unfortunately inactive for the Bills snowy showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday. A reason for Jonathan’s absence was not given, but it could be assumed that the Bills needed the roster spot for some of their other returning players. Although Jonathan will have the chance to face off against Kansas City this weekend, it seems unlikely. The defensive end put up quality numbers in limited chances for the Bills in his sophomore season. Registering in six games, Jonathan recorded five tackles.
Sean Tucker - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Like Jonathan, the prolific Syracuse RB did not feature for the Bucs in their home win against the Eagles. The rookie got the ball only 17 times over 11 games, but has heard consistent positive feedback from the coaching staff throughout the year. It is more than possible that Tucker could be a feature back for Tampa Bay next season. Tucker will technically have the chance to feature versus the
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The Juice Online - Podcast: Two alums say Syracuse football on verge of 'great things' (the Juice; podcast; Juice on the Cuse)
Former Syracuse football players Dan Anyaegbunam and Cameron Lynch are excited about the direction of the Orange program.
Anyaegbunam (class of 2013) played offensive line, while Lynch (2015) was a star linebacker. The two have remained close since their Orange playing days and joined The Juice on the Cuse Podcast to discuss the arrival of Fran Brown, the direction of the program, their post-playing careers and advice for the current student-athletes. Lynch went on to an NFL and broadcasting career, while Anyaegbunam has excelled in his law practice.
"Syracuse being on the precipice of being on some really great things," Anyaegbunam said. "With their culture they're building, with the new facilities that are coming in,, and with all of the alumni I've been speaking to, the excitement is palpable for Syracuse football."
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Syracuse Football: 5-star edge recruit, former Alabama commit, makes college decision (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse football coaches recently offered a scholarship to 2025 four-star edge and consensus top-100 national prospect Javion Hilson in the wake of Alabama’s legendary head coach, Nick Saban, announcing his retirement.
While I had hoped that the Orange would emerge as a viable contender for the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Hilson, who hails from Florida, he is headed to another Atlantic Coast Conference program.
Hilson, an elite player in the junior cycle, said via his X page that he was committing to Florida State. Oh, well.
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Syracuse football’s 2023 sacks leader Kevon Darton enters transfer portal (PS; $; Carlson)
Syracuse defensive tackle Kevon Darton, who led the Orange with five sacks last season, has entered his name into the transfer portal, a source with access to the transfer portal confirmed to Syracuse.com.
Darton’s decision to enter the portal was first reported by recruiting websites 247Sports.com and On3.com
Despite being an undersized player at 5-foot-11 and 271 pounds, Darton was disruptive at the line of scrimmage for the Orange last season.
In addition to his team-best sack total, Darton was tied for second in tackles for loss (8) and eighth in tackles with 42. The website Pro Football Focus gave him the 7th-best grade of any Syracuse defensive player last season. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
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(youtube; video; TA Sports)
Brown powered Syracuse over #6 Maryland in the first game of the 1956 season. Fantastic highlight footage of Jim Brown in his senior campaign; truly one of the greatest running backs in football history. Senior season, 1956.
ACC News
Miami lands standout transfer DB from College Football Playoff team - Saturday Road (saturdayroad.com; Olson)
Miami has landed a big-time transfer commitment for 2024. After five seasons at Washington capped by a College Football Playoff appearance, Mishael Powell is heading far from his hometown of Seattle.
Powell took to social media on Wednesday evening to announce that he is continuing his college football career in Coral Gables, playing for Mario Cirstobal’s Hurricanes. The 2024 season will mark Year 6 for Powell, which is allowed because he redshirted in 2019 and the 2020 season does not count against his NCAA eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Powell played in 36 games for the Huskies over the past three seasons. He put up his best numbers as a tackler in 2022, while the 2023 campaign was his best in coverage.
Playing just nine contests (eight starts) in 2022, Powell posted a career-high 43 tackles, including 29 solo stops and 1.5 TFLs.
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2023 Average Sagarin Rating, by Conference (RX; HM)
2023 Average Sagarin Rating, by Conference
Is it a P2 now, or is the ACC still a power conference? Is there a gap between P4 and G5?
How did FBS conferences compare in 2023?
I used Sagarin's average ratings for each FBS conference, and where Sagarin reported two numbers - one for each division - I averaged them together:| Conf. | Avg | Graph |
| SEC | 80 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| B12 | 78 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| B1G | 76 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| ACC | 74 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| MWC | 64 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| SBC | 64 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| AAC | 62 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| USA | 59 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
| MAC | 58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
To find out, I computed an average and a standard deviation for the P4, then determined "3 sigma" range around that average:
| Conf | Avg |
| SEC | 80 |
| B12 | 78 |
| B1G | 76 |
| ACC | 74 |
| avg | 77 |
| stddev | 2.58 |
| avg+3dev | 84.75 |
| avg-3dev | 69.25 |
Big Games coming in 2024 (RX; HM)
Big Games coming in 2024
2024 ACC Ranked-on-ranked games
(based on On3's Way-too-early Top 25*; conference games in blue):- Clemson vs Georgia (Atlanta)
- Florida State at Notre Dame
- Clemson at Florida State
- Florida State at SMU
- Florida State at Miami
- Louisville at Clemson
- Louisville at Notre Dame
- Miami at Louisville
- SMU at Louisville
- Clemson vs Miami
- Clemson vs SMU
- Florida State vs Louisville
- Miami vs SMU
- Notre Dame vs Clemson
- Notre Dame vs Miami
- Notre Dame vs SMU
Virginia Tech Football: Recent prediction for the Hokies in 2024 would be a huge disappointment (fightinggobbler.com; Roche)
The 2024 college football season is still eight months away. Since Michigan beat Washington in the College Football Playoff Championship Game on Jan. 8, there have been a lot of very early predictions for Top 25 polls and how conferences will shake out. After finishing 7-6 this season following a Military Bowl victory over Tulane, expectations are high and the Virginia Tech fanbase has a lot to look forward to next season under Brent Pry.
With some roster turnover that saw some players leave via the transfer portal and some players come in, the Hokies have an opportunity to be a better team this season than they were in 2023. They finished tied for fourth place in the ACC with Georgia Tech at 5-3, behind Florida State, Louisville, and North Carolina State. Athlon Sports released their way-too-early ACC predictions for 2024 and they have the Hokies rather low.
Athlon Sports picks Virginia Tech to finish sixth
In one of the way-too-early predictions for the 2024 season, Athlon Sports picked Virginia Tech to finish in sixth place next season in the ACC. Ranked ahead of them in order are Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, NC State, and Miami. Two of those five teams, Clemson and Miami, are on the Hokies schedule in 2024. Here is what they wrote about Virginia Tech,...
ACC seeks to block Florida State from league affairs in amended complaint as school explores exit options (cbssports.com; Straka)
The ACC formally amended its complaint against Florida State Wednesday, multiple outlets report. The 55-page filing alleges the university breached its original contract with the league when it chose to challenge the conference's exclusive grant of rights for television broadcasts.
Perhaps most importantly, the ACC requested that the court issue a permanent injunction that would bar FSU from participating in ACC management affairs due to what it calls a "direct and material conflict of interest with the purposes and objectives of the conference," according to documents obtained by ESPN.
In total, the ACC's amended complaint included six claims for relief, many of which allege a breach of contract from FSU. All six are outlined below:
- Request for declaratory judgment that the grant of rights and amended grant of rights are valid and enforceable contracts
- In acceptance of benefits provided by the grant of rights, the conference alleges Florida State waived its right to challenge it
- The ACC alleges Florida State has breached the promises it made in the original grant of rights agreement
- The ACC alleges Florida State breached its promise to protect "trade secrets" between the league and television partner ESPN
- The ACC alleges Florida State has breached fiduciary obligations to the conference required by both the ACC constitution and North Carolina law
- The ACC alleges Florida State breached its obligation to act in good faith and fair dealing under the ACC constitution
FSU and the ACC initially filed dueling complaints against one another in a span of less than 24 hours from Dec. 21-22. FSU filed against the conference in the Tallahassee Circuit Court, challenging the grant of rights agreement between the ACC and its members that went into effect back in 2016 and runs through 2036. FSU claims the financial penalty to leave the conference before the contract runs out -- estimated to be north of $500 million -- is unenforceable.
The ACC, meanwhile, proactively filed legal proceedings refuting FSU's challenge to the grant of rights. ACC leadership also released a statement contending that the Seminoles were in "clear violation of their legal commitments to the other members of the conference."
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Florida State Saw 2023 Costs Soar Ahead of ACC Exit Fight (sportico.com; Libit & Novy-Williams)
Florida State University says it spent $172 million on athletics in 2022-23, a $22 million spike from the previous year. However, the Seminoles’ revenue did not keep pace over that same period of time, increasing only about $9 million—from $161 million to $170 million. In light of this, FSU athletics reported ending the 2023 fiscal year with an overall deficit of $2.5 million, having previously claimed a $10.4 million surplus in FY22.
It’s the latest lens on a Seminoles program that has been vocal about financially falling behind its rivals in other conferences. Florida State is currently suing to get out of the ACC in hopes of landing in a richer league, and the school is also in talks to raise private equity funds to bridge the revenue gap.
These FSU numbers come from the school’s NCAA Membership Financial Reporting disclosures, which Sportico obtained through a public records request. It is not entirely clear from the report what constituted the sharp increase in costs—a sizable chunk of which ($49 million) was attributed to “other operating expenditures.”
On the positive side of the ledger, Florida State saw a particularly notable increase in football revenue, thanks in part to bowl money and a big jump in year-over-year ticket sales, from $15.1 million in 2021-22 to $22.8 million in 2022-23. In all, the school’s football-related revenue was $91 million last fiscal year, as compared to $78 million the previous fiscal year. However, the cost of fielding its football program also increased dramatically, from $54.6 million in FY22 to $75.6 million in FY23.
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Joe’s Notes: Does the ACC Want Florida State to Stay? (thebarkingcrow; Stunardi)
The ACC filed an amended legal complaint today against Florida State, adding to the lawsuit the conference filed against the university in December, one filed in anticipation of Florida State’s own lawsuit against the ACC. It doesn’t seem that a whole lot of the complaint is new. It seems like more of a fine-tuning than an introduction of new legal arguments. What I’m wondering, though, is what the ACC’s endgame is in this.
It’s understandable that the ACC would try to fight Florida State’s fire with fire of its own. That makes some conceptual sense, even if I (and a lot of you) don’t have legal experience and don’t perfectly understand legal strategy. But is the overall goal here to make Florida State pay the maximum exit fee and then get out? Or is it to keep Florida State in the ACC?
I don’t know how bad it is to burn bridges in the arena of conference realignment. If the ACC produces some football renaissance or the Big Ten and SEC pass FSU by, scenarios are possible where FSU might change its mind and want to stay. Boosters have burned dumber dollars than the ones spent on these legal fees, and anyways, it’s likely those fees are a sunk cost. It’s possible, then, that the emotional side of this doesn’t matter. It’s possible the ACC is trying to legally prove that it is very hard to leave the ACC in order to discourage everybody—Florida State included—from trying it and to extract maximum concessions if somebody does break away. Whether that results in FSU staying or FSU paying a lot to leave might not matter for the ACC.
It’s also possible, though, that the emotional side does matter, and that the ACC is gambling here by bringing all these torches onto this particular bridge. Universities aren’t people, but they’re run by people, presidents and athletic directors who move around and boosters who gain and lose both formal and informal power. Universities are messy, especially when college football is involved. Universities also tend to build alliances and harbor grudges. I would love to know how Florida State is feeling about the other ACC schools, and what the other ACC schools are feeling about Florida State. I’d love to know what the other ACC schools think of how ACC leadership is handling this. And I wonder all this because those possibilities above—an ACC football renaissance or the Big Ten and SEC passing FSU by—aren’t that outrageous.
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Other
D. Parker Steak & Seafood will be located on the first floor of City Center in downtown Syracuse. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)
Local restaurateurs opening downtown Syracuse steakhouse ... with parking (PS; $; Miller)
Two men responsible for a handful of successful restaurants in Central New York plan to bring an upscale steakhouse to downtown Syracuse by the end of 2024.
The restaurant, named D. Parker Steak & Seafood, will sit on the first floor of City Center, the former Sibley’s Department Store that’s being transformed into an office and commercial center. The restaurant space is at the corner of Jefferson and Clinton streets, directly across the street from The Landmark Theatre’s side entrance with the 12-foot windows aimed at the Museum of Science & Technology. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh will be delivering his State of the City address in the space at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
The 8,500-square-foot steakhouse is the latest venture for Mark Bullis and Nathan Fullmer. Bullis founded the Bull ‘n Bear Roadhouse restaurants in Central New York (Clay, East Syracuse and Fayetteville), and Fullmer oversees the business operations. In 2022, they took over the food and dining operations at Green Lakes State Park, including Yards Grille, the golf course’s full-service restaurant. Last year, they opened The Daily Diner in a Manlius shopping plaza.
“Syracuse has a few steakhouses, and they’re really nice. But we don’t have the modern ‘Holy cow!’ type of steakhouses,” Bullis said Tuesday. “This is going to be old school mixed with today’s glitz. It’ll be modern, and it’ll be comfortable. And it’ll be downtown.”
They’re naming the restaurant after Dorothy Parker, an American writer known for her sharp humor and social commentary during the mid-20th century. Bullis had peppered the walls of his first restaurant with some of her caustic quotes, often related to bar culture. His favorite: “I like to have a martini, two at the very most. After three I’m under the table; after four I’m under my host.”
The idea popped into Bullis’ head two or three years ago and sat there until The Daily Diner took off last February.
Before moving to Syracuse, Fullmer worked for the Del Frisco Group, a collection of upscale restaurants on the West Coast known for offering high-quality steaks.
Over the past year, they searched Syracuse-area properties, fine-tuned the concept and created a menu. The steak menu, for example, includes New York strip, fillet, tomahawk, wagyu fillet and various ribeyes including a 45-day dry-aged cut.
MacKnight Architects and Planners have already begun designing the interior. They expect construction to begin next month and continue through the fall. The target opening is late fall or early winter.
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Syracuse Mayor Walsh to unveil major housing projects in State of the City speech (PS; Boyer)
Mayor Ben Walsh will devote a significant part of his State of the City address tonight on the city’s efforts to address an affordable housing shortage, including announcements of two major projects that would create nearly 600 residences.
Walsh will announce recent plans for a 14-story, 300-unit apartment building on the city’s Near East Side and a 270-unit planned development at a former golf course on the city’s southeast corner.
The projects represent a large chunk of what the mayor is calling a “housing promise,” saying at least 2,500 new housing units will be completed or in the pipeline by the time his second, and final, term ends in 2025.
“I thought it was important to plant a flag in the ground and … set a goal that is going to require us to push ourselves really hard for the remaining two years of this administration,” Walsh told syracuse.com.
The high-rise apartment building, which Walsh believes is the first new residential tower proposed in the city in roughly 50 years, would be located at a former gas station lot at Almond and East Fayette streets. Developer Chris Geiger said he is submitting plans for the site with the state’s planned removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct in mind.
“We are very excited about 81 coming down,” he said. “A project of this magnitude wouldn’t work with how it is now, but we see this as being a thriving area in the next three to five years.”
A 1995 graduate of Syracuse University, Geiger has developed multiple apartment complexes in the University Hill area, including two around the corner from where the tower is proposed. He said this will be his first tower project, which he expects will cost more than $100 million to complete.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to quit developing in Syracuse,” he said. “It’s been good to me.”
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