sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to National Spaghetti Day!
Spaghetti, a long, cylindrical, and thin pasta made of milled wheat and water, is celebrated today. Its name comes from an Italian word meaning "thin string" or "twine." The first written record of pasta is in the Talmud, which dates to the fifth century CE. It mentions dried pasta that could be cooked by being boiled. A popular theory claims that spaghetti was invented in China and Marco Polo brought it to Venice, but it is more likely that spaghetti was originally created in Sicily more than 500 years before his time. Arabs occupied Sicily in the seventh century CE, and brought a meal called itriyya, which was described as a "dry pasta". This is likely where spaghetti came from. In a geographical survey of Sicily and surrounding regions called the Book of Roger, commissioned by Sicily's monarch King Roger II and published by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154, a long strand hard wheat pasta is mentioned. It was manufactured in large quantities in the Sicilian town of Trabia and exported to other regions. This is the first definitive historical record of spaghetti production.
SU News
Syracuse Football: Abdul Adams can end the madness at RB for Orange (itlh.com; Esden Jr)
The Syracuse football squad has been searching for a star running back for a long time. They may have finally found their man in Abdul Adams.
For a University that prides itself on the legacy of No. 44, they sure have done a poor job in finding star talent at the running back position as of late.
That is all set to change with Oklahoma transfer Abdul Adams ready to take on the full load for Syracuse football in 2019.
Due to the transfer rules, Adams was forced to sit out 2018 and wait for his opportunity in 2019. But a relatively unknown/unused loop hole existed through the residency rule, which long story short meant that Adams surprisingly was available for the Camping World Bowl.
Leading up to the game multiple insiders and Dino Babers suggested that their playing time and impact would likely be marginal because these players had been on the scout team all year and haven’t been getting hit, so they wouldn’t likely be ready for any huge impact.
...
U.Va. or Hokies versus Clemson in 2019 ACC title game? (dailypress.com; Teel)
Monday night, Clemson will play for the ACC’s third national football championship in six years. Not bad for a conference that won four national titles in its first 60 seasons.
Tuesday morning, the final Associated Press top 25 almost certainly will include only two ACC teams, matching the post-expansion low the league set six years ago. Not good for a conference that boasted five ranked teams at season’s end two years ago.
And there you have ACC football 2018: top-heavy to a fault.
Entering Monday’s College Football Playoff final against 14-0 Alabama, 14-0 Clemson has been historically good. The Tigers’ defense leads the Bowl Subdivision in points per game and yards per play allowed, and true freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence is a future All-American.
The lone ACC squad to test Clemson was Atlantic Division runner-up Syracuse, in Death Valley, where the Tigers, with Lawrence sidelined by a neck injury, needed a late fourth-down conversion and touchdown — take a bow, Chase Brice — to survive 27-23. The Orange (10-3) will finish among the top 25 for the first time since 2001 after defeating West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl.
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Oh Man, the 2019 ACC Coastal Is A Tire Fire (tarheelblog.com; Floyd)
The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division has long been the butt of many jokes, due mostly to recency bias and a lack of Clemson or Florida State— both winners of national championships this decade.
Since 2013, Syracuse’s first year in the conference (and conveniently, one rotation around each intradivisional opponent, PLEASE KILL DIVISIONS AND GO TO PODS), the numbers might surprise you:
On the whole, the “superior” Atlantic Division has won 43 games, lost 41, and outscored Coastal opposition by roughly 1.9 points per game— hardly the dominance the national media (and specific fanbases, hence compiling Atlantic teams’ records, and not Coastal) would want you to believe.
The further back you go, the more balance one finds. Its almost as if one division is top-heavy and the other is balanced! Whereas the Coastal has had six different division champions in these six years, that checks out. And whereas the Atlantic has won each of the six ACC title games over that span, that still checks out!
...
UNC, Mack Brown walking the walk on in-state recruiting (greensboro.com; Wilkerson-New)
Since Mack Brown returned to take over the North Carolina football program on Nov. 27, he has told anyone who will listen just how important it will be for the Tar Heels to recruit in their own back yard.
Every coach talks the talk about winning in his own back yard, and so far, Brown and his new staff are walking the walk a little over a month into the job, signing nine in-state players on Dec. 20.
I’ve probably heard more from them than I’ve heard in the last couple of years, so I’m very excited,” said Coach Todd Willert of East Forsyth. “It’s been refreshing to have UNC around.”
Clearly, the Carolina coaching staff hired in the wake of Larry Fedora's firing has gotten around the state quickly, securing four commitments from in-state players on its first full recruiting weekend before landing the jewel of its class, four-star quarterback Sam Howell, a former Florida State commit, on signing day.
“We’re going to make a priority this state because it is the University of North Carolina and we’ve always made a great living with kids who wanted to stay close to home,” Brown said in a signing day interview with Carolina broadcaster Jones Angell.
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College Football Playoff Brings Revenue to ACC, Players Sitting Out Bowl Games - Chapelboro.com (chapelboro; Moyer)
The college football season will wrap up next week when Alabama and Clemson meet in Santa Clara to decide the national championship.
The two teams emerged victorious in the College Football Playoff semifinal matchups, with Alabama beating Oklahoma and Clemson defeating Notre Dame. This will be the fourth time in the past four years that the Crimson Tide and Tigers have met and the third match in the national championship.
Dr. Deborah Stroman joined The Aaron Keck Show last week to discuss the economic impact of the College Football Playoff, as well as the revenue that Clemson brings back to the ACC.
“I know some people in this area have come to hate Clemson,” Stroman said. “But they bring in six million dollars to the league.”
By making it into the playoffs, the four schools will receive six million dollars for their conference. Notre Dame, however, is unique in the fact that it does not belong to a conference, thus allowing them to pocket all the money.
Bowl season is about generating money for teams, conferences and those individuals in charge of the particular bowl games. In some cases, the compensation for hosting an annual bowl game can be quite lucrative. For example, Orange Bowl executive director Eric Poms will make $1.2 million for his efforts in organizing the December 29 bowl game.
...
ACC Football Rx: Orange vs Sugar vs Rose (RX; HM)
How do TV ratings compare among the three "Contract" bowls (Rose, Orange and Sugar)? One fan dives into the numbers to find that, once again, the ACC is underpaid...
From CSNBBS: "Orange vs Sugar vs Rose" (posted by "OrangeDude"; data tabularized and colorized by Hokie Mark):
When the CFP was being designed back in 2012 and it appeared that the ACC and the Orange Bowl were going to be on the outside looking in unlike the Sugar with the SEC/B12 match-up and the Rose B1G/PAC match-up Swofford settled for a lowballed deal (sound familiar?) from ESPN in order to keep the conference relevant. Sometimes, you have to do what you have to do. Keep in mind, that even though "then current" members of the ACC had accounted for 6 of the 10 spots in the first 5 BCS Championship games, there were none in the next 9 games, with only VT coming close in 2003 at #3.
Anyway, the ACC/Orange deal eventually resulted in a $55 million annual payout to be split 50/50 ($27.5 million each) between the ACC and the SEC or B1G representative playing in the game OR on the off chance ND qualified over the 2nd/3rd place SEC or B1G representative, the split would be $40 million/$15 million. At the time most who follow college football (including ESPN pundits) thought the ACC was being "gifted" a place at the table they didn't deserve. Based on the previous decade of ACC football history, one could argue they may have had a point.
Regardless of whether or not it was the "best deal" to be had (since obviously $27.5 million is better than zero), the fact remains that the 10 team B12 conference gets to share $40 million from the Sugar Bowl and the 12-team PAC conference gets to share $40 million while the 14 team ACC conference gets to share $27.5 million in those years the Contract Bowl is not part of the playoffs.
...
ACC Football Rx: GUEST ARTICLE: Is it time the FBS told Notre Dame to join a conference or go play football in Canada? (RX; Dooley)
Is it time the FBS told Notre Dame to join a conference or go play football in Canada?
Question by an Irish fan:
“Could somebody explain why Notre Dame’s blowout loss to Clemson means Notre Dame needs to join a conference?
ND would be obligated to join the ACC. And it played six ACC teams this year.
Of all the dumb takes, “but, but join a conference!” is the most moronic.”
Answer:
1) Like it or not, Conference Championship Games are intended to be an elimination round for the Playoffs... and ND gets a built in BYE every year
2) The Cotton Bowl Semifinal was in essence the ACC Championship Game...Clemson vs ND...
3) In 2018, to get to 12-0, ND played Vandy, @Wake, @ a struggling (by historical standards) VT, a .500 Pitt team, a 3-10 Navy team, a 5-7 $U team, a 5-7 USC team, hardly comparable to an SEC, B1G, Big12 in-conference schedule; usually year to-year swings in the competitiveness of individual opponents is balanced out by in-conference scheduling...not so with ND...
...
ACC Football Rx: Why Ticket Sales are Down for the 2019 CFP Final (RX; HM)
From Yahoo! Sports: "With title-game ticket prices plummeting more than 90 percent, should college football be worried?" by Dan Wetzel.
Ticket prices on the secondary market for Monday’s college football national title game are cratering – get-in prices hit $150 Tuesday on StubHub and experts say it should continue to drop. By comparison, last year’s get-in price peaked at about $1,700.
That's a 91% drop!
Is it because of the teams? No - not directly, at least.
...everyone can agree... that the two best teams are facing off on Monday. Unbeaten 2018 champion Alabama vs. unbeaten 2017 champion Clemson. It’s their fourth consecutive playoff encounter, third in the title game.
...and yet there's little demand for tickets to see it live. Why?
Part of this is nearly unavoidable circumstance. Part of this is a poorly constructed playoff courtesy of the compromised leadership of the game. As such, some things should be considered worthy of change, while others need to be brushed off as bad luck.
Let's dive a little deeper in Dan Wetzel's analysis...
When it comes to gameday ticket prices, this is about geography and familiarity.
A year ago Alabama and Georgia conveniently met in Atlanta and the average ticket price on SeatGeek hit a whopping $3,046, nearly two-and-a-half times the $1,262 average the year before for Alabama-Clemson in Tampa, Florida. Proximity to the fanbases was everything... If Atlanta hosted again this year, ticket prices would be high...
...
Why it’s a waste of time to argue about expanding the College Football Playoff (newsobserver.com; Morris)
If nothing else was proved again this college football postseason it is that the seemingly endless discussion about expanding the College Football Playoff should come to a merciful end.
This was the fifth year of a four-team College Football Playoff and the fourth postseason where fans clamored for an eight-team playoff. The fans gain growing support each year from ill-informed sports media folks who draw up intricate details to how it will all work.
To which I say: Give it rest. It is not going to happen.
First, there is no reason to alter the current format because it works. Second, serious talk about an expanded playoff will not occur until 2026, when the current four-team contract with ESPN runs out. Third, there is little reason to believe the participants -- players and coaches -- want more than four teams in the playoff.
Let’s allow Clemson coach Dabo Swinney to address the latter issue.
“I think the more you expand the more that becomes (the norm),” Swinney said at a recent media gathering. “I know that falls on a lot of deaf ears. . . . I love the passion of college football, and I think the more you expand, the less the (regular) season matters.”
College football’s uniqueness rests squarely on a regular season that is more con
...
With their current PR mess, what the Pac 12 can learn from ACC (Fann)
Even though I don’t have a rooting interest in a Pac 12 team, I am fascinated by what’s going on out there in that conference.
There is a great article from OregonLive.com that details the Pac 12 hiring of PR Firm to help with their brand. Here are a couple of highlights from that article.
The Pac-12 football programs, which finished 3-4 this bowl season, were left out of the College Football Playoff for the third time in five seasons. The men’s basketball programs went winless in the NCAA Tournament last March, and just posted the worst December by a Power 5 Conference in the last 20 seasons. The conference currently has no men’s teams ranked in the Top 25.
Also, the conference itself operates with significantly higher expenses. Some of that is due to the fact that the Pac-12 also fashions itself a media company, producing its own content and retaining ownership of the network.
Conference commissioner Larry Scott recently pitched his bosses a plan that would sell a 10-percent equity stake in the conference’s media rights to private investors for $500 million. The hiring of FleishmanHillard is designed to help position the conference for that possible offering.
It wasn’t that many years ago ACC struggled with their own negative public perception, and I think Pac 12 can learn some lessons from the ACC.
The Pac 12 has to think it terms of a multi-year fix. It took the ACC several years of quality football including national championships by Florida State (2013) and Clemson (2016). There was 5 year streak of winning Orange Bowls, and the 2016 9-3 Bowl record.
...
Other
Hayward, Syracuse aiming high (reformer.com; Hayward)
Peter-Owen Hayward, of Brattleboro, is helping lead the Syracuse University men's hockey team, 10-5-1, toward new heights in 2018-19. As they start the second half of their season, SU is ranked No. 14 in the country among the American College Hockey Association's (ACHA) Division 1 teams — it's highest national ranking in the team's history.
"It definitely helps to have some talented players, but talent (alone) does not win you hockey games. Since day one, we have grown as a team, everybody is working hard day in, day out," said Connor Treacy, head coach of the Syracuse men's hockey team and a former collegiate hockey player whose post-collegiate career included playing in the European leagues.
Among those talented Syracuse players is junior forward Peter-Owen Hayward, who leads Syracuse's offense this season with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in 16 games, including a game-winning goal against University of Rhode Island. Hayward has led the team in scoring since his freshman year, averaging a goal per game with a record of 75 goals and 55 assists for 130 points in 74 games, including seven game winners. Currently, he is eighth in the ESCHL scoring. In his freshman year, Hayward was the first Syracuse player ever selected to the ACHA Rookie All-Star Team, earned the MVP award from both Syracuse and the Northeast Hockey Collegiate League Association, and was a NHCLA Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. During the past season, he was named to the ESCHL 2017-2018 All-League 2ndTeam.
...
Spaghetti, a long, cylindrical, and thin pasta made of milled wheat and water, is celebrated today. Its name comes from an Italian word meaning "thin string" or "twine." The first written record of pasta is in the Talmud, which dates to the fifth century CE. It mentions dried pasta that could be cooked by being boiled. A popular theory claims that spaghetti was invented in China and Marco Polo brought it to Venice, but it is more likely that spaghetti was originally created in Sicily more than 500 years before his time. Arabs occupied Sicily in the seventh century CE, and brought a meal called itriyya, which was described as a "dry pasta". This is likely where spaghetti came from. In a geographical survey of Sicily and surrounding regions called the Book of Roger, commissioned by Sicily's monarch King Roger II and published by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154, a long strand hard wheat pasta is mentioned. It was manufactured in large quantities in the Sicilian town of Trabia and exported to other regions. This is the first definitive historical record of spaghetti production.
SU News
Syracuse Football: Abdul Adams can end the madness at RB for Orange (itlh.com; Esden Jr)
The Syracuse football squad has been searching for a star running back for a long time. They may have finally found their man in Abdul Adams.
For a University that prides itself on the legacy of No. 44, they sure have done a poor job in finding star talent at the running back position as of late.
That is all set to change with Oklahoma transfer Abdul Adams ready to take on the full load for Syracuse football in 2019.
Due to the transfer rules, Adams was forced to sit out 2018 and wait for his opportunity in 2019. But a relatively unknown/unused loop hole existed through the residency rule, which long story short meant that Adams surprisingly was available for the Camping World Bowl.
Leading up to the game multiple insiders and Dino Babers suggested that their playing time and impact would likely be marginal because these players had been on the scout team all year and haven’t been getting hit, so they wouldn’t likely be ready for any huge impact.
...
U.Va. or Hokies versus Clemson in 2019 ACC title game? (dailypress.com; Teel)
Monday night, Clemson will play for the ACC’s third national football championship in six years. Not bad for a conference that won four national titles in its first 60 seasons.
Tuesday morning, the final Associated Press top 25 almost certainly will include only two ACC teams, matching the post-expansion low the league set six years ago. Not good for a conference that boasted five ranked teams at season’s end two years ago.
And there you have ACC football 2018: top-heavy to a fault.
Entering Monday’s College Football Playoff final against 14-0 Alabama, 14-0 Clemson has been historically good. The Tigers’ defense leads the Bowl Subdivision in points per game and yards per play allowed, and true freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence is a future All-American.
The lone ACC squad to test Clemson was Atlantic Division runner-up Syracuse, in Death Valley, where the Tigers, with Lawrence sidelined by a neck injury, needed a late fourth-down conversion and touchdown — take a bow, Chase Brice — to survive 27-23. The Orange (10-3) will finish among the top 25 for the first time since 2001 after defeating West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl.
...
Oh Man, the 2019 ACC Coastal Is A Tire Fire (tarheelblog.com; Floyd)
The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division has long been the butt of many jokes, due mostly to recency bias and a lack of Clemson or Florida State— both winners of national championships this decade.
Since 2013, Syracuse’s first year in the conference (and conveniently, one rotation around each intradivisional opponent, PLEASE KILL DIVISIONS AND GO TO PODS), the numbers might surprise you:
Team | Wins | Losses | Points For | Points Allowed |
Clemson | 10 | 2 | 477 | 232 |
Florida St. | 7 | 5 | 313 | 261 |
Maryland | 2 | 0 | 54 | 50 |
Louisville | 6 | 4 | 299 | 300 |
N.C. State | 6 | 6 | 322 | 315 |
Boston Coll. | 5 | 7 | 227 | 291 |
Wake Forest | 4 | 8 | 274 | 317 |
Syracuse | 3 | 9 | 346 | 382 |
On the whole, the “superior” Atlantic Division has won 43 games, lost 41, and outscored Coastal opposition by roughly 1.9 points per game— hardly the dominance the national media (and specific fanbases, hence compiling Atlantic teams’ records, and not Coastal) would want you to believe.
The further back you go, the more balance one finds. Its almost as if one division is top-heavy and the other is balanced! Whereas the Coastal has had six different division champions in these six years, that checks out. And whereas the Atlantic has won each of the six ACC title games over that span, that still checks out!
...
UNC, Mack Brown walking the walk on in-state recruiting (greensboro.com; Wilkerson-New)
Since Mack Brown returned to take over the North Carolina football program on Nov. 27, he has told anyone who will listen just how important it will be for the Tar Heels to recruit in their own back yard.
Every coach talks the talk about winning in his own back yard, and so far, Brown and his new staff are walking the walk a little over a month into the job, signing nine in-state players on Dec. 20.
I’ve probably heard more from them than I’ve heard in the last couple of years, so I’m very excited,” said Coach Todd Willert of East Forsyth. “It’s been refreshing to have UNC around.”
Clearly, the Carolina coaching staff hired in the wake of Larry Fedora's firing has gotten around the state quickly, securing four commitments from in-state players on its first full recruiting weekend before landing the jewel of its class, four-star quarterback Sam Howell, a former Florida State commit, on signing day.
“We’re going to make a priority this state because it is the University of North Carolina and we’ve always made a great living with kids who wanted to stay close to home,” Brown said in a signing day interview with Carolina broadcaster Jones Angell.
...
College Football Playoff Brings Revenue to ACC, Players Sitting Out Bowl Games - Chapelboro.com (chapelboro; Moyer)
The college football season will wrap up next week when Alabama and Clemson meet in Santa Clara to decide the national championship.
The two teams emerged victorious in the College Football Playoff semifinal matchups, with Alabama beating Oklahoma and Clemson defeating Notre Dame. This will be the fourth time in the past four years that the Crimson Tide and Tigers have met and the third match in the national championship.
Dr. Deborah Stroman joined The Aaron Keck Show last week to discuss the economic impact of the College Football Playoff, as well as the revenue that Clemson brings back to the ACC.
“I know some people in this area have come to hate Clemson,” Stroman said. “But they bring in six million dollars to the league.”
By making it into the playoffs, the four schools will receive six million dollars for their conference. Notre Dame, however, is unique in the fact that it does not belong to a conference, thus allowing them to pocket all the money.
Bowl season is about generating money for teams, conferences and those individuals in charge of the particular bowl games. In some cases, the compensation for hosting an annual bowl game can be quite lucrative. For example, Orange Bowl executive director Eric Poms will make $1.2 million for his efforts in organizing the December 29 bowl game.
...
ACC Football Rx: Orange vs Sugar vs Rose (RX; HM)
How do TV ratings compare among the three "Contract" bowls (Rose, Orange and Sugar)? One fan dives into the numbers to find that, once again, the ACC is underpaid...
From CSNBBS: "Orange vs Sugar vs Rose" (posted by "OrangeDude"; data tabularized and colorized by Hokie Mark):
When the CFP was being designed back in 2012 and it appeared that the ACC and the Orange Bowl were going to be on the outside looking in unlike the Sugar with the SEC/B12 match-up and the Rose B1G/PAC match-up Swofford settled for a lowballed deal (sound familiar?) from ESPN in order to keep the conference relevant. Sometimes, you have to do what you have to do. Keep in mind, that even though "then current" members of the ACC had accounted for 6 of the 10 spots in the first 5 BCS Championship games, there were none in the next 9 games, with only VT coming close in 2003 at #3.
Anyway, the ACC/Orange deal eventually resulted in a $55 million annual payout to be split 50/50 ($27.5 million each) between the ACC and the SEC or B1G representative playing in the game OR on the off chance ND qualified over the 2nd/3rd place SEC or B1G representative, the split would be $40 million/$15 million. At the time most who follow college football (including ESPN pundits) thought the ACC was being "gifted" a place at the table they didn't deserve. Based on the previous decade of ACC football history, one could argue they may have had a point.
Regardless of whether or not it was the "best deal" to be had (since obviously $27.5 million is better than zero), the fact remains that the 10 team B12 conference gets to share $40 million from the Sugar Bowl and the 12-team PAC conference gets to share $40 million while the 14 team ACC conference gets to share $27.5 million in those years the Contract Bowl is not part of the playoffs.
...
ACC Football Rx: GUEST ARTICLE: Is it time the FBS told Notre Dame to join a conference or go play football in Canada? (RX; Dooley)
Is it time the FBS told Notre Dame to join a conference or go play football in Canada?
Question by an Irish fan:
“Could somebody explain why Notre Dame’s blowout loss to Clemson means Notre Dame needs to join a conference?
ND would be obligated to join the ACC. And it played six ACC teams this year.
Of all the dumb takes, “but, but join a conference!” is the most moronic.”
Answer:
1) Like it or not, Conference Championship Games are intended to be an elimination round for the Playoffs... and ND gets a built in BYE every year
2) The Cotton Bowl Semifinal was in essence the ACC Championship Game...Clemson vs ND...
3) In 2018, to get to 12-0, ND played Vandy, @Wake, @ a struggling (by historical standards) VT, a .500 Pitt team, a 3-10 Navy team, a 5-7 $U team, a 5-7 USC team, hardly comparable to an SEC, B1G, Big12 in-conference schedule; usually year to-year swings in the competitiveness of individual opponents is balanced out by in-conference scheduling...not so with ND...
...
ACC Football Rx: Why Ticket Sales are Down for the 2019 CFP Final (RX; HM)
From Yahoo! Sports: "With title-game ticket prices plummeting more than 90 percent, should college football be worried?" by Dan Wetzel.
Ticket prices on the secondary market for Monday’s college football national title game are cratering – get-in prices hit $150 Tuesday on StubHub and experts say it should continue to drop. By comparison, last year’s get-in price peaked at about $1,700.
That's a 91% drop!
Is it because of the teams? No - not directly, at least.
...everyone can agree... that the two best teams are facing off on Monday. Unbeaten 2018 champion Alabama vs. unbeaten 2017 champion Clemson. It’s their fourth consecutive playoff encounter, third in the title game.
...and yet there's little demand for tickets to see it live. Why?
Part of this is nearly unavoidable circumstance. Part of this is a poorly constructed playoff courtesy of the compromised leadership of the game. As such, some things should be considered worthy of change, while others need to be brushed off as bad luck.
Let's dive a little deeper in Dan Wetzel's analysis...
When it comes to gameday ticket prices, this is about geography and familiarity.
A year ago Alabama and Georgia conveniently met in Atlanta and the average ticket price on SeatGeek hit a whopping $3,046, nearly two-and-a-half times the $1,262 average the year before for Alabama-Clemson in Tampa, Florida. Proximity to the fanbases was everything... If Atlanta hosted again this year, ticket prices would be high...
...
Why it’s a waste of time to argue about expanding the College Football Playoff (newsobserver.com; Morris)
If nothing else was proved again this college football postseason it is that the seemingly endless discussion about expanding the College Football Playoff should come to a merciful end.
This was the fifth year of a four-team College Football Playoff and the fourth postseason where fans clamored for an eight-team playoff. The fans gain growing support each year from ill-informed sports media folks who draw up intricate details to how it will all work.
To which I say: Give it rest. It is not going to happen.
First, there is no reason to alter the current format because it works. Second, serious talk about an expanded playoff will not occur until 2026, when the current four-team contract with ESPN runs out. Third, there is little reason to believe the participants -- players and coaches -- want more than four teams in the playoff.
Let’s allow Clemson coach Dabo Swinney to address the latter issue.
“I think the more you expand the more that becomes (the norm),” Swinney said at a recent media gathering. “I know that falls on a lot of deaf ears. . . . I love the passion of college football, and I think the more you expand, the less the (regular) season matters.”
College football’s uniqueness rests squarely on a regular season that is more con
...
With their current PR mess, what the Pac 12 can learn from ACC (Fann)
Even though I don’t have a rooting interest in a Pac 12 team, I am fascinated by what’s going on out there in that conference.
There is a great article from OregonLive.com that details the Pac 12 hiring of PR Firm to help with their brand. Here are a couple of highlights from that article.
The Pac-12 football programs, which finished 3-4 this bowl season, were left out of the College Football Playoff for the third time in five seasons. The men’s basketball programs went winless in the NCAA Tournament last March, and just posted the worst December by a Power 5 Conference in the last 20 seasons. The conference currently has no men’s teams ranked in the Top 25.
Also, the conference itself operates with significantly higher expenses. Some of that is due to the fact that the Pac-12 also fashions itself a media company, producing its own content and retaining ownership of the network.
Conference commissioner Larry Scott recently pitched his bosses a plan that would sell a 10-percent equity stake in the conference’s media rights to private investors for $500 million. The hiring of FleishmanHillard is designed to help position the conference for that possible offering.
It wasn’t that many years ago ACC struggled with their own negative public perception, and I think Pac 12 can learn some lessons from the ACC.
The Pac 12 has to think it terms of a multi-year fix. It took the ACC several years of quality football including national championships by Florida State (2013) and Clemson (2016). There was 5 year streak of winning Orange Bowls, and the 2016 9-3 Bowl record.
...
Other
Hayward, Syracuse aiming high (reformer.com; Hayward)
Peter-Owen Hayward, of Brattleboro, is helping lead the Syracuse University men's hockey team, 10-5-1, toward new heights in 2018-19. As they start the second half of their season, SU is ranked No. 14 in the country among the American College Hockey Association's (ACHA) Division 1 teams — it's highest national ranking in the team's history.
"It definitely helps to have some talented players, but talent (alone) does not win you hockey games. Since day one, we have grown as a team, everybody is working hard day in, day out," said Connor Treacy, head coach of the Syracuse men's hockey team and a former collegiate hockey player whose post-collegiate career included playing in the European leagues.
Among those talented Syracuse players is junior forward Peter-Owen Hayward, who leads Syracuse's offense this season with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in 16 games, including a game-winning goal against University of Rhode Island. Hayward has led the team in scoring since his freshman year, averaging a goal per game with a record of 75 goals and 55 assists for 130 points in 74 games, including seven game winners. Currently, he is eighth in the ESCHL scoring. In his freshman year, Hayward was the first Syracuse player ever selected to the ACHA Rookie All-Star Team, earned the MVP award from both Syracuse and the Northeast Hockey Collegiate League Association, and was a NHCLA Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. During the past season, he was named to the ESCHL 2017-2018 All-League 2ndTeam.
...
