sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to Houseplant Appreciation Day!
Created by The Gardener's Network, Houseplant Appreciation Day is for caring for and giving a little extra attention to your houseplants, or to begin growing some if you have none. It's the perfect time to focus on them since winter precludes you from gardening outside. It's also shortly after the new year, meaning you've probably already taken down your Christmas tree or other holiday decorations, leaving your house pretty bare—perhaps you find a neglected houseplant in the corner, or perhaps your find nothing at all. Common houseplants include aloe vera, bamboo, spider plants, rubber plants, and African violets. Houseplants are perfect for in homes because they can grow with low light, low humidity, and in cooler temperatures.
SU News
Former Forestview star Moe Neal helps Syracuse to breakout season (gastongazette.com; Walker)
Now preparing for his senior year, Neal has developed into a professional prospect.
Before the 2018 college football season began, Syracuse fans had high hopes for their team.
The Orange did more than deliver, earning its first 10-win season in 17 years and the school’s best-ever Atlantic Coast Conference record at 6-2.
Former Forestview High standout Moe Neal was one of the key figures in Syracuse’s breakout season that ended with a 10-3 overall record. amassing nearly 1,000 yards from scrimmage.
“It was a great, great season,” Neal said last Friday at Forestview during the school’s jersey honoring ceremony of former Jaguars basketball stars Shannon Smith and Kelsey Harris. “It was great to get 10 wins and get our program back on track. It’s what I planned to do when I signed with the program.”
Neal was one of Dino Babers’ first recruits after being hired in December of 2015.
Neal had committed to the previous Orange coaching staff but Babers secured Neal’s signing and his early admission to Syracuse in January 2016.
After back-to-back 4-8 overall and 2-6 ACC records in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Syracuse and Neal showed vast improvement this past fall.
The Orange started 4-0, then lost 27-23 at Clemson and 44-37 in overtime at Pittsburgh before what Neal called a defining game for the Syracuse season.
Facing a North Carolina team that would finish 3-9 and fire its coach Larry Fedora at season’s end, the Orange were sluggish and fell behind before rallying and eventually winning 40-37 in double overtime.
...
ACC Network's debut college football weekend now expected to include three ACC games (awfulannouncing; Keeley)
The Clemson Tigers made the ACC proud earlier this week when they dominated the SEC’s Alabama Crimson Tide to win their second national title in three years. ACC commish John Swofford was certainly elated over the win, but perhaps even more so because of all the hype Clemson will bring into the 2019 college football season, which also happens to be when the long-awaited ACC Network will finally debut.
It was a long, strange road for the ACC Network over the years as ESPN repeatedly pushed back on the idea before finally agreeing to it as part of an extended rights deal (and to avoid financial penalties). After that, the debate shifted into whether or not it would be a linear channel or a rebranded version of one of ESPN’s existing smaller channels, and more. Still, ESPN insisted they would commit to a linear launch in 2019 under both former president John Skipper and current president Jimmy Pitaro, before they finally made it official with a launch date of August 22, 2019. It was welcome news to the schools of the ACC who are looking at a windfall of around at least $10 million each once the network is up and running. No wonder they’ve been pulling out all the stops to make it a success.
...
Sciria: Expanding College Football Playoff could help Syracuse (auburnpub.com; Sciria)
It's easy to say this year's College Football Playoff was disappointing. All three games were blowouts. There were complaints over Notre Dame and Oklahoma qualifying for the third and fourth spots over Georgia and Ohio State.
All of this has some fans and media members questioning if a four-team playoff was a mistake. Maybe four teams are too many? Maybe it should go back to just two teams?
No, no, no, no.
If anything, this year proves why the playoff field should be expanded to eight teams. Look, does anyone ever say there are too many teams in the NCAA men's basketball tournament? It was 64 for more than two decades, then 65, now 68. Does anyone think the last team in has a realistic chance of winning the national championship?
No, but as we've seen recently, upsets happen, the underdog has their day. Loyola-Chicago actually makes it to the Final Four. No. 16 seed UMBC shocks No. 1 seed Virginia. This is what makes not just the NCAAs but sports great, David slays Goliath.
...
ACC Football Rx: Recruiting Update - 1/9/19 (RX; HM)
Just four more weeks until the final signing period (2/6/19), and not much has changed since our 12/21/18 update... a little bit of jostling for position at the very top (with Clemson, Notre Dame and Florida State all falling down a spot).
From 247Sports, as of 1/9/19:
Rank Team Total 5-stars 4-stars 3-stars below 3
6 Clemson 27 2 11 14 0
15 Notre Dame 21 0 15 6 0
17 Florida State 19 1 9 9 0
26 NC State 22 0 4 17 1
29 Virginia Tech 20 0 5 15 0
33 Miami 15 0 6 8 1
35 Virginia 23 0 1 22 0
39 North Carolina 19 0 2 15 2
42 Duke 21 0 1 20 0
46 Wake Forest 20 0 2 18 0
51 Pittsburgh 19 0 0 19 0
54 Georgia Tech 18 0 0 18 0
55 Boston College 18 0 0 18 0
59 Syracuse 17 0 1 16 0
132 Louisville 5 0 0 5 0
source: 2019 Football Team Rankings
ACC Football Rx: Bowl Attendance Up in 2018-19 (RX; HM)
Here's a table showing the change in attendance for each bowl, with ACC bowls highlighted in light blue...
BOWL TEAM A TEAM B 2017-18 2018-19 change
New Orleans Bowl Middle Tennessee Appalachian State 24,904 23,942 -962
Cure Bowl Tulane Louisiana 19,585 19,066 -519
Las Vegas Bowl Fresno State Arizona State 36,432 37,146 714
New Mexico Bowl North Texas Utah State 26,087 25,387 -700
Camellia Bowl Eastern Michigan Georgia Southern 20,612 17,710 -2,902
Boca Raton Bowl Northern Illinois UAB 25,912 22,614 -3,298
Frisco Bowl Ohio San Diego State 14,419 11,029 -3,390
Gasparilla Bowl USF Marshall 16,363 14,135 -2,228
Bahamas Bowl FIU Toledo 13,585 13,510 -75
Potato Bowl Western Michigan BYU 16,512 18,711 2,199
Birmingham Wake Forest Memphis 28,623 25,717 -2,906
Armed Forces Bowl Houston Army 35,986 44,738 8,752
Dollar General Bowl Buffalo Troy 28,706 31,818 3,112
Hawaii Bowl La. Tech Hawaii 20,546 30,911 10,365
First Responder Boston College Boise State 20,507 N/A N/A
Quick Lane Bowl Ga. Tech Minnesota 20,211 27,228 7,017
Cheez-it Bowl TCU California 32,859 33,121 262
Independence Bowl Duke Temple 33,601 27,492 -6,109
Pinstripe Bowl Miami Wisconsin 37,667 37,821 154
RedBox Bowl Michigan State Oregon 28,436 30,212 1,776
Texas Bowl Baylor Vanderbilt 67,820 51,104 -16,716
Military Bowl Cincinnati Virginia Tech 35,921 32,832 -3,089
Camping World Bowl Syracuse West Virginia 39,610 41,125 1,515
Holiday Bowl Utah Northwestern 47,092 47,007 -85
Alamo Bowl Washington State Iowa State 57,653 60,675 3,022
Belk Bowl South Carolina Virginia 32,784 48,263 15,479
Sun Bowl Pitt Stanford 39,897 40,680 783
Music City Bowl Purdue Auburn 48,675 59,024 10,349
Arizona Bowl Nevada Arkansas State 39,192 32,368 -6,824
Cotton Bowl Clemson Notre Dame 67,510 72,183 4,673
TaxSlayer Bowl NC State Texas A&M 41,310 38,206 -3,104
Liberty Bowl Oklahoma State Missouri 57,266 51,587 -5,679
Fiesta Bowl UCF LSU 61,842 57,246 -4,596
Orange Bowl Alabama Oklahoma 65,032 66,203 1,171
Outback Bowl Iowa Mississippi State 45,687 40,518 -5,169
Peach Bowl Florida Michigan 71,109 74,006 2,897
Citrus Penn State Kentucky 57,726 59,167 1,441
Rose Bowl Ohio State Washington 92,844 91,853 -991
Sugar Georgia Texas 72,360 71,449 -911
National Champion Clemson Alabama 77,430 74,814 -2,616
net change: +2,812 (about 7% by my calculations)
BOTTOM LINE: For the ACC, the biggest increase in attendance was seen by the Belk Bowl, which featured Virginia vs. South Carolina. No doubt there was some pent-up demand for bowl tickets by long-suffering Cavalier fans happy to see their team in a bowl game.
The second biggest increase was at the Quick Lane Bowl. I'm not sure why.
The Cotton Bowl, which hosted the semi-final between Clemson and Notre Dame, also jumped.
The other notable attendance increase for the ACC was at the Camping World Bowl, where the Syracuse Orange enjoyed their best season - and first bowl game - in many years.
ACC Football Rx: Preseason Accuracy, 2016-19 (RX; HM)
Wonder which Preseason ranking you can trust? Check this out...
Last 3 Years: Preseason Prediction Accuracy (2016-2018)
See "notes" following the table for more information on its contents.
Magazine
Rank Total
Score
2018
2017
2016
Athlon 1 392 109 146 137
ESPN 2 405 126 133 146
Sports Crunchers 3 408 121 142 145
Pick Six Previews 4 411 119 150½ 141½
Arena Fanatic 5t 411½ 132 134 145½
DRatings.com 5t 411½ 114½ 149 148
Gold Sheet 7 413 107 158 148
Media Polls 8 417 123 145 149
Lindy's 9 425 120 157 148
GamePlan 10 428 122 157 149
Sports Formulator 11 431½ 115½ 162 154
Phil Steele 12 433 126½ 158½ 148
McIllece Sports 13 435½ 132½ 156 147
CollegeFootballPoll.com 14t 443½ 131 162½ 150
compughterratings.com 14t 443½ 129½ 159½ 154½
Street & Smith
/The Sporting News 16 444 119 178 147
This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the three-year span 2016-2018 ("the last three years" going into the 2019 season). In order to qualify for either table, a magazine must have been published for every year used in that table.
ACC Football Rx: Top 10 TV Markets for 2019 Championship (RX; HM)
Top 10 TV Markets for 2019 Championship
Where would you find the best college football fans?*
Top Ten CFP Finals TV Markets
Rank TV Market Rating Footprint
1 Birmingham, AL 56.6 SEC
2 Greenville, SC 36.9 ACC
3 New Orleans, LA 28.6 SEC
4 Atlanta, GA 25.5 BOTH
5 Knoxville, TN 25.4 SEC
6 Nashville, TN 24.3 SEC
7 Charlotte, NC 23.4 ACC
8 Columbus, OH 23.2 B1G
9 Jacksonville 22.2 BOTH
10 Tulsa, OK 20.8 XII
source: College Football Playoff National Championship Delivers Cable’s Best Overnight in 12 Months - ESPN MediaZone U.S.
BOTTOM LINE: The ACC cities which keep popping up whenever Clemson is involved are Greenville, SC (duh - the closest city to Clemson!), Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, GA. The latter two are both close to Clemson (around 2 hours drive time) and are probably full of Clemson alumni.
* Understandably this is biased in favor of Southern fans since it was the 4th championship involving two Southern teams, after all. If there had been a Big Ten or Big XII or Pac-12 team involved, things might have been different.
Other
More snow, wind today in Upstate NY; driving could be hazardous (PS; Coin)
Lake effect snow will continue to fall today, with up to 6 more inches piling up in Central New York as cold Canadian air blows over Lake Ontario.
Although not as strong as Wednesday, wind gusts will continue to blow snow around today, reducing visibility and making the morning and evening commutes slow.
“Snow-covered roads and hazardous travel conditions are likely,” the National Weather Service said this morning.
The heaviest snow is likely to fall this morning, and some lake effect snow bands could drop an inch per hour. The hills in southern Onondaga and Madison counties will probably get the most snow and the strongest winds.
Snow showers will likely continue throughout the day and taper off Friday.
A winter storm warning remains in effect for Cayuga, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties until 7 p.m. today.
Preliminary data show the highest snowfall as of Wednesday night was 11 inches, in the Chautauqua County town of Cherry Creek. At midnight, Syracuse had 3.7 inches, and light snow has been falling steadily since then.
The weather service is likely to issue more snowfall totals later this morning, so check back on our weather page for updates.