sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Today we celebrate unicorns: mythological animals that look like horses with horns on their foreheads. Although the holiday is observed all around the world, it has special significance in Scotland, where the unicorn is the national animal. Unicorns may not be real, but the concept of them goes back millennia, and they have been an ever-present part of culture.
Early depictions of unicorns appeared in Mesopotamian artwork, as well as in ancient myths in China and India. The Greek historian Ctesias referenced an animal with one horn in 400 BCE. He likely was referring to the Indian Rhinoceros, but he described the creature as having a white body and purple head, with a multicolored horn on its forehead. He wrote that the animal was very fast and that those who drank from its horn were protected from some illnesses.
SU News
Bailey: 'All signs point' to Syracuse football improving in 2019 - The Juice Online (the juice; podcast; Cheng)
Syracuse.com’s Stephen Bailey calls in to talk about the Orange’s spring football practices and to break down positional battles at quarterback, offensive line and linebacker on The Juice on the Cuse Podcast hosted by SNY.tv. Editor in chief Brad Bierman chats about SU lacrosse’s up and down season after.
Here are the highlights from the show:
Wesley Cheng: We’re at that time of year where spring practice is underway and the spring showcase is just around the corner. I just wanted to get your general takes on what you’ve seen during practice so far, and whether Syracuse looks like it’s going to take another step forward this year.
Stephen Bailey: All signs point to that they’ll have another opportunity to take a step forward next year. The depth across the board has been the best it’s been through three plus years of the Dino Babers era, and the schedule is the most forgiving since Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013. That said, spring has not gone great for Syracuse. There have been a lot of injuries. […] There’s been a lot of phsyical contact this spring and it seems like the teams gotten more injuries this spring than they did last fall. It doesn’t look like anyone is in danger of missing the fall, but I’m sure Dino Babers would prefer to have his whole complement of players scrimmaging, but he certainly does not.
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What was Tee Martin's favorite drive as a Tennessee football quarterback? (knoxnews.com; Toppmeyer)
Donovan McNabb had a bone to pick with Tee Martin.
The Philadelphia Eagles had added Martin to their practice squad during the 2002 season to add some quarterback depth after McNabb broke his ankle.
When McNabb spotted Martin in the team cafeteria, he flashed back to the opener of their 1998 college football seasons.
“The first thing he says to me, ‘It wasn’t pass interference!’ That was the first thing,” Martin said during an interview on WNML’s “The Nation” on Sunday night.
“But we ended up being great friends during my time in Philly.”
Of course, McNabb was referencing a penalty that allowed Tennessee to extend a drive with less than two minutes remaining on Sept. 5, 1998, against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
Martin’s fourth-down pass to Cedrick Wilson was incomplete, but Wilson got hit from behind by Syracuse cornerback Will Allen, who was called for pass interference.
Martin’s completion to Peerless Price and a pair of long runs from Jamal Lewis put Tennessee in field-goal range, and Jeff Hall connected to give Tennessee a 34-33 victory. McNabb was Syracuse's quarterback, and he had two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in that game.
That win put the Vols on the path to a perfect season that culminated in a national championship with a 23-16 victory over Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl.
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On this date in 1998: Tennessee 34 Syracuse 33
Clemson Football: Takeaways from Tigers’ 2019 spring game (saturdayblitz.com; Miller)
for gbo
Clemson football’s 2019 spring game featured a squad that looked loaded yet again with a roster packed with some of the best players in the country.
Roughly 60,000 fans piled into Memorial Stadium to watch the Clemson spring game on Saturday, hoping to get a sense of what to expect out of the defending champs this upcoming season.
All in all, the Clemson spring game featured a Tigers’ squad who certainly looks like they’re going to be a top-five team again, a feat that’s largely due to their high caliber of coaching and consistency on the recruiting trail. Just like clockwork, Dabo Swinney and his staff have managed yet again to replace the elite players he lost to the NFL draft with players of equal or greater ability.
They appear to have depth at every position and quarterback is no exception. The biggest surprise of the afternoon would have to be the fact that Chase Brice outplayed Lawrence for the entire game.
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Wake Forest Football Announces Team Captains for 2019 Season (bcsnn.com)
The Wake Forest football team, in advance of its annual Spring Game, elected five players to serve as captains for the 2019 season. Head coach Dave Clawson made the announcement Saturday.
The five include cornerback Essang Bassey, running back Cade Carney, tight end Jack Freudenthal, offensive lineman Justin Herron and linebacker Justin Strnad. All five are rising seniors. Carney is the lone holdover captain from the 2018 Demon Deacon team.
Bassey, from Columbus, Ga. (Columbus) is a two-year starter who finished third on the team last year with 74 tackles. He leads all of Wake Forest's defensive players with four career interceptions. Bassey scored on a fumble return against Rice in 2018 and returned an interception for a score against Boston College in 2017.
Carney, from Advance, NC (Davidson Day), was Wake Forest's leading rusher last season with 1,005 yards. He became the first Demon Deacon with over 1,000 yards rushing in a season since Chris Barclay in 2005. Carney is just the ninth individual in school history to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark in a season.
Freudenthal, from Richmond, Va. (Trinity Episcopal), came to Wake Forest as a walk-on and has since earned a scholarship while becoming the Deacons' starting tight end. Freudenthal has 18 career receptions and five career touchdown catches, a ratio of one TD catch for every 3.4 receptions. That mark is the highest in Wake Forest history.
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ACC Football Rx: Millenials and the ACC Network (RX; HM)
It's been observed that there are roughly 3 generations of Americans, each different from the others in habits and general characteristics. As the oldest sports fans continue to age, we will see a change in the way the ACC is viewed (both literally and figuratively). Famous Big Ten blogger "Frank the Tank" wrote about this phenomenon on CSNBBS:
Where does Generation X fit in with college sports??
Separately, the definition of an engaged fan has changed over generations:
Baby Boomer Fan = watch entire games in person as a season ticket holder
Generation X Fan = watch entire games on TV as a cable/satellite subscriber
Millennial Fan = watch clips of games on an app and follow team news on social media
Interest in sports for Millennials is still very high, but they're consumed in much different ways. Also, the absolute interest level of sports for Millennials compared to older generations is lower, but the relative power of sports for Millennials compared to everything else in pop culture might actually be higher compared to older generations because there are so few common cultural moments for people today. The market for TV shows, movies and pretty much everything else has such fragmented audiences that sports are still one of the few arenas in life that a wide critical mass of people follow. For instance, the absolute ratings for NFL Sunday Night Football on NBC are lower than Monday Night Football on ABC a generation ago, but SNF ranks #1 among all prime time programs nearly every week now, while the old MNF was usually behind 10 to 20 scripted shows each week in the ratings rankings. (The news is the other arena today that is still widely followed, but that unfortunately gets heavily filtered through the different partisan biases of people today.)
- Frank the Tank, on CSNBBS
If Frank is correct, the ACC Network should flourish for years to come despite relatively low ratings as compared to the NFL, etc. We see it now - the best ACC basketball games draw "only" 4 million viewers, but that's still considered very good; the best ACC football games draw 2 to 3 times that many viewers.
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ACC Football Rx: 2018 CFB TV Ratings, Adjusted for Network (RX; HM)
TV ratings are great when comparing shows on the same network, but can be a bit tricky comparing across networks. For example, take a look at the top 10 most-viewed college football games of 2018...
TOP COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV RATINGS OF 2018
# GAME CONF DATE/TIME NET RTG VWRS
1 ALA-UGA SEC Champ. 12/1, 4:00p CBS 10.1 17.50M
2 MICH-OSU B1G 11/24, Noon FOX 7.5 13.20M
3 ALA-LSU SEC 11/3, 8:00p CBS 6.6 11.54M
4 OKLA-TEX B12 Champ. 12/1, Noon ABC 6.2 10.16M
5 OSU-PSU B1G 9/29, 7:30p ABC 5.3 9.14M
6 AUB-ALA SEC 11/24, 3:30p CBS 5.1 9.13M
T7 OSU-NWSTN B1G Champ. 12/1, 8:00p FOX 5 8.66M
T7 Army-Navy IND, AAC 12/8, 3:00p CBS 5 8.05M
9 ND-USC IND, P12 11/24, 8:00p ABC 4.4 7.74M
10 OSU-TCU B1G, B12 9/15, 8:00p ABC 4.2 7.23M
Not an ACC team - much less an ACC-vs-ACC game - in the bunch!
There's no doubt that the SEC gets better TV ratings than any other P5 conference. There's also no doubt that their best ratings always come on CBS. Coincidence? Hardly. It is estimated that CBS is available to watch in about 114,848,000 homes in the United States (roughly the same for ABC, NBC and Fox, by the way). By comparison, ESPN - as widely-distributed as it is - is only available in approximately 94,396,000 homes. That's a difference of 20,452,000 viewers before the game is even scheduled!
Network Subs (est.)
BTN 57,138,000
ESPN 86,770,000
ESPN2 86,589,000
ESPNU 64,691,000
FS1 83,750,000
FS2 58,486,000
NBCSN 84,584,000
source: AwfulAnnouncing March cable estimates
How can we account for maximum possible TV viewers? By percentages.
For example, in Week #12,
Millions Matchup Conf Date, Time Netwk #homes %homes
2.873 Syracuse-Notre Dame ND* 11/17, 2:30p NBC 114.848 2.50%
2.762 Kansas-Oklahoma B12 11/17, 7:30p FOX 114.848 2.40%
2.515 Michigan St-Nebraska B1G 11/17, Noon FOX 114.848 2.19%
2.452 Duke-Clemson ACC 11/17, 7:00p ESPN 94.396 2.60%
Which of these games actually drew the highest percentage of TV viewers who could have watched it? That would be Duke vs. Clemson - 2.60% of ESPN subscribers watched that game, as opposed to 2.50% who have access to a TV which gets NBC or Fox.
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ACC Football Rx: ACC Major Team Championships, 2012-19 (RX; HM)
With Clemson's football and Virginia's basketball championships, the list now looks like this...
2012-13 Basketball Louisville*
2012-13 M Soccer Notre Dame*
2012-13 W Lacrosse N Carolina
2012-13 M Lacrosse Duke
2013-14 Football Florida State
2013-14 M Soccer Virginia
2013-14 W Soccer Florida State
2013-14 M Lacrosse Duke
2014-15 Basketball Duke
2014-15 Baseball Virginia
2015-16 W Lacrosse N Carolina
2015-16 M Lacrosse N Carolina
2016-17 Football Clemson
2016-17 Basketball N Carolina
2017-18 W Basketball Notre Dame
2017-18 W Soccer Florida State
2017-18 W Softball Florida State
2018-19 Football Clemson
2018-19 Basketball Virginia
Am I forgetting anything?
Other
Here is what SU's student body looks like today (DO; Rose)
Syracuse University boasted a record number of first-year applicants for the fall 2019 semester — a total of 35,155 applicants, according to an SU News release.
As students across the world are deciding on which colleges to attend, here is what the student body looked like at the start of the 2018-19 academic year, according to fall 2018 census data from SU. The data was compiled by the Office of Institutional Research and is based on a fall enrollment survey.
Race/ethnicity
SU had 5,226 undergraduate students at the time of the census. More than half of that population is white.
Asian students comprised nearly 7% of the undergraduate student body, black or African American students made up 6.5% and Hispanic or Latino students were 9.1% of undergraduates.
The second-largest race or ethnicity listed was “Nonresident Alien,” or students who are not citizens or nationals of the United States and have not passed the green card or substantial presence test, according to the IRS. They comprised 13.5% of SU’s undergraduates.
Approximately 3% of undergrads at SU identified as being of two or more races. One-half of a percent of SU undergraduates are American Indian or Alaska Native, and one-tenth of a percent identified as being Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
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