sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to International Days of Persons with Disabilities!
International Day of Persons with Disabilities, created with United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3, "aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life." Each year, the day's main event is held at the UN Headquarters in New York City. In past years, the event has included an opening, panel discussions, and cultural events. There is a different theme for the day each year. From 1992 through 2006 the day was known as International Day of Disabled Persons, but since then it has been called the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
SU News
Syracuse vs. Notre Dame Football Prediction and Preview (athlonsports.com; Kinne)
Ian Book and the ACC Championship Game-bound Fighting Irish look to stay undefeated whey they host the Orange
Notre Dame has a spot in the ACC Championship Game in their back pocket, but this weekend's contest with Syracuse still has plenty of significance. A win keeps the Fighting Irish on the path to the College Football Playoff and with many believing an unbeaten squad could withstand a loss to a one-loss Clemson in the ACC title game and still make the four-team field, beating the Orange is vital.
As for the Cuse, the 2020 season hasn't been easy. The 1-9 record is bad enough, but the ending to last week's game against NC State, the final one at home this season, was downright embarrassing. Still, head coach Dino Babers has his team playing hard every week and that won't change this Saturday.
The Irish lead the series 6-3, though in 2008 in their last visit to South Bend, the Orange pulled off a 24-23 upset victory.
Syracuse at No. 2 Notre Dame
Kickoff: Saturday, Dec. 5 at 2:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Spread: Notre Dame -33.5
When Syracuse Has the Ball
The Orange offense has been a nightmare all season long. Their 250 yards per game ranks only ahead of UMass, who has played just four games, and is more than 100 yards less than Pittsburgh, who has the 14th-ranked offense in the ACC.
Quarterback Rex Culpepper made two huge, well-documented mistakes to close out the NC State loss. But overall, his day wasn't terrible. He completed 23 of 45 pass attempts for 254 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. That's nothing special, but on a day when the Orange could only manage three rushing yards on 25 attempts, it was a bit of a positive.
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Talking ACC Championship, College Football Playoff, Clark Lea and Notre Dame Run Game (SI; Driskell; podcast)
We talk about Notre Dame vs. Syracuse, the ACC Championship game, Clark Lea, the Irish run game and much, much more on WSBT Sportsbeat
Syracuse Football Top 25 Players of All-Time: No. 24 Jim Nance (itlh; Peelman)
Syracuse Football has had a long history of success. We look back at some of the best players to play at Syracuse University. Up next, No. 24: Jim Nance.
Syracuse Football great Jim Nance may not be a name that immediately jumps to mind when you think of Syracuse legends, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t dominant in his own right. Like many athletes at that time, he was a multi-sport athlete who also was very good at wrestling. Jim Nance attended Syracuse from 1962-1965.
In wrestling, Jim “Bo” Nance was a star. He was a two-time NCAA champion, as well as one of six EIWA (Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) three-time heavyweight winners during his career at SU, according to EIWAwrestling.org. Amazingly, “Bo” only lost once while at Syracuse and was 43-1 overall in his three seasons playing for the Orangemen. His only loss was on a controversial fleeing the mat call.
In addition to wrestling, Nance also played football at Syracuse from 1962-1964; for which he is better known. As a running back/fullback, he only rushed 84 times for 417 yards in 1962, and 51 times for 237 yards in 1963, according to Sports-Reference.com, but had his breakthrough season in 1964. In that 1964 season, he broke multiple previous football records. He led the team in rushing, carrying the ball 205 times for 1021 yards on a team that also included future Orange great/freshman Floyd Little, according to OrangeFizz.net.
In addition, he rushed for 13 touchdowns, tying the all-time Syracuse Football record (at that time) with Jim Brown, and passing Ernie Davis (12). He would also score a touchdown in 10 straight games that season, according to Cuse.com, which is no easy feat!
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2020 Indiana MaxPreps All-State high school football team - MaxPreps (maxpreps.com)
Center Grove (Greenwood) and Cathedral (Indianapolis) each captured Indiana high school football state titles this season. The Trojans, No. 14 nationally, finished 14-0 and grabbed the 6A crown. The Fighting Irish, meanwhile, are No. 19 nationally and capped a 13-1 season (the lone loss was to Center Grove) with a 5A championship.
In addition to their dominant play on the field, the Trojans and Irish dominate the 2020 Indiana MaxPreps All-State high school football team as Center Grove lands five players on the squad, while Cathedral has four picks.
In total, 35 different schools had at least one player selected while nine had multiple selections.
Forty-one seniors were selected, eight juniors and one sophomore represent the 50 players featured on the Indiana all-state high school football team.
First Team Offense
QB Nathan McCahill, Cathedral (Indianapolis)
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 180
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
All-City Offensive Player of the Year in Indianapolis led the Irish to their 13th state title (5A) this season by completing 227-of-333 passes for 3,215 yards and 41 touchdowns. Also ran for 823 yards and 13 touchdowns.
RB Carson Steele, Center Grove (Greenwood)
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 202
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
Ends historic career with 5,936 yards rushing and 82 touchdowns, including 1,688 and 31, respectively, as a senior. Holds offers from Ball State, Indiana State and Southern Illinois.
RB Omarion Dixon, Harrison (West Lafayette)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 205
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
Ran for 4,054 yards and 51 touchdowns the last three years, including 1,516 and 27, respectively, as a senior.
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Second Team Offense
QB James Arnold, South Adams (Berne)
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 195
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
Caps career having completed 439-of-718 passes (61 percent) for 8,271 yards and 104 touchdowns. Led team to its first state final (runner-up in Class 1A).
RB Baron Huebler, Roncalli (Indianapolis)
Height: 5-9 | Weight: 180
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
Helped the Rebels claim the Class 4A title (the program's 10th) by rushing for 2,317 yards and 32 touchdowns. Ends career with 4,045 yards rushing and 48 touchdowns.
RB Aaron Nevil, North Harrison (Ramsey)
Height: 5-8 | Weight: 230
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Senior (2021)
Led the state in rushing with 2,460 yards and 32 touchdowns on 368 carries. Finished career with 3,571 rushing yards and 48 touchdowns.
WR Brody Glenn, Bishop Luers (Fort Wayne)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 175
Status: Uncommitted | Class: Junior (2022)
Led the state in receiving yards this season with 1,265 and 16 touchdowns on 65 receptions for the Class 2A runner-up.
WR Preston Terrell, Brownsburg
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 180
Status: Committed to Purdue | Class: Senior (2021)
Caps career with 152 receptions, 2,135 yards receiving and 22 touchdowns.
TE Landon Morris, Fishers
Height: 6-6 | Weight: 195
Status: Committed to Syracuse | Class: Senior (2021)
Caught 39 passes for 588 yards and six touchdowns as a senior.
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Four-star ATH no longer part of USC's class (247sports.com; Wiltfong)
Atlanta (Ga.) Marist four-star safety Josh Moore tells 247Sports he's no longer part of USC's class.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am no longer committed to USC," Moore said on social media. "My recruitment is open."
Moore was a verbal to USC as a receiver. He had given a pledge to Clay Helton and his staff on Oct. 9. He was previously committed to Stanford.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Moore is tabbed by the Top247 as the nation's No. 25 safety.
247Sports Director of Scouting Barton Simmons compares Moore's game to that of Leon McQuay III.
"Safety prospect on the bigger end with long arms and the frame to bulk up further and provide some position flexibility. Plays with burst and range. Shows ball skills down the field. Closes on runners in space in a tackling position. Comfortable as a single-high safety breaking downhill in the intermediate pass game. Quality wide receiver that shows good hands and catch-and-run athleticism. Athletic movements suggest versatility. Speed may limit his ability in man coverage. Power Five impact starter that has some NFL Draft upside that could land a few different positions."
Other offers for Moore included Northwestern, Boston College, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Duke.
"I'm just reaching out to some places and I'm just going to evaluate where the best fit for me is again," Moore said.
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Want to Win It All? Pull for 2–4 Michigan and 1–8 Syracuse (SI; Dellenger)
From his perch in the athletic director’s suite at Ohio Stadium, Gene Smith can hear the sounds and see the sights of the 2020 college football season: the roar of artificial crowd noise booming through an empty venue.
Minutes before the Buckeyes kicked off against Indiana in a top-10, unbeaten Big Ten showdown on Nov. 21, Smith was settling into his seat with a healthy dose of anxiety. He had allowed himself, for a brief moment, to glance forward to Ohio State’s final three regular-season opponents: Illinois, Michigan State and Michigan.
While the Buckeyes have championship aspirations, their opponents’ seasons were somewhat already lost. Concern over completing those games had already started to creep in. Opt-outs were on the rise. Injuries were mounting. And COVID-19 cases were spiking.
“That’s what we’ve got to watch,” Smith said. “Once we get past this one, it’s going to be interesting.”
He probably had no idea just how interesting.
Days later, his head coach tested positive and the Buckeyes canceled their game against Illinois because of a team-wide COVID outbreak, putting this week’s game with Michigan State in jeopardy, too (Ohio State resumed organized team activities Tuesday). Meanwhile, their final opponent, Michigan, has held no in-person activities the last two days because of potential COVID issues.
Interesting, indeed.
As the calendar turns to December, the handful of College Football Playoff contenders aren’t focused on only winning games. They’re just as worried about actually playing them. They’re at the mercy of something they cannot control: their opponents.
“Every year, you have teams in contention playing teams not in contention,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin says. “There’s never a question that those games will be played. This year, there is.”
The six legitimate playoff-contending Power 5 programs—Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Florida—are bracing as college football’s home stretch arrives about three weeks later than normal. The six teams have a combined 12 regular-season games remaining on their schedules. Four teams have two games left. Clemson has one, and the Aggies have three.
While COVID-19 issues on their own teams is always a concern, the viral health of their opponents is just as important. In a normal year the health of your opponent is something you might root against, but in this wacky season of 2020, the opposite exists: You need them healthy, at least healthy enough to field a team for a game. In an odd way, the opponents of playoff contenders hold the cards.
Alabama, for instance, needs SEC West rivals LSU this weekend and Arkansas next weekend to stay COVID-19 clean. Notre Dame will ask the same of Syracuse. For Clemson, it’s Virginia Tech. For Florida, it’s LSU and Tennessee.
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College football hot seat: Will Michigan, Texas jobs open? Or will 2021 be craziest carousel ever? (yahoo.com; Thamel)
It remains a relatively quiet year in the college football coaching carousel, but the plates beneath the industry’s surface are hinting at a significant shift. It’s just a matter of whether it arrives in weeks or months.
That shift could come soon, depending on what the brass at Michigan and Texas decide. Those are the two looming market drivers. There are also potential shifts that could still happen at schools like Auburn, Tennessee and potentially Virginia Tech. The grumbling increases as the hope dissipates at those places, but those three schools appear unlikely to open, setting the stage for a wild 2021.
“I think next year is going to be a bloodletting the likes we’ve never seen,” said an industry source. “Especially if Texas or Michigan don’t change coaches this year.”
The buyouts for every school but Michigan to fire just their head coach is more than $10 million, a daunting number in a normal economy and non-pandemic times. Texas would owe Tom Herman more than $15 million, Auburn would owe Gus Malzahn $21 million, Tennessee would owe Jeremy Pruitt nearly $12.9 million and Virginia Tech would owe Justin Fuente nearly $12.5 million. Those numbers don’t include staff, which would jump the number at Texas to more than $24 million.
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Could BYU football play No. 18 Coastal Carolina this weekend? Several reports say it's possible, with caveats (ksl.com; Walker)
Any team. Any time. Any place.
At least, anyone in the Top 25, it seems.
No. 8 BYU and No. 18 Coastal Carolina have "explored the possibilities" of playing this weekend if the Chanticleers' previously scheduled game with No. 25 Liberty is canceled, as first reported by Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger.
The Cougars' game against the undefeated Chanticleers (9-0) would be the 10th game of the season, a remarkable feat after the coronavirus pandemic scuttled all but two games off BYU's original regular-season slate. The game, however, is contingent on Coastal Carolina's currently scheduled game being canceled against No. 25 Liberty, another FBS independent with a 9-1 record. The Flames' lone loss of the season came to North Carolina State, which blocked a late field goal to preserve the upset victory after Liberty had previously beaten fellow ACC foes Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
BYU has not had a game in two weeks, but the Cougars have been practicing all week, a source told KSL.com. As of Wednesday afternoon, no game had been formally added.
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Clemson Football: The ACC just was smarter than the SEC (rubbingtherock.com; Spencer)
Clemson football & the ACC were just smarter than the SEC
The Clemson football program benefitted from the proactiveness of the ACC when it came to pushing for a 2020 season this fall.
Before we get started, let’s go ahead and say there are plenty of dumb decisions the ACC has made this year and in year’s past under the leadership of John Swofford. We all know about those. The ACC finally had leverage to lure Notre Dame into its conference as a full-time member this preseason and, instead, gave the Irish exactly what they wanted (and more) while basically having to give up next to nothing.
But let’s not talk about the conference’s failures for a moment.
There are a number of national analysts who were upset that the ACC decided to change course and evaluate Clemson football, Notre Dame and Miami on a nine-game conference schedule to maintain the integrity of the conference title game. That, in turn, meant that both Clemson and Notre Dame wouldn’t play games on Saturday, Dec.12– the week before the ACC Championship game.
Many analysts said that was the ACC giving the Tigers and Irish a competitive advantage in the race for the CFB Playoff, but in reality it was just the byproduct of the conference’s better decision-making from earlier in the year.
Clemson football is the beneficiary of starting the season earlier than the SEC
You can complain all you want to about Clemson and Notre Dame having an extra week of rest, but the fact still remains: Both programs started their season earlier.
The ACC intentionally started its season weeks before the SEC to allow for its conference to have built-in bye weeks to make up games. And it has worked like a charm.
Clemson will have played 10 games on the season- equal to the SEC- and the Tigers will have an extra week of rest, as a result.
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Why the ACC decided 9 was enough (RX; HM)
Why the ACC decided 9 was enough
The ACC recently announced changes to the 2020 football schedule which immediately put Notre Dame into the championship game and set the stage for a Clemson/Notre Dame rematch. Was that the goal, or was there a valid reason for these changes? To answer that, we need to look at current standings (of the three contenders), games remaining (same), and tie-breakers...
Current ACC Standings:
Notre Dame: 8-0
Clemson: 7-1 (one loss to Notre Dame)
Miami: 6-1 (one loss to Clemson)
Games Remaining:
Notre Dame: Syracuse (12/5), @ Wake Forest (12/12)
Clemson: @ Virginia Tech (12/5), @ Florida State (tbd)
Miami: @ Duke (12/5), N. Carolina (12/12), Georgia Tech* (12/19)
* Georgia Tech at Miami (previously scheduled for Saturday, November 21) will be played on Saturday, Dec. 19 under the following conditions:
In other words, that last Miami game will only be played if it doesn't conflict with the ACC FCG in any way.
In a nutshell, the ACC decided to drop Notre Dame at Wake Forest, as well as Clemson at Florida State. Then, if Clemson should lose to Virginia Tech and Miami beats both Duke and UNC, the Georgia Tech at Miami would also be dropped since the Canes would be in the ACC FCG at that point. Why was this decision made? The next thing we need to look at is the special tiebreaker rules for 2020...
I think this was the potential problem the ACC was trying to avoid: suppose Clemson had finished with an ACC record of 8-1 (i.e. the win at Virginia Tech and do not make up the FSU game), but Miami ends the season 9-1 (the only loss being to the Tigers). The win percentages would then be
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2020 ACC CRIA Grants (RX; HM)
2020 ACC CRIA Grants
From the official ACC release of Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020...
ACC and Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics
Announce Recipients of Innovation Initiative Small Grant Program
Seven ACC Faculty and Student Research Projects Funded Totaling $22,000
The Atlantic Coast Conference and Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics (CRIA) announced today the recipients of the inaugural Innovation Initiative Small Grant Program. Seven research proposals were selected, totaling $22,000 in grant funding.
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A Tale of Two Cities: COVID-19 and Student-Athletes’ Psychological Well-Being ($2,750)
- Carter Floyd, Doctoral Student, College of Education, Department of Sport Management, Florida State
- Susmit Gulavani, Doctoral Student, College of Education, Department of Sport Management, Florida State
- James Du, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sport Marketing, College of Education, Department of Sport Management, Florida State
- Jason Pappas, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor, College of Education, Department of Sport Management, Florida State
- Jeremy Losak, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Management, Syracuse
- Samuel Marteka, Undergraduate 4th Year Sport Analytics Major, Syracuse
- Mackenzie Mangos, Undergraduate 2nd Year Sport Analytics Major, Syracuse
Other
See video of meteor that caused large boom across Central NY, elsewhere (PS; Billmyer)
A boom heard across Central New York this afternoon is believed by experts to be caused by a large daytime meteor reported by some in western New York.
This video by Bekka Gunner of Untamed Adventure Dogs captured the meteor in Erie County from a camera on a dog sled.
“I hope I got that!” a person can be heard saying.
They sure got it. (You can see the meteor at about the 34 second mark.)
“Holy #%+@$&!!! I have chills. Talk about cosmic energy! What are the chances of seeing this let alone getting it on video!” Gunner wrote on Facebook.
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This brief video captured it from the CN Tower in Toronto.
Whoa. Just after noon, a BIG fireball flashed through the sky over Niagara.
The @EarthCam CN Tower cameras caught the flash from it at ~12:03:32!
Wow, it was bright!#Fireball @amsmeteors pic.twitter.com/6piLtC1Kqt
— Scott Sutherland (@ScottWx_TWN) December 2, 2020
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Central New York
The boom reported in Onondaga County and beyond was likely a sonic boom from a meteor. The loud, far-reaching booms happen when meteors rip through the atmosphere.
Residents from Clinton in Oneida County to Camillus called 911 Wednesday afternoon to report an explosion. Multiple police agencies and fire departments investigated the cause of the boom.
The first report in Onondaga County was made at 12:12 p.m.
The boom shook windows and awoke pets from their naps.
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