sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Letter of Intent Signing Day!
One of the most exciting moments for a student-athlete is receiving a verbal scholarship offer. Years of hard work have led to this moment. However, nothing is official until you sign the National Letter of Intent (NLI.) Not every school uses the NLI—about 650 NCAA D1 and D2 schools. It’s not mandatory to sign, but every year more than 48,000 student-athletes do. The National Letter of Intent is not affiliated directly with the NCAA; it was created by the Collegiate Commissioners Association to protect both the college and student from either party backing out. February 7th marks the start of the second signing period for football.
SU News
https://www.si.com/college/syracuse...ball-national-signing-day-live-updates-020724 (SI; McAllister)
Syracuse football is set to have its class of 2024 recruits sign their National Letters of Intent and officially join the program during the late period. Below is a running live blog of updates on players as they sign including current Orange commits and previously undecided targets. Bookmark this page and continue to refresh throughout the day.
Who is left to decide? We are monitoring the NLIs for two defensive lineman. That includes Deshon Dodson out of Neumann Goretti in Pennsylvania and Omar White out of Valdosta High in Georgia.
LIVE UPDATES
8:03 a.m.: Ibn McDaniels has signed with Syracuse. NSD PROFILE.
7:00 a.m.: Letters can start coming in.
Syracuse football had a dramatic offseason. It let go of eight year head coach Dino Babers and hired Fran Brown as his replacement. Brown has taken Central New York by storm with his recruiting acumen, adding several four star prospects and high profile transfers to the Orange's haul in the 2024 cycle. That has created a lot of buzz amongst the fan base and has started to garner attention nationally as well.
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Syracuse football named finalist for 4-star N.J. athlete, a top-200 national prospect (itlh; Adler)
Cameron Miller, a four-star athlete and one of the top prospects from New Jersey in the 2025 class, has disclosed a top five that includes Syracuse football.
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Miller, who is rated a top-300 overall player in his cycle by several recruiting services, said via his X page that his top five consists of the Orange, Kentucky, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
Media reports had indicated that Miller was part of a large contingent of highly rated ‘Cuse targets who took unofficial visits to the Hill last month as part of the team’s several junior days.
Miller is a standout defensive back and wide receiver at Winslow Township High School in Atco, N.J. That, by the way, is the same program for Jaylan Hornsby, a 2024 three-star wide receiver who is officially signed with the Orange.
Syracuse football remains in the running for 2025 four-star athlete Cameron Miller.
In September of 2022, Miller was initially offered a scholarship by the ‘Cuse coaching staff when Dino Babers was leading the squad.
Fran Brown, the former defensive backs coach at Georgia, is the new head coach of Syracuse football. It seems he and his assistants continue to pursue Miller, who in August of 2023 named a top eight of the Orange, Georgia, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Illinois and Rutgers.
Miller’s newer top five continues to include Syracuse football, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin, while adding in Kentucky.
When I penned this story, both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking placed him in the top 300 overall, the top 30 at cornerback and the top 10 in New Jersey.
Currently, On3 is the most bullish on Miller, ranking him at No. 165 nationwide, No. 20 at cornerback and No. 6 in New Jersey. According to recruiting services, he has amassed more than 20 scholarship offers from a range of high-major programs.
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Syracuse Football: After ‘amazing’ SU visit, 4-star wide receiver has ‘Cuse in top 5 (itlh; Adler)
Jeff Exinor Jr. recently took an unofficial visit to Syracuse football for one of the team’s junior days, and the 2025 four-star athlete/wide receiver says that trip to Central New York went quite well.
Additionally, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Exinor said following his visit to the ‘Cuse, in an interview with SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister, that the Orange “has definitely entered my top five. That is seriously a place I can see myself going to.”
Obviously, that’s wonderful to hear. Exinor, who was re-offered a scholarship by the new Syracuse football coaching staff on December 12, 2023, according to his X page, is a standout at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md.
Per MaxPreps, in the most recent 2023 season at McDonogh, Exinor hauled in 76 passes for 926 yards and 11 receiving touchdowns. He was named to the Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro first team offense for this past term.
Consensus four-star junior athlete Jeff Exinor Jr. is high on Syracuse football.
Per his X page and recruiting services, Exinor has tallied nearly 20 scholarship offers from a range of high major programs.His full offer sheet includes Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Tennessee, Southern California, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin, among others.
Multiple recruiting services, within the 2025 cycle, rank Exinor as a top-200 national prospect, a top-10 athlete and a top-five player in Maryland.
Currently, his highest national ranking comes via 247Sports, which places Exinor at No. 137 overall, No. 6 at athlete and No. 4 in Maryland within his class.
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Syracuse football Spring Game announced for April 20 (TNIAMM; Ostrowski)
Fran Brown and Syracuse Orange football have teased that a big Spring Game is in the works since the new head coach took over, and now we know when.
SU will hold their first spring practice on Thursday, March 21. One month later, they’ll welcome fans into the JMA Dome for their exhibition matchup on Saturday April 20.
Here’s a full look at the spring football schedule:
The structure is a bit different than last season, when Dino Babers practiced Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from March 21 to his spring scrimmage on April 21. Fran is instead stacking practices a bit different, including three in four days before giving his guys Easter weekend off.
No start time has been released for the Spring Game, but men’s lacrosse is currently scheduled to host Virginia at 2pm. With that in mind, expect it to be in the evening.
We also learned about one player who will be returning for 2024. Offensive lineman Joe More was granted a medical redshirt and will be back to add a veteran presence with that group.
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ACC News
ACC Football Teams Ranked by Returning Production for 2024 (usatoday.com; Turri)
Forecasting which teams will rise to greatness in college football in any given season can prove challenging. However, a key indicator often lies in the roster’s returning players.
From seasoned fifth-year senior linebackers to up-and-coming junior quarterbacks, the presence of experienced athletes opting to continue with their respective programs can significantly bolster a team’s competitive advantage. This continuity becomes particularly crucial as other teams contend with talent depletion due to NFL draft selections, transfers, or eligibility regulations.
ESPN recently released a list of all 134 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams, with each ACC team naturally being listed. Here is a look at each ACC team’s returning production on offense, defense, and total.
17 North Carolina Tar Heels
Offense: 37% (122)
Defense: 36% (122)
Total: 37% (127)
16 Duke Blue Devils
Offense: 53% (93)
Defense: 57% (73)
Total: 55% (88)
15 Florida State Seminoles
Offense: 56% (81)
Defense: 60% (62)
Total: 58% (83)
14 NC State Wolfpack
Offense: 65% (52)
Defense: 53% (88)
Total: 59% (80)
13 SMU Mustangs
Offense: 64% (55)
Defense: 60% (64)
Total: 62% (66)
12 Clemson Tigers
Offense: 79% (20)
Defense: 49% (103)
Total: 64% (54)
11 Pittsburgh Panthers
Offense: 65% (50)
Defense: 62% (56)
Total: 64% (53)
10 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Offense: 83% (7)
Defense: 49% (105)
Total: 66% (46)
9 Miami Hurricanes
Offense: 79% (18)
Defense: 53% (84)
Total: 66% (45)
8 Louisville Cardinals
Offense: 53% (92)
Defense: 79% (7)
Total: 66% (44)
7 Boston College Eagles
Offense: 80% (11)
Defense: 53% (86)
Total: 67% (40)
6 Stanford Cardinal
Offense: 69% (40)
Defense: 65% (44)
Total: 67% (37)
5 Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Offense: 61% (70)
Defense: 74% (15)
Total: 68% (36)
4 Cal Golden Bears
Offense: 79% (17)
Defense: 66% (36)
Total: 73% (14)
3 Syracuse Orange
Offense: 81% (9)
Defense: 67% (34)
Total: 74% (10)
2 Virginia Cavaliers
Offense: 85% (5)
Defense: 68% (30)
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ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery to launch new sports streaming platform (PS; $; AP)
ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans on Tuesday to launch a sports streaming platform in the fall that will include offerings from at least 15 networks and all four major professional sports leagues.
A one-stop app to view most sports should be a welcome sight for fans, who continue to navigate rising costs by subscribing to multiple services.
Kevin Krim, the president and CEO of the ad measurement firm EDO, compared the three companies teaming up for sports like what some networks did when Hulu started in 2008.
“My sense is knowing the cast of characters, they’re looking at the original Hulu concept and thinking, ‘Well, that worked out really well for us.’ So let’s do that again. But for live sports streaming,” he said.
The three companies will each share one-third ownership in the joint venture. A name for the service and pricing will be announced at a later date.
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Returning 2024 Offensive Production (RX; HM)
Returning 2024 Offensive Production
Which teams are bringing back the most offensive production? Here's the Top 13, according to "Fans of CFB":
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BREAKING: CFP Share for SMU (RX; HM)
BREAKING: CFP Share for SMU
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2024 Calendar of Events (RX; HM)
2024 Calendar of Events
What can we look forward to until football season begins, and when do these things happen? Here you go...
| Date | Event |
| 2/7/24 | CFB National Signing Day |
| 2/11/24 | NFL Super Bowl |
| 2/16/24 | College Baseball Opening Day |
| 3/12/24 | ACC Men's Basketball Tournament Begins |
| 3/17/24 | Selection Sunday for March Madness |
| 3/19/24 | NCAA Men's Tournament First Four |
| 3/21/24 | NCAA Men's Tournament First Round |
| 4/8/24 | NCAA Tournament Men's Championship |
| 4/25/24 | NFL Draft 1st round |
| 4/27/24 | NFL Draft ends |
| 5/21/24 | ACC Baseball Tournament |
| 6/27/24 | NBA Draft |
| 7/1/24 | SMU officially joins the ACC |
| 7/16/24 | MLB Draft |
| 8/2/24 | Cal and Stanford officially join the ACC |
2024 Conferences by Time Zones (RX; HM)
2024 Conferences by Time Zones
Now that the Pac-12 has been divided by the Big Ten, Big XII, and ACC, I thought it might be good to take an updated look at how conferences split into time zones...
| |||
| Pacific | Mountain | Central | Eastern |
ACC | |||
| Cal | SMU | BC | |
| Stanford | Clemson | ||
| Duke | |||
| FSU | |||
| GT | |||
| Louisville | |||
| Miami | |||
| N Carolina | |||
| NC State | |||
| Pitt | |||
| Syracuse | |||
| Virginia | |||
| VT | |||
| Wake | |||
B1G | |||
| Oregon | Illinois | Indiana | |
| UCLA | Iowa | Maryland | |
| USC | Minnesota | Michigan | |
| Washington | Nebraska | Michigan St | |
| Northwestern | Ohio State | ||
| Wisconsin | Penn State | ||
| Purdue | |||
| Rutgers | |||
Big XII | |||
| Arizona | Baylor | Cincinnati | |
| Arizona St | Houston | UCF | |
| BYU | Iowa State | WVY | |
| Colorado | Kansas | ||
| Utah | Kansas St | ||
| Oklahoma St | |||
| TCU | |||
| Texas Tech |
https://www.si.com/college/georgiat...-spring-football-position-preview-quarterback (SI; Caudell)
Spring Football is almost upon us.
It seems like just yesterday that the Yellow Jackets defeated UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl for their first bowl win since 2016, but the page has turned on the 2023 season and it is time to start thinking about the 2024 season.
The 2024 season has a chance to be a special one for Georgia Tech. They are returning a lot of production from one of the ACC's best offenses, including the quarterback position.
Haynes King was one of the best stories in college football in 2023. After transferring in from Texas A&M, King turned into one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC, leading a huge turnaround for the Yellow Jackets. He led them to their first bowl win in seven years and is poised to be one of the top quarterbacks in the ACC and the country in 2024.
King is one of only two players in the nation with at least 2,700 passing yards, 600 rushing yards, 25 touchdown passes, and five touchdown runs this season (joining LSU’s Jayden Daniels), and one of only six ACC players to achieve those numbers in a regular season since 2000. He led the ACC in touchdown passes and was fourth in passing yards.
According to PFF (Pro Football Focus), King will be the fourth-highest-graded returning quarterback in the ACC, behind SMU's Preston Stone (91.3 Overall Grade), Florida State's DJ Uiagalelei (82.0), and Miami's Cam Ward (80.7).
There is one big area that Haynes King needs to improve upon in 2024 and that is decision making and cutting down turnovers. King led the ACC with 16 interceptions last season and he needs to cut that number in half. A lot of his turnovers came in a handful of games. King threw 11 interceptions in four games (Bowling Green, Miami, Clemson, and Boston College) and Georgia Tech was 1-3 in those games. If he cuts down on the turnovers and makes better decisions, King should have another special season.
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Inside Project Osceola: Florida State sports’ 9-figure private equity plan (tampabaytimes.com; Baker)
The first known mention of the two-word phrase that could revolutionize Florida State sports sits on the top of the third page of a cash projections spreadsheet from September 2022.
Project Osceola.
The name is a nod to the Seminoles’ spear-planting symbol. The project is a potential nine-figure private equity investment into FSU sports that could accelerate conference realignment and touch everything from the Tampa Bay Lightning to Minor League Baseball.
After the sports business website Sportico first reported FSU’s private equity talks in August, the Tampa Bay Times requested public records from the Seminoles. The Times received more than 2,500 pages last week.
The resulting picture is riddled with redactions and tantalizingly incomplete. Some of the most interesting tidbits are only semi-related — like a potential date for FSU to leave the ACC and a naming sponsor for Doak Campbell Stadium. It’s possible nothing ever materializes beyond due-diligence checklists and presentations labeled “strictly private and confidential.”
But the emails, PDFs and spreadsheets still provide the deepest, albeit preliminary, glimpse of the complex legal theories, detailed financial discussions and groundbreaking possibilities of Project Osceola.
How a private equity investment at FSU might work
A document from J.P. Morgan lists some of the goals as Florida State University considered private-equity investment into Seminoles athletics in October 2022. [ Florida State University documents ]The best explanation comes in a September 2022 email from Ken Artin, a public finance attorney at the firm Bryant Miller Olive. State agencies, he wrote, generally can’t become a “joint venture partner, equity partner and anything that looks like that” with a for-profit company. But there’s a workaround, which he called a “super license agreement.”
FSU can move its intellectual property (like logos and names) to a new university entity. That new entity could license the intellectual property to someone else (a private-equity firm). The firm would then try to profit off that licensed material by using it better, more efficiently or in new ways.
Within six months, that proposed non-profit entity had a name: FSU NewCo. The specific intellectual property available from FSU NewCo is redacted.
The companies involved
In August 2022, FSU and J.P. Morgan signed a non-disclosure agreement to work on a deal with outside investors. At least two private-equity firms were interested.One was Arctos, whose sports portfolio includes a share of the Lightning and Red Sox. The other was Sixth Street, which has a stake in the San Antonio Spurs and the sports entertainment company Legends Hospitality.
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ACC College Football Playoff revenue fight helps Florida State's exit argument (youtube; podcast; Ovies & Giglio)
ACC College Football Playoff revenue fight helps Florida State's exit argument
FSU's ACC exit by 2026? Osceola Project Update! Power 2 Cold War is over, but now what? (youtube; podcast; Flugaur)
FSU to Exit ACC by 2026??
Other
Claudio Bueti Jr. and his chicken parm pizza at Il Limone, the fifth stop on our CNY Pizza Tour. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)(Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)
CNY Pizza Tour, stop #5: An Italian entree atop an NYC slice in a strip mall? You bet (PS; $; Miller)
Every time a chicken parmesan pizza goes into the ovens at Il Limone in Liverpool, the Bueti family figures they’re losing money.
So why offer it?
“Our customers love our chicken parm. It encapsulates us,” said Claudio Bueti Jr., who runs Il Limone with his father. “So we took that signature dish and turned it into a pizza. This is the best of everything we have to offer.”
Bueti Sr., who in 1973 moved to Brooklyn from his home in Italy, owned six pizzerias in New York City over 40 years. During the Covid shutdown, he came to Central New York to be near his daughter. He opened Il Limone in the Glenn Crossing Plaza on Route 57 nearly two years ago.
After 11 successful months, he moved his sit-down Italian restaurant to a storefront one door away, turning his original spot into a pizzeria.
Il Limone’s pizza menu lists 11 specialty pizzas in addition to a traditional pizza with 11 available toppings. The chicken parm pizza isn’t among them just yet. It’s a recurring special, and they usually bring one out to sell as individual slices during the lunch rush. Because of its popularity, it’ll be the regular menu soon.
OK, mangiamo! (That’s “OK, let’s eat,” in Italian)
****
Address: 7421 Oswego Road, Liverpool (next to Aldi in Glenn Crossing Plaza); (315) 320-5700
Do they deliver: Yes, through all the food delivery apps. It’s obviously cheaper to order ahead and pick it up. You can dine at one of the tables inside the pizzeria.
What I ate: The chicken parmesan specialty pizza.
Why this pizza? I found myself in the middle of a quick family feud here that led to father and son snapping back and forth in Italian. Claudio Sr.’s favorite pizza is the margherita. Junior’s showcase, though, is the chicken parm pizza, and he was the one manning the brick-lined Attios oven during my visit last Tuesday.
Both pizzas represent the restaurant’s attention to detail, from the methodical process of making dough throughout the day to handcrafting their own mozzarella cheese. Everything involved in this pizza is fresh and prepared here.
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Hochul pushes SUNY Upstate to put empty apartment tower, vacant land to good use. ‘It’s not OK’ (PS; $; Knauss)
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is pushing officials at SUNY Upstate Medical University to explain their plans for a boarded-up Syracuse apartment tower and eight acres of land, both of which have been vacant for more than a decade despite the housing crisis.
Hochul said it is “pathetic’' that Harrison House, a 21-story building with 199 apartments, has been vacant since SUNY Upstate took title in 2010.
“Vacant all those years -- it’s not OK,” she said. “We are heavily encouraging them to put it to good use.”
Hochul, who met Monday with the syracuse.com editorial board, also said she is pressing SUNY Upstate to make productive use of eight acres at the site of the former Kennedy Square housing complex, which was demolished years ago.
The governor has made housing development a key objective of her administration.
Both Harrison House and the Kennedy Square land were given to SUNY Upstate after the state seized the properties for unpaid government mortgages. Upstate initially said it would renovate Harrison House for student housing. It announced plans to develop Kennedy Square, in partnership with a private company, into a new neighborhood with offices, shops and apartments.
Neither plan panned out.
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Archaeopteris root system at the Cairo fossil forest site at first discovery.
Image credit: Charles Ver Straeten
‘World's oldest forest’ found in Upstate NY, revealing over 380 million years of history (PS; Hernandez)
An ancient forest in Upstate New York has left behind big impressions, causing scientists to declare it the “world’s oldest forest.”
According to Binghamton University, the forest is located in Cairo, New York and was first discovered in 2009 by Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the New York State Museum.
Found at the bottom of an abandoned municipal highway department quarry in the Catskills, traces of roots belonging to the oldest trees in the world were found beneath a ridge and forest pool 387 million years ago. This recorded evidence meant that the site in Cairo is two million years older than the Gilboa fossil forest, just down the road.
Since its discovery, paleobotanists from Binghamton University and the University of Cardiff in Wales have been studying the fossilized woody roots of the extremely early plants characteristic of the Middle Devonian period. By tracing root impressions, researchers have been able to map out the world’s oldest forest tree by tree.
New York during the Middle Devonian period had a barren landscape and temperatures much warmer than today, being located south of the equator. The atmosphere also had three to five times the level of carbon dioxide.
As trees and forests like the ones found in Cairo evolved, Science reported, their roots helped pull carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and lock it away, radically shifting the planet’s climate and leading to the cooler atmosphere we know today.
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