Al_4_ISU

National nightmare avoided

All my rivals gotta be this we way. (Fuck, we are too)

Dawn Staley looks like a black version of Susie from Curb Your Enthusiasm. I can just hear her screaming “JEFF YOU FAT FUCK”

Are we the same person? I bought my first new wallet since the Bush administration last week, and my wife has accumulated at least 100 purses in that time frame.

Right, but how much of those good feelings are due to their continued beneficiary status? If Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and the SEC powers broke off to form Prestige Worldwide, I guarantee that Northwestern and Mississippi State would feel the same way about those blue bloods that the I8 feel about Texas. I live among and am close friends with many Iowa fans. They absolutely hate Ohio State and Michigan despite the financial security afforded them due to their association. Every big dog is hated by whoever is below them in the pecking order. Texas didn't leave the Big 12/USC didn't leave the Pac 12 because of how the other schools viewed them. They left because of concerns that they wouldn't be able to compete at the top level without the financial benefit of being in the SEC or Big 10. In the NIL world, you have to maximize your revenue to compete at the highest level, and they all made extremely rational choices to that end. Same as the schools that left the Pac 12 for the Big 12. The conference model has been the source of a lot of that resentment, IMO. Eliminating that would go a long ways in changing those dynamics.

But you have to remember that villainization was done in the context of the conference system, where "Texas's greed" was an existential threat to these schools being part of major college sports. If Texas wanted more money and left the conference, they were in a position to possibly be de facto relegated. That existential fear/threat can create a whole lot of animosity among the threatened. This is basic human nature. With that threat removed, I strongly doubt that there will be much give a shit about schools with better ratings getting bigger checks. That sentiment might still exist among some, but so what? They can't do anything to cause negative repercussions to Texas. They can't use conference refs to call bad penalties. They can't use conference rules and votes to keep you out of a championship game. Any avenue for their pettiness to result in some kind of tangible negative has been removed in the proposed conference-less system.

But those schools can't really do anything to Texas in this model either. That's part of the genius of getting away from conferences. As a fan of a smaller brand school that's historically been part of the bigger leagues, I can say that most of us don't have a problem with schools like Texas, Ohio State, etc making more money than we do. They have more fans, draw bigger ratings, etc. Is this not America? Are we not a capitalist society? What pisses us off is schools that aren't any different than us getting massive pay days and being part of the club because they hooked up with the oddly benevolent financial juggernauts 150 years ago. It's Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, Mississippi State, etc getting to roll around in piles of cash that were generated by others that chaps our ass.

Does Chris Beard? I've only been there for recreation, but that part of Arkansas seems pretty progressive and quite different from the rest of the state. It certainly can't be worse than Mississippi right? EDIT: Realized you're talking about Musselman. And Beard has of course already lived in Arkansas.

You collectively bargain, and then pay out based on ratings. Better ratings = more money. That's how you sell the blue bloods on it. Financial reward becomes merit based, not about being lucky as to who you hooked up with 150 years ago. The whole conference model goes away completely in this system. There is no Big 10 or SEC, there is just the 70 schools that were part of the major conferences, and they all have varying levels of value in this equation. This model we've been heading towards where Purdue and Northwestern get to make as much money as Ohio State and Michigan while Oklahoma State and West Virginia don't even get to participate is so mind-numbingly stupid, and this model would end that immediately.

NWA is about at the top of my "other places I'd live" list. But I'm an avid mountain biker, so my opinion is wildly skewed by that one factor.

It might be a destination job for him at this point. He's never going back to his alma mater, so I guess why not? NWA is beautiful and you have a fanbase that supports hoops.

This is art.

Trilly Donovan linked Jerome Tang to Arkansas. I want his crazy televangelist ass to stay in Manhattan forever.

It's like the XFL. Solid back ground noise on a rainy weekend, but nothing to emotionally invest in. I watched a little on Sunday. Actually saw that wild-ass fake punt live. There are a lot of fringe NFL guys that I recognize from being above average college players, except for at QB generally. I watch a decent amount of CFL later in the summer and that league has better QB play, which I think is what eventually separates it.

Usually when I hear someone say "snipping tool" they're castrating hogs.

Yeah. Just trying to keep some competitive balance. I thought about putting one of the Mississippi schools in that division and the other in the old SEC division. Kentucky would probably make more geographic sense, but like I said, I didn't spend much time on this thought experiment. I just went from west to east and tried to keep some balance.

Well, in this proposal you're only playing them. You aren't in some kind of alleged brotherhood of shared values, culture, academia, etc. That's part of the idiocy of the whole conference thing.

I just threw this together in 5 minutes off the top of my head. Seems pretty balanced, and any rivalry not in division play (like Red River) can be harmlessly scheduled in the non-conference, because playoff access would come down to winning the division

It would probably have Piggy and LSU too. And the Kansas schools and ISU would be in some northern plains division with Nebraska, Mizzou, Colorado and whoever else is up that way.

Exactly. When I think of Greg Sankey and whoever is in charge of the Big 10 at any given moment, I imagine the Forrest Gump school bus scene. And in the sports world, this mentality is so specific to American college football.

Oh yeah. That.

This is honestly the first time I've ever heard of someone hating Tom Petty. Growing up he was always the guy that everyone liked no matter if they were a metalhead, country listening hick, wannabe rapper, or general rock/pop fan.

I've never understood why our society has so much god damn trouble with "both things can be true" but it seems to be getting worse by the day.

The conference model as we know it has become so god damn stupid. Blow up conferences, centralize leadership under a single commissioner, and do it on geographical basis just like this model is proposing. I realize that's no fun to the "you can't play in our treehouse" side of college sports, but this will return the game to what made it popular in the first place while also giving us the legitimate, proven champion we've wanted out of the playoff system. You play schools close by during the regular season, and if you win, you meet other powers in games that actually matter towards a universally recognized championship.

Now this is how the thread is done. I'll never waste my time trying to get people who hate a band to like it. If it doesn't click for you, me going full Derka is only going to make you dig in harder. Long live The Dan.