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statsman

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  1. I stopped posting on this thread, after a “shit posting” penalty (I linked a fact based WSJ editorial that made a point about Biden WH Ukraine policy that was confirmed two days later in a news report). I get it. I know what this message board is about. I realize this post may be turned in, too, which is fine. I’m going to make some assertions that I think are founded. 1. Trump doesn’t give a shit about Ukraine. It’s not because he is a sociopath (although I think there is plenty of evidence of many emotional dysfunctions)- for example, he likes Israel just fine. For some screwed up reason, evidence of atrocities and crimes committed on Ukrainians doesn’t register with him. Maybe it’s related to #2. 2. Trump really dislikes Zelensky. It’s obvious, right? I suspect that it’s because their very first encounter, on the phone in 2019, went so badly for Trump. Trump wants to demean and humiliate Zelensky. (Obviously, Trump’s litany of complaints is ridiculous) 3. Zelensky is not Winston Churchill. Churchill was the leader of an island nation that Hitler could never have conquered (due to the superiority of the RN). Churchill needed US help to take the fight to the continent. The historic analog for Volodomyr Zelensky is Nguyen Van Thieu, the leader of a nation that could not defend itself without U.S. support. Zelensky needs to understand and reflect on that. 4. Europe. This war has gone on for three years. Europe has a combined GDP that is over six times that of Russia. Ukraine does not need US help if Europe steps up. After Trump was elected, late last year, Zelensky met with several Euro leaders, seeking help. You can see the results. Macron called an emergency Europeans-only meeting on Monday. It was a disaster. Trump has called for Euro troops to be stationed in Ukraine to guarantee the peace. Starmer said he would send UK troops,…if Parliament agreed. Silence from the others (except for Poland, who said they were out, that their troops needed to stay in Poland). 5. Things are coming to a close. Trump’s best card to play is a threat of continued munitions support to Ukraine, and continued sanctions (This would also be a card Europe could play, if they had bothered to do anything serious the last three years), but that is a card he doesn’t seem to want to play. The way it looks to me: Ukraine deserves freedom from oppression. There is a chance for most of the country to get that,…if Europe will agree to send troops. (Opinion- if European nations are not willing to send troops to guarantee peace- like the U.S. did for decades in Europe and Korea- they can sit down and shut the fuck up). If Europe doesn’t send troops to help police a Ukrainian DMZ, then any “peace” will be temporary. (Europe really needs to consider the cost of millions of Ukrainian refugees). Final thoughts: The only heroes are the Ukrainians. Everyone else are clowns (west) and villains (Russia and its allies) Ukraine needs to develop a nuke program and keep it secret from the west and east.
  2. Season stats show that ESPN badly overpaid for the B12. Unless it was really that important to them to get a Texas (and OU) on the air against other good draws a little earlier. What we have learned is: Tech doesn’t bring the state of Texas TCU (and SMU) don’t bring DFW viewers UH doesn’t bring Houston. Baylor doesn’t bring central Texas. Phoenix may be the fastest growing city. ASU doesn’t bring its viewers. I would seriously advise B12 schools to adopt extreme frugality in advance of a new contract in 2031.
  3. The B12 doesn’t have viewers. Not in any numbers. Sure, there’s Colorado, but I imagine that will regress to the norm once Deion moves on.
  4. Two auto bids for the B12 and ACC are generous. They should say, “Thank you” and agree
  5. One model might be that the SEC would send four, based purely on the results of a nine game league schedule. Out of conference results would only factor in CFP seeding. That way, there is more incentive to schedule marquee non conference games.
  6. Eric Liddell became a Christian missionary in China. Imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp, the U.K. kept arranging prisoner trades to free him. Each time, he told the captor to substitute someone sicker or weaker in his place. He ended up dying in that camp.
  7. In 1983, against OU, Simmons had 14 carries for 105 yards and two TDs. He was injured the next week, at Arkansas
  8. Let me tell you something about UT in the ‘80s. We weren’t a bunch of grade and resume building nerds. Cavorting naked in the middle of the night was neither uncommon nor frowned upon in my day.
  9. Did you ever see him play? I did. He was fantastic, and if not for his knee blowout, would have been the offensive spark the 1983 team needed to approach the defense’s greatness. He came back (as a fullback?) and played as well as he could after major surgery on each knee. His speed was gone. The guy played as well as he was able.
  10. Early Herman era hardass-ness got this guy wiped out with heat stroke. May have been a little organ damage.
  11. Worse idea. This is putting Texas back into a Gulliver and Lilliput situation. Auto bids are needed, because we have a quarter century of evidence that committees rate college football teams, first, by looking at the loss column, and there is so much variance in schedule quality. Check out the Sagarin final top 12, and who played them in the (pre CCG) regular season. The Buckeyes played three top 12 Sagarin teams. ND played none. Oregon played one. Texas played two. PSU played one. Ole Miss played one. UGA played four(!) (and Clemson wasn’t one of them) Bama played two two Indiana played one Tennessee played two LSU played two Michigan played four ASU played none ISU played none Clemson played one SMU played none The SEC is a sixteen team conference playing an eight game schedule, and its best teams averaged 2.2 tough games. The B1G’s best teams, playing a nine game schedule, played an average of 2 tough games. The B12 and ACC can barely manage any tough games. You want the SEC to go to nine conference games? You don’t want to guarantee it CFP spots? Then, show that you can differentiate between an 11-1 team that has played nobody and a 9-3 team that survived a murderer’s row. As yet, that hasn’t been shown.
  12. If Stewart Mandel doesn’t like it, doesn’t that support it being a good idea?
  13. He leaned heavily into “Of Mice and Men” for that one
  14. That’s all fine. Best FIBA player of all time.
  15. It’s not just about money. Look at schedules going back 125 years, to when football at Texas was more like a club sport. Texas always wanted to schedule tough national teams, while other SWC programs were happy playing Hardin-Simmons and Centenary. It’s in the program’s DNA.
  16. I think this is one of those “never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity” moments. In your office, you can encounter the sports fan who believes “Davis is better than Luka! He will do more to win a championship!” In the office, you tune that guy out. You know he is an idiot, so you do engage. If that guy phones a radio sports show with that opinion, he doesn’t get through. The reason sports radio listeners don’t hear that kind of opinion is because the hosts know it’s too stupid to talk about, bad radio. Not that no one thinks it. Nico really thinks Davis is better than Doncic. He will probably always think that. Obviously, he is an idiot.
  17. https://archive.ph/sGyn0#selection-1397.0-1423.300 Reuters report on U.S. military aid to Ukraine
  18. There was that story where a new player portaled out of Wisconsin, to Miami, this spring, and Wisconsin called “Foul!”- they had him signed to a contract with the Wisconsin AD. That contractual detail is novel, but was not treated as unusual. That’s why I stated that, evidently, ADs will be (not “might be”) cutting checks to players.
  19. There are a whole lot of issues with ADs paying players, in accord with the House Settlement. TitleIX has not been put to bed (despite the DOE statement), allocation of AD funds among sports, and among players in sports. Once ADs start paying players, what’s to make them cap their payments at the quoted $20.5M (what happens if they go over? A sternly written letter?) Not many of those issues have been addressed. All indications are that, regardless, ADs plan to start cutting checks this summer, to players. This will be the Wild West.
  20. “Jerry, do the other owners ever share with you what it’s like to have a team in the Super Bowl?”
  21. The Lou Brock- Ernie Broglio trade was pretty damned bad. Brock would be a perennial all star and HoFer. It would be comparable if, in 1994, the Cards traded Broglio for a younger Willie Mays.
  22. Harrison and Dumont are such shitheads. You know Davis is only going to play one game for the Mavs and Luka will drop 20# and win four NBA championships for the Lakers. It will be like Kareem leaving Milwaukee, except that Kareem actually wanted to leave Milwaukee. So idiotic. If they had called into a radio show suggesting such a trade, their call would never be put on, for being so stupid.
  23. In terms of athletic appeal, it is very much a regional school, just like TCU is. Or Tulane. SMU (soon to be CFP participant) played TCU (2022 CFP finalist) on Sept. 21. Viewership was 350K. Nationwide. There were possibly more DFW viewers watching Texas play ULM on the SEC+ app.
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