statsman

Aah,…Tyrone Swoopes. During the 2014 Texas Bowl, against Arkansas, I watched the LHN broadcast, with VY, Studdard, Robeson watching the game and commenting. In the second half, with it clear that Texas was going to score, wasn’t going to get first downs, or even positive yardage, Studdard glumly looked down and muttered, “Hell, he never won in high school; I don’t know how we expected him to win here”. That may have been Studdard’s last LHN appearance.

How about the 2021 class? Ranked #15, but with several guys to be drafted after three years- Worthy, Sanders, Murphy, Brooks, with others still playing and contributing, with a chance at the NFL in the future.

It is remarkable- a #3 class busting so badly. It’s an indictment not just of Texas’ scouting/recruiting, but also how team class rankings are determined. It was a Herman special- there are five OL on the field, so about 22% of the positions playing. In a class of 26, Texas took four OL, about 15%. (None panned out) Typically, there are 3-5 WRs on the field. Texas took six. The rankings should punish teams for letting their roster get out of whack, but they don’t.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-wants-u-n-agency-it-links-to-oct-7-attack-scrapped-but-not-yet-6c99d331?st=7x5g3lahhak4ysi&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-backed-groups-continue-to-target-american-bases-as-u-s-plans-further-strikes-08917af0?st=tmux7zzk2crfkvp&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink It looks like the weekend response was not motivational or educational enough. I think we should start sinking Iranian naval ships.

Is there a chance Gabrielle wasn’t the saint we think she was? She wouldn’t be Sam’s first femme fatale.

Joel Klatt pointed out in his podcast that the NCAA would be more relevant if they had embraced NIL ten years ago when it first became clear it was coming. I think they avoided it, because the NcAA is fundamentally a democracy, and the large majority of its members are in a different place, with very different viewpoints, than the SEC and B1G schools. FCS and most of FBS would like salary caps and barriers to transfer, basically…a game much more similar to what college football was ten years ago. The SEC and B1G also see the current world as a chaotic place, but they probably have different desires- probably a boilerplate NIL contract that precludes unethical behavior for both parties in an agreement.

They dropped two episodes last night, with the conclusion for next week, I think. I don’t know that they view the character as I do…I remember the last act in “The Maltese Falcon”: Spade is the only unarmed man in the room of thugs, and he uses his wits and his balls to be able to be the only one walking out alive and free. That’s the guy I’m waiting for. I mean, it’s well written; Spade doesn’t believe in coincidences, even when they save his life. When talking to someone that knows something, like the priests, he’ll drop some piece of information they want, casually, to see how they respond. I hope we get a fun and satisfying ending.

I think they do mean something. Ultimately, universities are academic institutions. Presidents will sell out to athletics, because fund raising is a huge part of a president’s job, and athletics brings alums back and lets a president “sell”. Boards have alums serving, and they want to the alma mater win. In this world, academic stature still means something. Fans may want their school to win like Michigan, but faculties and deans want the academic rep of Michigan. Texas can have discussions with Michigan, about common goals and viewpoints, that it can’t have with Clemson. I don’t know how long it will take before public universities regular funding is used to pay NIL, but the schools that care about academic reputation will be the ones working to forestall it.

Fan support- do you base that on attendance? Because those PAC schools do better than you might think. As for recent performance, this is a new world. Those PAC schools will recruit their states (all growing), Cali (because that’s who they’ve always recruited) and Texas. In today’s FWST, there is an interview with TCU’s fired DC. He talks about how tough NIL is, how all the players are asking, how they have agents, how it’s a huge distraction. Point is- TCU was in the NC game two years ago and is not up to the new era. Old tropes don’t apply any more.

Why? What makes you think KSU, OSU and KU are positioned to be better than CU, ASU and Arizona in future years?

Another strategy is to have more in person human relationships

The Russian comments in the WSJ were offered as an example of how certain factions actively try to influence opinion, which matters in a Democratic society. Those comments are generated by people worming for outfits like Internet Reseach Agency, in St. Petersburg, a division of Wagner. When AI comes into play, in a few years, the comments will be more indistinguishable from real people, in our community. They will get past the bot-guards, and they will be in huge numbers. They will be able to drown out real people, unless social media uses some good MFA.

I read the WSJ. Online, many articles have comments sections. The articles on Ukraine and related events are inundated with comments from Russians, feigning to be Americans or westerners, pushing the Putin line. Some are better than others. (I use this as an example, not to pillory the WSJ, but because I’m not on Dacebook yet and that’s my best example). People, to varying degrees, like to conform. They can change their opinion about politics, sports, arts and even mores, if they are convinced their side/tribe is changing its opinion. This has been wired into us by tens of thousands of years of evolution and socialization. In a short time, AI will present as hordes of new posters, programmed to swarm discussions, pushing one view. It will seem realistic, and it will be effective. More than ever, we need to teach and develop critical reasoning, understanding what makes an argument strong, other than “my side believes this” or “most people believe that”. I think it’s worth educating ourselves on logical fallacies, and upping our games.

There are parts of the country that care about college football and parts that don’t. In parts that care, Ohio, for example, students and alums of various schools (Miami, Youngstown, Cincinnati) tend to root for the Buckeyes. Most of Oklahoma roots for the Sooners already. In a few years, OSU students will wear OU t shirts to class (I bet they already do at Tulsa). In short order, UH students will have Longhorn shirts and caps, and in a few more years, TT students will, too.

Brother, I did that earlier this week

Naw. Here is the difference between those schools, and the IR8: Thise schools are in conferences that pay all members twice the amount that the IR8 conference gets. Media money is very important-that’s what pays for operations, staff and facilities. Rutgers, Indiana, Mississippi State- they don’t hurt media payouts. IR8? They do.

I think hey understand who butters their bread.

Iran wants to control traffic through the Suez Canal and Persian Gulf. They are allied with Russia and China. I think the response needs to send the clear message- your ships sail these waters at our pleasure. I think we should sink several of theirs. The irony of deterrence is that calibrated and measured responses don’t deter. Large and extreme responses do deter.

Thoughts: An SEC school’s message board is an odd place to advocate for the Big XII. The last five Big 8 schools, four of the six smallest SWC programs, the last four PAC adds, commuter schools in Ohio and Florida, BYU and WVU are a curious formation of a conference that believes itself to be the third strongest. Thise ex-PAC schools- they absolutely believe they should be in a top conference, and have no institutional ties to the Big XII nor any of its members. The Big XII schools did well in understanding that, with the exit of UT and OU, they need to all drop the Bill Snyder scheduling model.

I don’t think the Big XII conference doings draw the national attention you think they do. They didn’t when Texas and OU were members and they won’t after they’re out.

We will see when the next B12 media contract is signed.

Help me remember- was that the first time the Big XII had a fucked up tie breaker?

I don’t think it was the parameters that made the B12 tie breakers such a mess; they were just not well thought out. I don’t know that you can assume other conferences will be the same.