Jump to content

statsman

Full Members
  • Posts

    3586
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by statsman

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Why? What makes you think KSU, OSU and KU are positioned to be better than CU, ASU and Arizona in future years?
  6. Another strategy is to have more in person human relationships
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Brother, I did that earlier this week
  11. 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.
  12. I think hey understand who butters their bread.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. We will see when the next B12 media contract is signed.
  17. Help me remember- was that the first time the Big XII had a fucked up tie breaker?
  18. 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.
  19. Language misuse. I can’t tell you how many times there has been a story of a horrible massacre or slaughter, and comments on this very site will say, “…and they DECIMATED the village…” No. “Decimate” has a specific meaning- 10% of the populace were killed (word came from a Roman practice). If more than 10% were killed, “decimate” doesn’t work. Jewish populations in Poland were not decimated; it was much worse. Then, there is the use of SAGA to basically mean “epic story”. No, a “saga” is an epic story that has an oral tradition. It’s a narrative, meaning, a narrator is a key component.
  20. There is a greater-than-zero chance that the B12 office hasn’t really considered this.
  21. I will choose to take this as a compliment.
  22. Israel was careful to say they declared war on “Hamas”, rather than “Gaza”. That’s a nice sentiment, but I think it’s a distinction without a difference, in actuality. Hamas is so intertwined in Gazan society; it’s like saying you were declaring war on the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army, rather than Japan. Winning it is still going to pretty much destroy Japan. Israel is fighting a war and doesn’t seem compelled to honor the old status quo. I think Iran is a big part of the impetus for October 7, and they shouldn’t get away with it (but they might). Israel may very well have decided “To hell with two states. We’re getting rid of Hamas, and if it ruins Gaza, spills into the West Bank, well, … we’ll deal with what’s left when Hamas is gone”. In other words, Hamas may have changed the dispute from “one state vs. two state solution” to “throw down and there’ll be no permanent refugee camps set up when it’s over”. Again, and I know you hate me repeating myself, but I will whenever Israel is blamed for the loss of thousands of civilian lives (per Hamas’ count)- I blame the loss of civilian life on Hamas, for starting this. I don’t feel compelled to write my congressman about US support, but I understand if you do.
  23. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reluctance to make decisions over who should run Gaza after Hamas is breeding mounting concern in the military https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-puts-political-survival-ahead-of-tough-decisions-on-gaza-783cb8e6?st=pwjltr0awqjjfz8&reflink=share_mobilewebshare
  24. Is that supposed to be me? The things I post on Ukraine here, on Daily Texan, I also post on ON3. The same things. Over there, I am considered a Ukrainian stooge.
  25. Fine. So, we can agree? We can drop all the (more in sorrow than anger) “genocide” rhetoric, and call this what it is- a war between Israel and Hamas (and Fatah better be taking fucking notes)? And in that war, I’m rooting for a total loss by Hamas, the sooner the better.
×
×
  • Create New...