Magus Ossis

If the media companies involved are creative and insightful enough to discern what arrangement likely makes them the most reliable money over the reasonably foreseeable future, they are likely to collude to get their greatest possible share of the biggest possible pie. It seems the overall marketable TV value of CFB would be greater with OU and Texas in the SEC. If so, Adam Smith's invisible hand will push Fox, ESPN, and whomever toward working something out which lets us play '24 in the SEC. Big Sports Media Inc has all manner of levers it can pull to influence conferences like B12, but they ultimately converge on the Benjamins. If the best calculations do not clearly show that the overall value of the sport as broadcast entertainment is maximized by our move, our odds are dramatically lower-- we would be pushing a rope instead of helping pull the winning side in a tug-of-war.

You’re talking about people who let their kid go to aggy to play for Jimbo. Tell me again about how you expect them to be reasoning this through.

The sequence in which Ford is tackled by the blocker and called himself for holding and then Strong gets jobbed was truly amazing in a bad way. I understand mistakes and trouble seeing bang-bang plays, but that was outright crookedness. Some of the plays in the video are arguable, but some, especially that double, are pure fraud.

The first thing I thought when I read that algorithm was that it credits our OL with 75% of the yards between when Bijan faces contact in the backfield and when is tackled 6 yards downfield. Probably reasonable in the aggregate across FB but not necessarily representative of contributions on our team this year.

FIFY

The "spirit of the law" is now that anything goes. We need to be careful to obey the "letter of the law" and not anything whatsoever more restrictive. We are archaic suckers if we sit back and wait to see what other schools do in boundary-pushing.

Fair question, and I won't be shocked if we choke. That said, We have been protecting Ewers fairly well since his return, and we have won every game he was able to finish. We bumbled our way to a tie game in regulation against Tech, and I don't think that eeking out a close win over OSU is beyond the realm of possibility or even likelihood. My point in the post quoted was not that I expect us to win, however. It was that there is room to debate whether we have enough information to classify Sark as a definitive failure as a HC at Texas.

If he decided to go full FUPM, I suppose he could start "working from home" in another state. I know a PI lawyer who, as far as I know, has good enough help that he hasn't been in-state for about 2 years. He could argue that being present didn't really end up making a difference against App State and that many of his most important mistakes have always been on the road anyway.

Well, we played them 4 times ever before joining the B12, hence the verbiage "wrt Texas." We were both big programs, but not ones that frequently played each other. Sorry if my meaning was unclear.

Nebraska first really became a prominent program wrt Texas while Neon Deion was playing for the Cowboys back in the mid 90s. I can't imagine many people then would have projected him as the future Huskers coach. Here's hoping he and the bugeaters are happy together and that we never have to listen to their crying again.

More at-bats in the second half of the season.

Yeah, I'm torn between PTSD and loyalty. Kansas may not be that good, but they feel like a trap in that late-season away slot. Ewers is 3-1 as a starter, 3-0 in games where he isn't knocked out of action, and he's been well-protected lately. As much as I want to say 5-0 (and realizing our floor is certainly 0 wins, regardless of what we wish), I'm going to say 4-1.

Yeah, he looked on TV like he was posturing. That guy needs to retire, protect his head, and line up his care plan for CTE.

Great. So ISU fans are welcome to complain that b12 refs are inconsistent. Texas fans will ride that one with you. Don’t pretend there isn’t a huge contingent arguing the wrong way on this call and badmouthing Texas, though. No one respects a sore loser.

This is just money talking. Fox has a contract with the b12 and won’t give up its contractually guaranteed property (broadcast rights for certain UT and OU games) without enough compensation to make it whole. We (foolishly) granted rights through ‘25 to b12. Fox would be stupid to give away rights to our games or to sell/trade them for less than they can get. Maybe Disney and Fox work something out whereby everybody is happy and we leave early. We can hope, but don’t hold your breath, and don’t blame Fox for bargaining with b12 or b12 for accepting our GOR. We granted our own rights to prop up a doomed league.

Sarkisian's road record is trash, here and previously. Our program has been relative trash for a long time. This is apparently the first version of sober HC Steve. This is the first version of post-Saban-tutelage HC Steve. There is more than one logical but non-definitive way to assess our evidence of his promise as a HC. I reject the "exclude title-winning HC" metric. We are not shooting for decent; we are shooting for awesome. The big question is whether sobering up, learning under Saban, and getting his rebuilding year-1 behind him makes Steve a bit of an unknown. If one's inclination is to answer that question "yes," then we are headed for undiscovered country. If "no," then he has shown us what he is, a loser on the road, 7-win Steve. Out of the infuriating collapse that was the Tech second half, however, I witnessed a team that had fight and promise in a road game, IMO. The last-minute drive was the performance of winners. A lot of fail went into setting it up, and the fumble brought it to an end, but it was not the attack of an unprepared or demoralized team. If we end this year at 5-7 after another losing streak, it will be hard to blame it on external factors. OTOH, if we play for or especially win a conference title this year, I will lean strongly toward the opinion that 7-win Steve has sobered and matured into a legitimate winner.

I was there in '08 when Gideon dropped that pick. For just a moment, that stadium was crushed. I would have never guessed that he'd be the only guy (or close to it if I'm being fact-checked) in the stadium that day still associated with the Texas D in 2022. Death by a thousand cuts is slow and painful, but it lacks the inevitability of beheading. There is always a chance that something happens before your executioner gets to 1000. I think the lack of talent and proficiency at edge and DB force us to choose. As stated above, zone and blown can be but are not necessarily also soft coverages. This. Jimmies and Joes. Today's offenses, even pedestrian ones, are frequently going to threaten weak points. Not many teams have no weak points on D-- it would be nice to join the not many. Those passing % and conversion numbers are flat-out putrid. We need recruiting/portaling and development. While we still have an unacceptable deficit in personnel, I would rather hold my nose, shout at my TV, and stink at those than at points allowed (which is second-rate, granted, but not bad enough to ruin a season by itself). I honestly don't know whether it is just a "grass is greener" situation or whether we are foolish for keeping PK for now.

Very high uncertainty to me on this game. Two able offenses against defenses with conspicuous points of vulnerability. I have to believe, though. TEXAS 45 POKES 42 25 for 300

Super glad and relieved we won. Ugly and sloppy. Outsmarted ourselves not running RoJo left more late. They had no answer for that. Thompson needed more help out there on the right side. Cain, aaaggh! Passing game very hot and cold. Not sure exactly what that’s about except hopefully the rust on chemistry between Ewers and receivers we thought we’d see last week. Our feet are pretty much full of bullet holes. Here’s hoping next week is prettier. Hook’em!

Can't think of many better ways to spend that NIL $.

Who could have foreseen that signing away future rights to preserve a shit conference was ill-advised?

Unfortunate and unexpected things happen in games. An almost-amazing but dangerous pass can turn into an INT. Sometimes two or more bad things happen in close succession, and a game that should have been a rout (aggy at Bama, eg) is close or even goes the wrong way. That said, This is a game in which an obviously talented QB is leading a talented offense under apparently great offensive coaching. They are doing it in front of a large crowd hungry for an excuse to cheer seriously, on a team that seems from the outside to have gelled around the mentality that they should, can, and will atone for the second halves of 2021. They are facing an anemic offensive opponent, and our defense, while not universally spectacular, is competent. I think ISU will get a few points, but I also think that their scoring will be very limited. Ewers, while in the game, has us averaging well over 4 points per possession, better than #1 offense tOSU. We have been doing well without the ball bouncing our way (fumbles, etc), so these are not particularly "lucky" numbers. For those worried about our ability to win by double digits, you would have to believe that our offense at home with Ewers' going into what will hopefully be his second-ever full conference game, with Billingsley added, against ISU, will not be able to approach what it has averaged against the likes of OU and Bama. Or that ISU will reel off points against us that eluded them in all their matchups so far. Flukes happen, but predicting them seems a bit pessimistic, even for those of us old enough to remember some bad times. I expect us to crush that spread. And, btw, may KU score every time they touch the ball tomorrow!