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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. SL Xpress

    MUKUBA

    The 4th and 13 touchdown pass seemed like a big deal at the time as well.
  2. The reason Carter turned the Panama Canal over to Panama is because his administration came in with the mindset that the US policy was way too pragmatic and not focused enough on humanitarian issues. We were supporting too many bad guys (e.g. the Shah) and needed to be more of a good guy ourselves. Handing the Panama Canal to the Panamanians felt like the right thing to do.
  3. The only thing making Oregon elite really is Phil Knight pouring in a massive amount of his wealth into the athletic department in general and the football program specifically. They don't have the talent instate or even regionally to compete on a national basis, even if they secured every one of the best players in the Oregon/Washington/Idaho/Montana region. There's not enough money in the state, or the alumni base. The student body is not massive, and neither is the alum base. The area is geographically gorgeous. There's all kinds of mountains and streams. Outdoor activities galore. There's snow skiing. The beaches are spectacular, even if the water is too cold to recreationally swim in. Hiking opportunities. Coming from Houston, the demographics are stupefyingly white. Especially in Eugene and the rest of rural Oregon. The town itself is nice. The metro population is about 200k. It's very much a college town. It doesn't compare to Austin or any college town next to a sizable city, but it's also not a tiny burg. It's a similar population size to Lubbock, without feeling like it's out in the middle of nowhere. Knight has thrown so much money into the athletic department, it's unbelievable. The Hayward Field has to be the nicest track and field facility in the world. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's right in the middle of campus. The Matthew Knight Arena is a nice multipurpose sports facility for the basketball and volleyball teams. It's also right on campus. The football, baseball, softball, soccer/lacrosse facilities are all bunched together on the other side of the campus, about a 10 minute walk through a beautiful park area and over the picturesque Williamette River. Their big problem is how do they increase their revenue? The stadium only holds 54,000, and they can't increase it a great deal without carrying empty seats for a lot of games and giving up tons of seats to visiting fans for the big name opponents. They have a real dearth of luxury seating, both in the football stadium and in the basketball arena - which has none. They're very much limited by the economics of the region, the alumni base, and the populations they're working with. One thing they do have is culture. Athletes there are treated like royalty. I'd say it's a bigger deal to be an athlete at Oregon than it is at Texas. Whatever the sport. I don't know if their facilities overall equal Texas, but they come close in many sports. And there's no question who has priority on campus. They've torn down the science center this past year to build a brand new 170,000 sq ft football only facility, which should be completed in the next couple of years. The cost has not been revealed, but everyone knows who is paying for it. They also have a problem keeping their coaches. Rich Brooks left for the NFL after a 17 year career. Mike Belotti retired and became the athletic director after 13 years, so he didn't go anywhere. But Chip Kelly left for the pros after 4 years, Mark Helfrich was fired after 4 years, Willie Taggart left for FSU after 1 year, and Cristobal left for Miami after 5 years. It's so challenging finding the right guy to be the head coach, which makes it paramount to be able to keep them when you do. Dan Lanning already refused to listen to Alabama's overtures, so maybe he's there for the long haul. Dunno. I also don't know what happens to them when Phil Knight passes away. He's leaving a large largesse to the athletic department - at least, that's what he's told them - but suddenly it's a relatively fixed number being provided each year rather than Phil Knight being able to dip as deep as he wants to go into his vast fortune, and that will change things. Also, they're getting 1/2 the television funds of other Big 10 members, but that changes with the next contract in 8 years, or however long it is.
  4. It's a court settlement that hasn't even been approved yet. With more lawsuits in the works. State legislated NIL rules don't supercede federal law or federal court settlements, but in their absence they do. And there's a lot of absence. What they do do is supercede NCAA regulations. At least until a lawsuit is filed and it's deemed otherwise. The only legislative body that can create any real stability is the US congress. So far there's been no appetite in the current political climate for congress and the president to wade into college athletics. Maybe that changes, although it's difficult to see how. Until then we'll veer wildly from one court case to another, with no real enforcement mechanism other than bringing another lawsuit. There have been some enforcement mechanisms proposed with the upcoming settlement approval, but I haven't seen anything to make me think they'll be at all effective. If you don't have effective enforcement, you don't really have a rule.
  5. He's told the athletic department he's leaving $6 billion.
  6. NSIAP, but this youtube video from the guys at PFF college football has a very interesting analysis on the change in Ohio State success from Michigan to the Tennessee/Oregon games. A chief attribute was going from primarily a Chip Kelly inside zone team with an offensive line that wasn't capable of successfully executing it to a counter team. According to these guys OSU ran 50% of their running plays as counters, when the teams during the regular season that ran counter the most topped out about 35%. It also allowed success in the passing game building off of different looks in the counter attack to go play action. It's a bit Ohio State heavy, but not overly so. I enjoyed the analysis:
  7. There are several national championships I find questionable. There are a few I find highly questionable. BYU's national championship being towards the top of the list. They still count. The President, Congress, the Supreme Court, the United Nations, the alien race from the nearest settled star could all come together to poo poo Texas winning a national championship this year as not being all that impressive and I will give no fucks whatsoever. There's no asterisk for this shit. Why anyone would waste a second thinking about it is beyond me. Now, retrospective national championships granted by obscure publications reading through box scores can fuck right off. Those are the ridiculous ones.
  8. Phrasing.
  9. Georgia could have really used Vince Young on that 4th and 5 there.
  10. Kinda. People have different coping mechanisms. I can respect that. I was traumatized yesterday, too. Especially since our history is full of such clutch field goals. I'm not actually used to the opposite, and we got a double dose, along with a heartfelt successful icing from our head coach.
  11. I have a certain amount of respect for an insufferable fan base. I like to think we're one.
  12. Penn State was offered the spot first. Joe Paterno refused. It was only then they reached out to Notre Dame. All of Joe's whining over the years how the POTUS decided the national championship, and Royal's only reply was, "I never understood why he didn't choose to decide it on the field."
  13. I have no problem with allowing them into the playoffs. But pretending like Arizona State and Boise State had a resume that validated a #3 and #4 seed requires an incredible suspension of disbelief. It's the DEI of college football. I also didn't really have an issue with SMU being allowed in over other teams. The committee was trying not to penalize teams for results in conference championship games, and I can respect that. It's a bummer to be punished for what should be incentivized. It makes no sense to create a system where teams would be better off not making it to the championship game. The biggest issue was Ohio State losing to Michigan. If that doesn't happen we don't have Ohio State as an absurd #8 seed when they're clearly the most talented team in college football this year, with a payroll to match it. The other thing was Texas losing to Georgia. We had our opportunities, but we fucked up. The combination resulted in this crappy bracket. But watching this game and the Penn State/Boise State matchup reminds me of my thoughts when I first saw it come out.
  14. "So coach, what do you think it will take for Texas to win the national championship this year?" "Well, first Notre Dame has to lose."
  15. A couple of people were commenting on how come we don't have a quarterback who can hit a receiver in stride the way Stockton did once. Then people commented on how come we don't have a field goal kicker who can make field goals the way Georgia and Notre Dame can. Meanwhile I'm watching this abortion of a football game thinking why in the world would we want to emulate either of these two teams? The way the bracket lined up with Texas, Ohio State and Oregon all on one side of the bracket was absurd. Especially with Beck out. They have these dumb rules in place to throw a bone to the practically irrelevant Big 12 and ACC, plus a guaranteed Group of 5 entry, so I guess it is what it is. But at least one of those 3 teams should have been on the other side. I feel like Oregon got especially screwed as the #1 overall seed, being given the "opportunity" to face Ohio State in their opening round game. In any case, I'm not impressed at all with either of these two teams. I don't know what to think about Penn State. I spent the whole game watching them against Boise State wondering why they didn't just run the fucking ball. I feel like Franklin is simply waiting for a quality opponent to completely fold his tent like he always does. Watching this game, though, it makes me think that won't be until the national championship.
  16. I wish we had this Georgia quarterback who hits his receivers in stride.
  17. He thought he was in overtime.
  18. I've never seen a head coach have his field goal kickers be more clutch at the end of games than Mack Brown. Not a big fan of his, but he had some magical super power shit going on in regards to that specific aspect. Sarkisian appears to be channeling more Bobby Bowden right now.
  19. It's weird to think of Notre Dame as the plucky underdogs, so I refuse to do so. But they really haven't had a clear talent advantage in big time postseason games since the 1980s.
  20. You're such a nuggetable nelly.
  21. You keep making comments like this. Are you watching this game thinking you wish we looked more like Notre Dame or Georgia here?
  22. Leavitt would have torn Georgia a new asshole with the way they defend quarterbacks who can run.
  23. There is the James Franklin quotient to consider.
  24. I hate both of these teams. I guess it's too soon to hope for someone to drive a truck into the Superdome and run both teams over. Also, a hope for a meteor is probably a more politically sensible choice. And the winner plays Pedo State. There's not much for me to root for in these playoffs outside of Texas.
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