WTKA Roundtable 5/19/2022: Superfreak
Things discussed:
- Nick Saban is mad that the kettle can be black too.
- Seth: This is what the party people in Russia sounded like when communism fell. When you're the beneficiary of a corrupt system, anything that rocks the boat is bad.
- Brian: Bama will be fine; Saban always gripes then adapts. He complained that the spread offense was going to cause injuries, then he went and got a spread offense.
- Hope for a 1950s Pac-style circular firing squad? Maybe it will change how the NCAA regulates itself.
- Big Ten realignment/championship game? Seth makes his case for the Showcase system.
- Moussa Diabate's athletic testing: yeah he gone. Houstan? We're starting to assume he's gone because nobody from Michigan seems to understand what's going on while he's getting mocked to Okie City.
- Transfer portal shopping? We think a push for Pete Nance is the first move (Illinois leading but is Michigan's hat in there?). Other options.
- Pistons at 5: Murray or Ivey?
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment two is available here. And you can watch the video here:
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Locking up grandma in the basement will do that.
Seth is right. Saban sounds like any business leader or politician in the USA when someone tries to put in a little socialism. When you're the beneficiary of a corrupt system, anything that rocks the boat is bad.
Publicly blame your opponent for the very thing you are doing?
American politics 101.
C.f. systemic bias, systemic racism and playing on the lowest difficulty setting.
Pistons at the 5 .... am i the only one who would be upset with Murray? I just don't see him exceling in the NBA. I just think he is too slow all around and not athletic. He will be an easy cover in the NBA IMO.
Ivey has more flaws and probably a lower floor. But man his upside is unreal. Id rather roll the dice on him.
I like Ivey more too, FWIW. He should be a functional defender at worst and a dangerous offensive player off the bounce. And I liked that he didn't shy away from taking big shots for Purdue at the end of the year even if he missed the last one against St. Pete's. Also, I think that the Pistons should just stockpile the best players that they can right now. They can trade them later if they don't turn out to fit together perfectly.
Seth: curious for some more details regarding your proposal. What do you make of the following:
Say it's the end of the season, and team A is the best in the west, B the best in the east. In terms of conference record, A's is better than B's by a game. They've played each other, B won the head to head. Because they've played, they don't both go to the showcase. So who goes in this scenario?
Craig: The Big Ten isn't really a conference. Yep.
Seth: Showcase system is really cool and never going to be adopted.
Brian: Scottish system is cool-ish? And never going to be adopted.
The player the Athletic was referencing is Nico Iamaleava. Tennessee just gave him a $8M NIL deal
Seth,
Please don't back off on your original proposal. It's is by far the best. No divisions, one protected rivalry.
Showcase weekend where teams cannot repeat opponents. Put showcase weekend in 3 of indy, Chi, det, Minnesota, NYC, DC, Pittsburgh, stl, Green Bay, cleveland. Stagger times . 7 games in 2 days between Fri and sat..
Logistics are easy bc the league books the teams hotel rooms and the teams know when they travel, just not where..
Brian and Seth's options are both better than we have now. There's also a couple things that can be incorporated in those in football.
1) Adjust divisions every couple of years base on winning pct creating parity. You cannot run a round robin in the "Big 14" in football or...
2) Create schedules "out of conference" games based on prior year teams W-L percentage. and still have a championship game for football.
The only downside is we're not guaranteed a UM-OSU game every year, but if it doesn't happen we probably don't want one anyway.
What I don't get is the rhetoric that you have to beat Ohio State twice if there is a rematch...NO YOU DON'T. you only have to win the last one that counts for the Championship on a neutral field.
You know, I really enjoy listening to these, but I wish we could avoid having every discussion of NIL turn into 10-minute long laugh-fests about how the people who are complaining are themselves guilty. It may be true that Saban cheats, and it may not -- but it's irrelevant to the point he was making. Are Jumbo Fisher and Deion Sanders cheating by paying players? Seems like you guys say they're not -- but then why are they denying it so vociferously?
Also, fine, yes, the NCAA has failed, repeatedly, in its oversight obligations. We know that. So ... what should be happening? Is your position really, simply, "just let every school pay anyone they want, above the table, however they want?" That's fine -- but then just say that (and recognize it means there are going to be Michigan players leaving after a year if they get better offers from other places). Or are you saying there should be multi-year contracts? How can you force a kid to stay at a university he doesn't want to go to?
In any event, laughing for 10 minutes about what a hypocrite Nick Saban is is wasted time. Yes. We get it. Now, about the gist of what he's saying: Is this a problem, or not? And if not ... why are other coaches so damned offended by it?
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