rugbypike11

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2 years 5 weeks ago Syracuse

I like Syracuse as a prospective member. They're solid academically and an AAU member, but I don't know if their graduate research is up to par with the rest of the CIC. I think the big thing with Syracuse is potential for greater access to the NYC market. If you added something like Notre Dame with their big national following, and maybe a couple regional universities like Syracuse and UConn, you're probably more likely to generate interest from NYC sports fans. I'm not at all convinced that many people in NYC give a crap about Rutgers, but it sounds like they're usually in the conversation.

Assuming that those additions get you NYC, if you can also add Texas to get you Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio markets, and Maryland to get you the DC/Baltimore markets, the Big Ten would have great access to 7 of the top 11 MSA populations.

Unfortunately, I think you'd have trouble getting Maryland and Texas to jump onboard, Notre Dame is like a flaky 35 year old divorced former prom queen with seven kids who still thinks she's hot, and the other options probably aren't as attractive.
2 years 5 weeks ago I'm convinced that we only go with 3 or 5 additions if....

I'm convinced that we only go with 3 or 5 additions if there's too many great fits for us to turn down a school. So for example, if both Notre Dame and Texas wanted to join, you take a third team because you can't say no to one of those two schools.

Same kind of scenario if you have four teams you don't want to reject, say for example, Notre Dame, Texas (+ A&M to get Texas), and Syracuse all wanted to join the Big Ten, then maybe it makes sense to go to five teams. I'm hoping that the Big Ten wouldn't expand simply for the sake of expansion, and that talk of larger expansion is a sign that Big Ten TV revenues and the CIC is generating a lot of interest from some top notch prospective members.
2 years 14 weeks ago We could become a 16 team super conference

The IG in the Big Ten logo already looks suspiciously like a 16. If the Big Ten ends up shocking the world and adding five teams, I expect a History Channel special showing the hidden 16 in the Big Ten logo. Perhaps also a showing of links to Masons, the Big Ten Conference, and new Universities, maybe also the Knights Templar.

2 years 18 weeks ago #10

There was a pretty good QB that wore #10 for Michigan.
2 years 18 weeks ago If we added 3 teams, it's because we can't say no to at least 2

If we added three teams, it's because we can't say no to at least two prospective members.

I think you got one of those in Maryland. Maryland is a top-notch research institution and I would bet that the CIC would enjoy having a member in the DC area. They're a mediocre to bad football team, but otherwise they have very good athletics. They bring a very nice local market in DC/Baltimore, but just an average national following. The problem with Maryland is that their administration would face resistance to leaving the ACC from many fans and alum. We probably can't say no to them, but we probably wouldn't have a chance anyway.

The other school we couldn't turn down, I'd say Texas. Yeah, the geography sucks, but everything else is top notch. Huge local market (entire state of Texas) plus a strong national following, top-notch athletics across the board, top-notch academics, big-time research institute. Like Maryland, they probably wouldn't give us a chance to reject them anyway.
2 years 18 weeks ago iTunes

FYI, the WTKA podcasts are loading to iTunes again!
2 years 19 weeks ago Dews could help with LB's

If we wanted to hire Heater or Corwin to help Gibson coach the secondary, we could move Dews over to defense to help Greg coach the LB's. Dews was a college TE but coached LB's at UNLV.

That would be less viable if MaGee goes to South Fla and takes another offensive guy or two with him, but with Rich Rod focusing almost 100% on offense, I wouldn't mind having an imbalance in the assistant coaching staff towards the defense.
2 years 20 weeks ago Oakley Icon 2.0

I got the Oakley Icon 2.0 backpack on sale for about $50 from steepandcheap.com which is a clearance website for backcountry.com. It's held up to about 2.5 years of lugging my law books and laptop around. The biggest flaw for me, both of the zipper handles for the main compartment broke so I had to borrow parachute ties from another backpack.
2 years 21 weeks ago the 97 defense

They ran a sort of hybrid defense that leaned a little more towards 4-3 than 3-4. The rush linebacker was the weakside OLB, but James Hall was really more of a smallish DE than a a true 3-4 OLB or a Quick like Roh. Sword played inside with Jones, with a heavy mixture of Ian Gold, especially in passing situations. I think Jones played Will, so he was kind of an ILB but really played more like a 4-3 OLB. In '97, Copenhaven started at OLB with Rob Swett spelling him. But I think you're right in that Jones later moved to that Sam OLB position.

That '97 defense was really just loaded with NFL guys.
2 years 22 weeks ago Wasn't even a joke about gay people

It was a cheesy innuendo joke about two guys holding a sign that says giving and receiving. The truth is, I would have no problem holding a sign like that, but I thought the cheesy joke worked better as a joke about my own insecurity rather than, say, accusing the two gentlemen of being gay.
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