StateSmells

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Recent Comments

Date	Title	Body
3 weeks 2 days ago	But that's the fundamental problem of all polls	I don't know of anyone who has ever been able to tell me what a poll really is.  Is it: 1. A ranking of the best teams, in your opinion, where #1 should usually beat #2, #2 should usually beat #3, etc. if they were to play tomorrow. 2.  A ranking of what teams have accomplished to date (schedule comes into play) 3..  A prediction of what the final standings/polls will be (schedule comes into play) I think we all want it to be #1, but the long-standing model where we count losses, and if you lose you drop (even if you lose to a team ranked higher than you) blows that up.  So, #2 and #3 are factors and schedule matters.  QED. But really, who cares in April and it just gives us something to blabber about.
3 weeks 2 days ago	Active?	My only issue is that calling him an "active" NBA player may be a bit of a stretch at this point.  As of yesterday, there was a good chance his NBA career was over. Not sure if today's news changes those chances in either direction.
5 weeks 6 days ago	Do you feel guilty being a	Do you feel guilty being a keynote speaker for anything?
6 weeks 5 hours ago	Thanks	I'm really not "race card" guy, and racial issues are not a significant portion of my daily thoughts, but I do get annoyed that white basketball players are only compared to, or remind people of, other white players.  Just like a black QB can only remind you of another black QB.  There are 2 kinds of NFL slot receivers:  white ones to remind us of Wes Welker or Ed McCaffrey, and everyone else. Ok, no more rant, but thanks for reasonably comparing McGary to someone without considering skin color.
6 weeks 5 days ago	Funny	I like how the guy who gives the correct reason gets tagged for trolling
9 weeks 2 days ago	Young	What was the story on James Young - why did he never seem to be a serious possibility or target for either UM or MSU?
12 weeks 1 day ago	Basketball	My biggest complaint with college basketball these days is that I have no idea what is a charge vs. a block.  Commentators don't seem to know either.  If someone drives the lane, makes contact with a defender, we all just look at the ref to see what the call will be this time.  Seems random a lot of the time. I notice this more when I'm watching a non-UM game where I don't have as clear of a rooting interest, and it's frustrating.  And I know the B10 is all about "toughness", but the degree that offensive players can get mugged without a call is annoying.
15 weeks 2 days ago	premium tix	I am just a regular season ticket holder. Any way I can get the occasional premium ticket through this? Or is there any other way?
16 weeks 2 hours ago	ND	I can't think of any either, so this shouldn't be an issue now. Most importantly, to hell with Notre Dame.
16 weeks 4 hours ago	9 game schedule	The knock to the 9 game schedule is the competitive imbalance:  Some teams get 4 conference home games, some get 5.  Couldn't the scheduling be set up so that all teams in the same division have the same number of conference home games?  The entire "leaders" division gets 5 home games one year, the "Legends" division gets 5 the next.  That way there is at least an equal competitive home-away basis for getting to the B1G Championship Game.
16 weeks 7 hours ago	83 - 80	Michigan 83 IU 80
16 weeks 1 day ago	No Way	The 16 seeds have 1, 3, 5 and 6 percent chance of beating their respective 1 seeds.  If that was at all realistic and roughly representative of probabilities for past years, we should have seen a 16 beat a 1 by now.
16 weeks 2 days ago	Excellent	Thanks for doing this, it is great!  Please update after NSD, if you find the time.
16 weeks 6 days ago	Doesn't matter??	I don't think this matters too much at all, and is just a silly shell game of moving the dollars around, from the perspective of the school.  OSU (and UM) attendance is dominated by season ticket holders.  As a season ticket holder, I look at how much TOTAL I pay for the season ticket, and decide for myself if it is worth it to pay that much.  The "face value" written on the ticket is not what I paid for it:  I get a discount to that price, but then pay my PSD on top of it.  The Face Value only serves me one purpose - as a starting point if I want to try and sell it to someone else.  I assume OSU season ticket holders are similar. If you buy individual game tickets to the premium games from the ticket office, this could affect you, but how many people are able to do that?  You at least have to buy one of the mini-pack things, and you can then look at it the same way as a season ticket holder, looking at the total cost. If you are NOT buying tickets from the ticket offices, you are just subject to the secondary market demand.  And I don't think this changes that at all. This WILL be a big impact to UM fans that buy the away tickets through the ticket office.  Currently, for big games, those face value tickets are relatively cheap compared to the secondary market - but you get crappy seats in the visitor section.  With this change it might be worh it to pay full secondary market prices and get a better seat.
17 weeks 20 hours ago	Hopslam is correct.	Hopslam is correct.
17 weeks 2 days ago	USC	Has anyone ever had a top-end recruiting class as good as USCs according to Rivals?  They've got: 6 five stars 3 top ten 11 Rivals 100 All of those have to be a record or something.
17 weeks 6 days ago	Yup	I said that last night, that this was compensating for something else big - like that he's gay.  In this era of wild, unsubstantiated (and irresponsible) speculation that's what I'm putting my money on.
21 weeks 5 days ago	Rivalries	This is a bit old now, but CNNSi.com did a whole article on this very thing. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/specials/fansurvey/2009/big10.html
23 weeks 2 hours ago	Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics??	Did I read that correctly?  Has Dave Brandon sold HIIMSELF?  I guess we can't complain if he sells anything else.
24 weeks 5 days ago	We should be able to relate	UGA fans think of GT as their annoying little brother who has fans that come out of the woodwork once per decade or so when they do something good (sound familiar?) The difference is that GT is a better school.  UGA fans are generally annoyed by those "GT nerds". Oh, and GT is in downtown Atlanta, so not a bad place to be.
24 weeks 5 days ago	Yup.	Exactly.  I think this is a great deal for the athletes out there, especially those that married other athletes (I know of a few of those).  But, I don't think their windfall will have any real meaningful negative effect on the rest of us, alumni or otherwise.
24 weeks 6 days ago	Alums/Athletes	Anyone have any idea how likely people that are currently above the median points (20-ish or so) are NOT alums?  The athletes get a big bump, but I'm not sure there are enough of them to really change much.  And, my thought is that most people above 20 points or so are alums anyways - so may not have much of an effect.
25 weeks 7 hours ago	Michigan 89-62	Michigan 89 Bradley 62
26 weeks 2 days ago	Not every 6 years...	Assuming we are in a home-and-home scheduling sort of thing, we'll play PSU/Wisc/MD/Rutgers, etc. 2 consecutive years out of every TWELVE.  Then again, trips to Happy Valley and East Rutherford only once per decade?  Ok, maybe not so bad.
27 weeks 1 day ago	#75 Jake Konopka	He's the right tackle.  I like watching Ross make him do the Neo Bullet Dodging dance.
46 weeks 4 days ago	Statues	Just a minor point in the overall scheme of this scandal, but can we all remember that you should never build a statue of a living person? What do they do with this thing now?
46 weeks 6 days ago	I always thought the most	I always thought the most confusing part is that the BCS is not for the FCS, but the FBS. With the end of the BCS, maybe that point doesn't matter
47 weeks 6 days ago	And now he's hyping	And now he's hyping Rosenberg...
48 weeks 6 days ago	Paid visits?	Seems like there's already a process in place exactly for this - official visits.  Of course that doesn't help when mom and dad want to come, too.  Nor does it address the acceleration of all aspects of recruiting, where so many kids are committing before they are even eligible to take those official visits. And, of course every situation is different, and this may be an inappropriate sweeping generalization, but aren't you asking for problems with getting a kid from a thousand miles away when he doesn't have the means to travel back home or have his parents come and visit or see him play once in a while?  Seems like it forces the kid into a potentially lonely on-campus existence that could result in a messy transfer to a closer-to-home school later.
50 weeks 1 day ago	Cards	I fairly distinctly remember buying them from the concession stand at Crisler.  Even then (as a HS student) I thought it was odd that I was buying something with current players names/faces on it.  I understood why I couldn't buy a "Wheatley" #6 jersey at the time, and thought it was strange that I could get a Chris Webber basketball card.

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