M1EK's Bake-Sale of Bile

Sports post; political/transportation readers feel free to skip.

Once again, all over the stupider parts of the PSU sports internet, apologists are claiming that the Big Ten schedule is still stronger than what we'd have ended up with had we stayed the course with our old eastern independent pals plus intersectional games, or that Pitt is equivalent to Temple and should thus not warrant a 1-1 long-term deal, or whatnot. A particularly odious thread at BWI included an attempt to talk about the old schedules as "playing Temple and Syracuse every year". This is a really useful way to look at it, as it turns out! Thanks, homer!

Below, you find a table (old school HTML is all I know) comparing the current Sagarin rankings (using his combined rating of the brain-dead BCS formula and the far better predictor) for the teams contained within our 1982 MNC schedule (regarded as quite strong in retrospect), our 1986 MNC schedule (regarded as quite weak at the time and in retrospect), and our current year schedule. Sorted by Sagarin rank, so you can see strength against strength.

What this shows you, in a way, is what this year would have looked like if, instead of being in the Big Ten, we had played the same teams we did in 1982 and 1986.

Continue reading "Football: Myth destruction" »

Posted by m1ek at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

So my alma mater has scheduled the worst team in 1-AA for a game in 2011. This sucks. But it can be improved. Allow me to share with you the second verse of The Nittany Lion fight song; no, not the idiotic Big Ten one awkwardly added in 1993; the classic one; the one I sung marching to the stadium in uniform every week; the one I sing to my kids today; the one that none of the megahomers at Black Shoe Diaries likely even know.

Follow the links on each line. We clearly can turn some past disgraces on their end, if our primary goal is to schedule pansies. We can also re-establish some classic rivalries with the traditional powers that used to rule football with us back when Paterno was young. Get to it, Tim Curley!

There’s Pittsburgh with its Panther,

and Penn her Red and Blue,

Dartmouth with its Indian (woowoowoowoowoo),

and Yale her Bulldog, too (ruff, ruff).

There’s Princeton with its Tiger (grrrr),

and Cornell with its Bear (BEAR NOISE).

But speaking now of victory,

We’ll get the Lion’s share.

We may need to change the last two lines to something more suitable; like "But speaking now of filling our 110,000 seat stadium without playing road games; We'll get the Curley's Share". Also, we may want to skip Pittsburgh; they may actually win once in a while. But we can work on those details later.

As I told Mr. RUTS, THIS IDEA FREE FOR STEALING. Pay special attention to Yale and Princeton. Those jerks.

Posted by m1ek at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

from Florida and am swamped - expect no new activity for a while longer. In the meantime, enjoy this picture (which I was afraid my prone-to-exaggeration memory had misrememberated).

Posted by m1ek at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear Kool-Aid drinkers: I, and two others you still tolerate, told you that it was pretty obvious they had picked Clark very early in the preseason and never intended to give Devlin serious snaps. This makes you guys, what, 0-245 by now? And what's the downside, anyways?

Here it is. And the "I told you so" part: You can't expect a top quarterback to stay for another year riding the bench where he wasn't given a serious chance to compete for the starting job last time, and got only ludicrously tiny amounts of mop-up duty. And, what's more important, you can't trust a coaching staff with a 100% solid record of always picking the upperclassman(*) to actually make it a fair competition no matter what they claim they did or are going to do.

Now we get to play next year with no real backup and no real starter on the horizon. Good job, guys.

(* - yeah, they'll make a senior the backup if he's a walk-on or a recruit who would never have started even in the lower conferences. Otherwise, no - the record is incredibly clear).

Posted by m1ek at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

These guys LOST TO OLE MISS. AT HOME.

No, Ole Miss isn't magically superpowered because they happen to be in the SEC. Here's where Florida stacks up against Penn State so far this year:

Looks pretty good so far, right? Not so fast. The next entries for Florida:

Huh. One thing sure seems to jump out at you, doesn't it? But surely this doesn't show anything, right? Penn State hasn't played anybody that good at home, right? Let's expand that section of the table:

Well, I'm sure we'll figure out some new reason why Florida deserves it more. Keep on trucking, internet warriors!

Posted by m1ek at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Penn State isn't Ohio State. Or Michigan, for that matter.

Colors in honor of current #1 and #2. Take that, Aggees!

Bowl record over last 20 years versus SEC: 5-2

Bowl record over last 20 years versus Big XII: 3-0

(* - starting running back and wide receiver suspended for idiotic reasons).

Posted by m1ek at 06:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

From Black Heart Gold Pants:

How Joe Paterno met Fergie, parts 1, 2, and 3.

Posted by m1ek at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(AD of Penn State)

I bleed blue and white, but I will never have any interest in seeing games against FIU, Buffalo, Temple, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Illinois, and their ilk. Of course, if that wasn't enough, you scheduled a 1-AA team to fill out the slate (Coastal Carolina). Even if I wanted to watch those games, I live in Texas, and I will never have the Big Ten Network, nor will most of the country, where a heck of a lot of your alumni live.

If I don't watch games, I get less enthusiastic about buying PSU stuff.

If I don't watch games, I get less enthusiastic about donating money. It would be hard for me to get less enthusiastic about donating money, but you at least remove the possibility of a head-injury-induced bout of giving later in life.

Sooner or later, when nobody watches these games, ESPN stops putting the bigger games on TV too. Then, even more people buy even less PSU stuff and donate even less money.

This year, and possibly in earlier years, playing games like these, against teams we knew would suck, did nothing to prepare us for the games against teams we thought wouldn't suck. And as a result, we got pantsed. TWICE! Plus, the one out-of-conference game which we thought was against a team which didn't suck ended up being a laugher too. Which argues that scheduling only one game against a team that might not suck is probably not going to help us either, not that you're committing to even _that_ going forward, since our 'marquee' opponent in the next couple years is Syracuse. Yes, Syracuse. And by the next couple of years going forward, I don't mean next year, in which we have three of those cupcakes listed above plus a TBA slot to fill with Temple's name on it. Syracuse is our big opponent to look forward to in 2009 and 2010. Yay!

You often claim that economics dictates these decisions. It's my considered economic opinion that you are quite possibly the dumbest motherfucker in the history of college sports, if you don't think that there will be a negative long-term economic impact to scheduling these kinds of games.

I would much rather watch PSU play a one-and-done away game somewhere like Florida than ever see this type of schedule again. If Joe Paterno is really calling the shots and forcing you to schedule this sort of stuff against your will, as is sometimes alleged, then you owe it to the world to resign immediately. Continuing to assist in the perpetuation of this kind of scheduling is just plain evil.

Your pal,
M1EK

Posted by m1ek at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I hope the game ends up like this:

(image from Autumn Thunder, ironically, a Michigan blog, created in their AppyState aftermath).

If it doesn't, expect me to be even more bilious for the next year. Oh, yes, it's possible.

Posted by m1ek at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are 119 schools in Division 1-A. ESPN has ranked them (well, they've only done the bottom 19 so far). Among the 4 non-conference opponents for my school this year? #117, #118, and #119.

THIS IS NOT HOW YOU WON THE TITLE IN 1982 AND 1986, DAMMIT.

I didn't think this could be any worse than last year. I was rong.

Thanks to RUTS for the find. FUH GUH BUH.

Posted by m1ek at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Centre Daily Times in relation to the fight the homers are trying to pretend didn't mean anything

Sloane said prosecutors had no evidence that King's entry into the West College Avenue apartment was malicious and no evidence that he hurt anyone or damaged anything.

"As a matter of fact, we have evidence to the contrary," Sloane said.

He said King was seen trying to pull people out of the apartment. After the melee ended, Sloane said, King stayed at the scene and tried to apologize to the apartment residents.

A lot of homer idiots keep bringing up the Rashard Casey affair to prove that we shouldn't expect Paterno or the administration to impose any sports-related sanctions on the posse that broke in and beat down. After all, they say, Casey was proven innocent of criminal charges. I draw a very different conclusion here: Casey stood by while his friend beat an off-duty cop into the hospital. He did nothing to stop him; he didn't leave; he just didn't throw any of the punches.

Justin King did what he was supposed to do. This is what Rashard Casey didn't do when his friend beat the living daylights out of an off-duty cop. Promote this kid to captain, pronto.

Posted by m1ek at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My idiotic fellow alumni are spewing trash like this all over message boards in response to these indictments claiming that it's all being blown out of proportion because they're football players.

Bullshit.

When I was in college, some guy had sucker-punched me and I had gone after him right away, and the cops caught us fighting, all concerned would indeed have probably just gotten a slap on the wrist.

If, on the other hand, I assembled a posse of a bunch of my friends quite a bit later, went to the guy's dorm room, broke in, and we all started beating people up, many of whom may not even have been involved in the earlier altercation, I'd expect to get thrown out of school for at least a year.

And that's what should happen here. Period. Even if we weren't Penn State, but especially because We Are. Or maybe Just Were.

Posted by m1ek at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My alma mater is playing a 1-AA team this weekend. I'll be rooting against them. There's never ever ever any excuse for a major 1-A program to schedule 1-AA. A road game (with no return) at Pitt would be better than this. In fact, pick any 1-A team in a part of the country we haven't been to in a while, and schedule a visit. The money's not worth the stain on our record, you retards. And this stuff about needing seven home games to support the other programs is a sham. We'd make more money in the long-run due to the recruiting benefit of playing an away game in one of the parts of the country we don't visit very often. And some year down the road, some other 1-A school would return the favor.

Or, the NCAA could grow a pair and just outlaw 1-A vs. 1-AA games. What's the point of having divisions, otherwise? Should the Astros get to play a real (non-exhibition) game against the Round Rock Express, too?

Simply, absolutely, pathetic.

Posted by m1ek at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My school's football game isn't going to be on TV. Not even at the sports bar we'd have to drive all the way out to Lakeway for, although we wouldn't have, for such a crappy opponent.

This is the first time in many years that you haven't been able to see a Penn State game, at least on pay-per-view. Sign that the end is nigh? Methinks so.

Posted by m1ek at 02:47 PM | Permalink

So Mark Hasty wants people to Lay Off Ricky and he makes a lot of very good points. I'm a Dolphins fan if I'm anything (and I'm barely that), and I think the right way to look at it is this:

If you're a professional, the implied contract between you and your employer (and in Texas, especially, it's just implied) is that you'll each give each other a minimum of two weeks notice before changing your employment arrangement.

IE: Your obligation to your employer is to give two weeks notice, and your employers' obligation to you is to pay you for two weeks if and when you are either announcing your departure or getting fired/laid off.

My previous employer does not qualify, by the way; most of the last few people to give any notice were immediately fired! I myself gave a full two weeks' notice and was retained by my boss (VP), and I continued to work, for a week, until the CEO got back into town, and then was told on Monday that the preceding Friday had been my last day. At IBM, when I quit, I was paid for two weeks but was escorted out (true for something like 50-90% of people there). IBM satisfied their implied obligation to me, while my last employer did not.

So I think an analogy could be made to Ricky. Had he given two weeks' notice (from today, let's say), the Dolphins would have had some time to go try to get another running back. I don't think he's wrong for quitting - I think he's wrong for leaving his coworkers in the lurch, just as I would have been wrong for quitting on 0 days notice. (However, the people who quit after me who wised up and gave no notice were correct to do so given the precedent set against myself and others who did give notice after me).

I doubt the Dolphins would have been able to cut him immediately without paying some 'severance'.

There, a non-political non-transportation post. The enb.

Posted by m1ek at 05:01 PM | Permalink