Saturday, September 26, 2026
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Why would unranked Flarida be a 4-point favorite at home vs # 4 Olé Miss?
Let-down game after the emotional dub over Elle Esse Ew last week.
HT Rocky Top (14) 3 Texas (1) 10
HT Lewisville (16) 21 Woke Forest 24
Four Letter Conference:
Holy Toledo 27 SDSU 3HT UTSA 35 Colorado State 21. Roadrunners runnin'.
Acorn 10 UNLV 24, 6:26 3Q. Rebels runnin'.
Maryland 0 UCLA 0, end 1.
Four-Letter Conference games
Toledo 7 SDSU 3
Acorn 7 UNLV 7
Maryland-UCLA, 1:30
Jax State-MTSU, 7 bells
UTEP-Oregon State (the "Beavers"), 9
In re Pitt -53.5
The largest point spread in professorial tackle football history is Half Ass U -70.5 vs Savannah State, 2012.
My Dickens!
"ghosts of sound": echoes
"colored shadows": painted portraits of the deceased.
SCHADENFREUDE SATURDAY! Pitt vs Bucknell in a lonely field beyond Fort Pitt. Pitt is -53.5 :o
I will not be blogging this "contest" unless there is cause for self-schadenfreude.
City, City, City
I've read and listened to a lot of the cognos since I became aware of the (not yet publicly announced) verdict. Comments that got me to stop and think were from Gabriele Marcotti of ESPN:
"Manchester City have one of the largest revenues in the world."
That's right. City are now one of the richest clubs in the world--from operating revenue, not from Sheikh Mansour's deeper-than-deep pockets, from ticket sales, from shared broadcasting revenue, from sponsorships, from commercial endeavors. "Profit and sustainability"? City are the fifth most profitable team in the world, second in the EPL to only Liverpool. Sustainability? Hohoho. It has been seventeen years of sustainability! City were a basket case prior to 2009, playing out of decrepit Maine Road, "The Temple of Doom, in the Championship and in League One, doing nothing for the Premier League. The EPL let City operate the last seventeen years; the league reaped the benefits of City's on-field and financial success.
"This is a bad look for the Premier League."
It is.
"I think this is going to damage the Premier League."
Marcotti means reputation, and yes, it is. What is the single greatest frisson in Premier League history? Well, none other than "Aguerrooo!" in 2012. What say the Premier League to the Champions League, whose title City won in 2023--ten years after the EPL put it's anti-Manchester City Profit and Sustainability rules into effect--but did not enforce?
The Premier League is going to be damaged in more than reputation. What say the Premier League to the the league's cash cow, the broadcasters, who increased their payouts as response to the Manchester Revolution? City rejuvenated the stale "Big Four" image of the Premier League, and its bottom line.
"I think the Premier League found themselves between a rock and a hard place."
Yes, indeed!
"Think about how absurd this whole trial is."
By that Marcotti means:
1) The wrong-doing goes back seventeen years.
2) The investigation goes back eight years when Der Spiegel published "the football papers" on inter alia Man City. That is, the EPL did not start the investigation; a German news magazine did. That's eight football seasons in which City was all owed to play on.
3) The hearing started three years ago, three football seasons in which City was permitted to play on.
4) The hearing concluded twenty-two months ago. City were permitted to play in parts of three football seasons after all of the evidence was closed.
5) It took the independent panel twenty-two months to decide the case
I want to stay within the four corners of what Marcotti said and what I have written today and previously.
City is guilty as sin. Period. Full stop.
Has the Premier League been harmed? Uh, no.
It is a bad look for the Premier League. The whole enchilada from investigation to trial to deliberations to decision is "absurd."
The EPL is between a rock and a hard place in deciding punishment. No one, not Gabrielle Marcotti, no other cogno, not I, thinks that the EPL's dereliction is going to affect the punishment. But the charges are so numerous, they go so far back, the investigation has been so long, the deliberations have been so long, that the Premier League is in completely uncharted territory in deciding punishment. Again: NO ONE, not I, not a cogno, thinks that this is mitigation for City.
But. However.
There is a saying in American, I don't know about Anglo, law that "Justice delayed in justice denied" and the Premier League did not break this scandal, they did not have an investigative team working on it since 2009 and just wrapped it up now. It was Der Spiegel, for kaiser's sake. In that same sense, it was a bad look for the NBA that the league didn't break the Kawhi Leonard-L.A. "Clippers" scandal, fucking "Pablo Torre Finds Out" broke it. We in the colonies, including NBA commish Adam Silver, thought that investigation took too long. That was a damn speedy trial compared to the EPL and City.
If this wasn't civil or administrative law, if this was criminal law, the statute of limitations would have run. If this was a criminal case, the Premier League could be an aider and abettor of City's malfeasance by letting it go on so long; by letting the trial process last from September 16, 2024 through December 6, 2024, twelve weeks; and by letting the verdict take twenty-two months (and still not official). For the eight years of its investigation, the Premier League let City compete in its competitions and win trophies without a word (Literally. The trial and ruling were kept tighter shut than a ten-year old's asshole.). That's not justice! This is the fucking Court of Chancery in Dickens' time. Chancery was abolished.
Manchester City is going to get drawn and quartered and the Premier League probably will not, but may be so badly wounded by this, that if not de jure abolished, they may be de facto relegated to a second-tier league with the impetus this gives to the original concept of the Super League. Follow your rules, Preemie, dole out your punishment--it is deserved!--just don't cry if this most consequential ruling in the history of the game, is one of your last rulings of any consequence.
Friday, September 25, 2026
This is not the same Indiana
I checked in on this game (in Bloomington) tonight at HT. It was 12 zip. The final is Indiana, fifth-ranked, 29 Northwestern 23. It was 22-20 with 4:25 left to play. Indians were -20.5. The game stats were a close analog to the score. Indiana's pass defense failed the expectations of the point spread. They won the game on the ground. Both teams played mistake-free ball. There were a surfeit of penalties but they were evenly distributed. Northwestern was the near-equal of the defending national champions tonight--in Bloomington--and that's not to say that the "Wildcats", who got as many votes in the AP top 25 poll as I did, are the near-fifth best team in the land. It's to say that Indiana, playing their first game against a legit opponent is not near the fifth best team in the land. Next week Indy goes to Ruptures. I don't think...maybe they will be 20.5 favorites in the cauldron that is SHIA Stadium, but if they are, I might take Ruptures to cover. This is not the same Indiana as last season.
