Hongbit

They will be awarding additional scholarships for most of the non-revenue sports. This should satisfy Title IX since it’s about equal participation and not compensation.

As usual, Powell talks and bad things happen.

Powell’s comments will have more to do with moving the market than the expected rate cut.

I don’t see any way how this proposed hard cap on NIL will stand up in court. You can’t tell a player he’s unable to accept a legitimate marketing offer because the school is already over the $20.5M.

Caveat Emptor Not sure if he left or USC balked at giving him an increase after he was paid a ton of money last year and didn’t perform. He went from being an All-American return man in 2023 to actually losing the job last year.

That sucked but trying to take some positives from yesterday: Jared Goff was sensational again. Sure, the stats were a bit padded but damn did he look good. He made all the right decisions and he threw some absolute lasers. That throw on the Amon-Ra fumble was one of the best balls you will ever see. Only a couple guys in the league can make that throw under pressure. He’s undeniably a top 5 QB in the league and probably higher. He can make any throw and is smart with the ball. Josh Allen is another level talent and maybe that’s why he makes some throws that he shouldn’t. He got away with multiple careless decisions. Coverage wasn’t as bad as the story may seem. Josh Allen had 6 seconds to pass on almost every play. That’s not on the DB’s. He rarely found his first option open and many of their best plays were schoolyard scrambles. Grit. I think most everyone thought they were done after the Bills scored coming out the half and we went 3 and out. The hits kept coming with the injuries and especially Alim. Even after the botched onside that became an easy 7 for the Bills, the Lions kept coming. They fought hard the entire way and gave themselves a little chance at the end. The entire offense manned up big time in the 4th. They weren’t rolling over and were gashing the Bills. This offense is a buzzsaw. When they are on, it’s legitimately one of the best in recent NFL history. The OL was not great yesterday and they still scored 42. It’s a much harder way but they can still get to the SB with a suspect defense. The Bills are now the betting favorites to win it all and they’ve given up 40 in back to back weeks. It can all still happen even if the defense is crippled.

Lions 4 Bills 2

It makes perfect sense if his agent is a Tellum or Tellum associate.

I don’t want him on the Pistons now but one can easily make the argument that Nikola Vucevic is the most underrated NBA player of his generation. He’s been an 20/10 guy every night for most of the last 14 years and people still view him as a Jag.

I wonder how the team is doing in the Google parallel universe where Kenny took Quinn Hughes instead of Zadina in his last draft here.

Guy signed a $50M contract after that one big year in Green Bay and has never been the same.

Stafford looked as bad as I’ve ever seen last night. He had at least 4 easy picks dropped. Very lucky to not end up with a 150 yard, 0 TD, 4 INT night.

Season ticket renewals went out today and there are a lot of shocked people. How bad was it for you @MichiganCardinal? It’s an odd conundrum. The value to resell the seats has skyrocketed and driven the market up but the only way to take advantage of it is to not go to the games. The massive majority of season ticket holders are hard core fans that want to go to every game. They don’t want to sell tickets for a profit on the secondary market.

You are correct. I smushed those together. Still, shelter was inline with estimates on CPI if you take out the abnormality in hotels. Rent and owners equivalent coming in a bit better than expected. That will help in the long run. Take a look at eggs and fruit on PPI. Those alone made up a big chunk of the inflation reading. If those are closer to normal than the numbers are inline.

You know that headlines don’t tell the full story. A few outliers in things like eggs, fruits, and hotels boosted numbers. Shelter which makes up 1/3 of the index was actually pretty good.

Thinking the same. I love the product but yearly 13% increases are ridiculous. It’s been years since I’ve compared with cable so I have no idea how this prices now.

Happy Sound Check Day!

Trolls gonna troll

My issue is that it doesn’t feel like organic growth. The game isn’t exploding with popularity like the NFL which is creating this giant increase in guaranteed money. It feels like a few billionaires in ideal markets throwing money around because they can and it serves their personal interests.

It hasn’t been this way in the past but I think we may start seeing a stronger correlation between FA spending and winning. Expanded playoffs along with free spending by only a few will create a situation where just a rash of massive injuries will keep the top teams from making a deep playoff run every year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a push for a 5 game first round playoff series to further ensure the marquee teams and players are in the CS and WS.

Things have changed now we’ve gotten into the stupid 12 to 15 year terms on these deals. The Soto contact won’t be unwise for 7 or 8 years. In the near term, he’s in his prime and probably worth every dollar. The added guaranteed money and term is what makes it such a dumb contract.

Baseball is the outlier. Every other sport has a cap. Sure, the players will hate it and it may lead to a strike, but a cap should be on the table as an option. It’s not an impossibility. Easy way to get it on the table is to introduce something much worse to the players and then come back the salary cap. That thing that is much worse…non-guaranteed contracts. A cap beats the other option. All the non multi-billionaire owners sell their teams to VC guys and the league becomes a real life billionaires fantasy league.

It will help the competitive balance when it comes to the acquisition and retention of players. We’ve always had a system where the top teams could spend more. Now, we’ve reached a point where 80% of the league doesn’t even have the option to consider an offer for top players. It’s not even about not wanting to spend the money. They don’t have the money. This will also have huge impact on teams trying to retain their players. Tarik Skubal will not be a Tiger in 2 years. They can not pay stupid dollars and term like he will get from the top teams. He will have to be traded at the deadline or maybe even will leave scot free if the team is in the playoff race. There won’t any debates to keep him or not and there won’t be anyone hammering Chris for not spending money. It’s really going to suck for all of us having to watch it happen knowing there’s nothing to be done. It’s sort of like this already but we will move to where it never happens that even a single young star stays with the non big money team that they came up with. Teams like the Tigers will become like a major league farm team for them. MLB is the only major sport without some type of cap. Something needs to be put in place that either slows the cost of doing business or at least brings that rapid growth inline with increased outside revenue. NFL and NBA have record TV deals and are branching out into new platforms. They are both seeing significant revenue growth that is driving salary up. Baseball is not in this category. Their TV deals are messy and in flux. I don’t see the financial growth of the league flourishing to the same levels that spending has. I see two VC billionaires spending crazy money for their own personal gain. I don’t see how any of it is good for the future of the game and seems like a recipe for disaster.

This is one of the smarter moves by anyone in the portal. He was really good when healthy last year and is a legit one of the top corners on the market. He will get a big payday and probably start on CFP contender.