NashvilleHoosier

Yeah I’ve said about 12 times that if it’s comes back I guarantee they change the course. It’s been rough.

Ok, I’m with you now. And I would say that as much as you can argue it’s a distraction you can also argue it can be a unifying thing.

Interesting to note as well that the team no longer kneels during the anthem and I’m pretty sure every single women’s team at the olympics took a knee to start games. The comment Carli Lloyd made about the action of kneeling being a distraction was in 2016, while she simultaneously praised MR’s cause and talked about how much she had her back. They won the next World Cup. Since it started in 2016, many USWNT members have knelt together and talked about solidarity for these causes. The argument that this team lost b/c MR is a distraction falls apart pretty quickly.

This post is quite confusing. You can’t argue that she’s not a distraction but you also have no idea if she’s….been a distraction? But actually she absolutely is a distraction? And she’s taken away from team winning how? Yikes.

It’s just too easy to blame her being a distraction b/c you disagree with what she stands up for. (Boiling it down to “her politics” also seems too simplistic to me, but whatever, splitting hairs). As Brass mentioned, she’s performed at an extremely high level including leading the team to a World Cup while simultaneously leading the charge for equal pay. You also mentioned her being in her mid 30s. Several of this team’s core are on the tail end of their careers. Under a new coach in his first major tournament. Coaching changes bring tactical changes (though I will admit I honestly don’t know how much tactical change there has been), changes in preparation, how they practice, etc. Remember the last coach went out in the quarterfinals of her first Olympics. The reasons this team failed to win Gold could be, and likely are, wide ranging. Saying it’s b/c Rapinoe was a distraction is for one reason only: you don’t like what she has to say. And that’s far too simple minded.

Correct. Her accomplishments while representing this country are unmatched. My guess is the only people who think she’s a distraction are the people who would just rather not have to hear what she uses her platform to speak up about.

Ok, all good. But if it’s something best to just leave alone, in fairness, you mentioned it in 3 posts.

You actually think their kneeling is stance on the national anthem?

It's time the Big Ten make the move I never thought was beneficial to either party. Go get Notre Dame. They don't bring a new TV market but that's not nearly as important as it used to be. The brand ND would bring I think would now be beneficial to both the conference and to ND. Do it!

If it ends up with 2 super conferences there is no way the ACC survives over the Big Ten. The Big Ten generates more revenue than any conference.

It sounds like you actually are clear on what they'll get! :-)

You think Ohio State would jump to the SEC? Why would they? They already dominate the conference they are in giving them a chance to compete for a national title every year. Something that wouldn't at all be a given if they moved to the SEC. They wouldn't get more revenue moving to the SEC. I just don't see anything positive for them to move.

And tonight Maher assists on a 95th minute equalizer with an incredible ball into the box. He’s getting a lot of praise from the manager in the postgame interview as well.

Yeah I tend to agree with the sentiment that we still have a lot to prove as a program. But it's hard to deny the momentum we have right now, and even if he thought last season was a bit a fluke in some way, we still have a ton of talent returning. What's interesting is what if he's right and we go 7-5 but actually WIN a mid tier bowl game? I'd make the argument that we haven't lost any momentum in that scenario.

I made it as far as Maryland on this list. He has them winning 3 games and their ONE conference win being.....us?

BOOM! Maher was recalled from loan and made the start here in Nashville in place of Walker Zimmerman tonight and just scored his first MLS goal off of a corner to pull Nashville level 1-1. Pretty cool.

Unfortunately true. But if after the past 2 seasons, with all the momentum and excitement the football program has going, the fact that we’ll have a nationally ranked football team to cheer on, and a legitimate chance to have a season that is unheard of for this program…..if it remains half full this season then we deserve none of it.

A counterpoint would be that you can absolutely still recruit team first players while having names on jerseys. Every NCAA champion going back to before every single current college basketball player was born had names on the back of their jerseys. (I’m not sure if this is entirely true but if it’s not it’s very close :-)…)

@IUc2016 good call on not quoting long posts! And yeah I'm opposed the scenario where an undefeated team doesn't have any chance at all, which is why I'm for minimal expansion (6 or 8 teams) along with stipulations that an undefeated conference champion will always get an auto bid. And your second point is really good. Yes, the lopsided nature of the sport and disparity between the powerful few and everyone else is likely a result of how college football has functioned for so long. And I can see an expanded playoff adding more parity slowly over the years. I'm still not convinced, but you're making me think... (Is this the part where I start saying it doesn't matter anyway b/c in 20 years football will be on a fairly sharp decline and the amount of talented athletes playing football at a young age will be running thin therefore limiting the amount of high quality players playing college football and beyond b/c soccer has finally overtaken it as the most popular sport in America? No? Leave that out? Okay. Nevermind.) :-)

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/last-seasons-college-football-playoff-213502132.html Pretty cool to think we would have been in the playoff under a 12 team format last season. I'm a very limited supporter of expansion, but not by much. 24 is waaaaay too many. It would water down big matchups during the regular season too much and end up with very mediocre 8-4 teams in the playoff. I think 12 is still too many. I'd be fine with 8 for an easy bracket but I think 6 would actually work well. It still preserves the magic of the regular season meaning so much each game. It would still incentivize the best teams as they would get a bye week, but also not completely eliminate a really good team who takes one loss to another really good team. I wouldn't give automatic bids to the power 5 champions unless they are undefeated or 1 loss teams (i.e. the Big 12 misses out last season, so the next highest ranked non-champion gets a spot).

Totally random story here....I was talking to a good buddy of mine who is a Vandy grad. I brought up the 2013 regionals where we would have hosted Vandy in the super regionals in Bloomington if not for the bottom of the 9th walk off homerun by Stanford b/c that still bugs me (PUT IN DENATO TO PITCH TO THE LEFTY!!). Anyway, I just discovered today that the guy who hit the walk-off was none other than the guy who has become my favorite player on the Cardinals, Tommy freaking Edman. I'm distraught. I can't believe this. I just don't understand how my man Tommy Eds could have done this to me.

Ya know my Dad had a saying about pizza that was pretty spot on. Sorry in advance, mods, if this doesn't fly. But it was, "Pizza is kinda like sex. Even when it's bad.....well, it's still pretty good."

If his dream was to play pro basketball, just b/c the NBA didn't work out doesn't mean you can't make money playing pro ball. I don't understand why more fringe NBA players don't do this overseas. I know not everyone will be comfortable going that route, but if that is truly the dream, he could have had a heck of a career playing in another country making good money, and at any time could have impressed enough to get picked back up by a NBA team.

I thought the same thing. At times he showed he's a very skilled player when he's on the ball but it happened so little I was surprised to hear them talk about him being a national player of the year candidate. Frustrating match to watch, but hey I'm an Everton fan so what's new? I feel bad for the CB who missed the two headers on set pieces. I also felt like Endeley was less effective in the 2nd half playing more centrally. I understand they thought but once it wasn't as effective as they hoped I don't know why they didn't push him back out wide. I'm also still a fairly novice soccer fan (see: picking the misery that is Everton as my team) so what do I know?