Morgan Wick

Stupid browser cache.

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(From Questionable Content. Click for full-sized land of unlimited cartriges.)

Have you ever had an experience where something really weird and awkward happened, and then afterwards you just went about your business like nothing happened at all, never even understanding why it happened to begin with?

That’s how I feel about this QC after the two strips immediately preceding it (not counting yesterday’s filler art). I fully expected Jeph to be trolling his fanbase (who I suspect hate Emily as much as I do), though after he continued the setup for two strips I was fully prepared to renounce QC entirely if it turned out he was sending the comic headfirst into PVP/Goats Syndrome.

What I did not expect was for the succeeding comic not to even reference it at all, but to have the characters go about their business as though there was nothing odd or awkward about their arrival whatsoever, not even getting so much as a suitably crazy explanation out of Emily, her holding the mask in the first panel the only sign that anything happened at all.

The end result is that, if you had that awkward moment with someone else, no matter how you try to gloss over it, it looms over the entire rest of that interaction. I can’t read this comic without thinking about the two prior ones, and I can’t help but wonder whether the start of the sequence is going to hang over it for the duration, seeking a closure that never comes. And yet, if we were given an explanation, wouldn’t the same thing happen in a broader sense, with no one willing to completely trust it?

I’m left utterly numb and wanting to both compliment and castigate Jeph, and not do those things, all at the same time. I don’t even know what reaction I even have other than “What?“

The FF50 Challenge Power Rankings, and why I’m not posting them

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When I started the FF50 challenge, I was thinking I would perform weekly updates on the state of the 42 teams I was playing, finding a way to rank all of them. I decided against it, both because of time constraints and because I had no way to rank them that early in the season, especially given my draft strategy.

So why did I decide to do it now, as I posted on Monday? Because even without the power rankings and even with the number of teams downsized to 42 from my original intention of 50, I have never been able to set starting lineups or submit waiver claims for all teams without running out of time. I had said that I would abandon 0-4 teams after four weeks, but only four teams started the season 0-4, three of them towards the end of the order for me to set lineups and thus more likely to have malformed lineups, meaning I had next to no teams that were completely lost causes. (I may have better luck with the 1-5 checkpoint this week.) And if I’m going to leave some teams behind, I should be doing it with the teams with the least need for it anyway. So waiver claims will start moving from the bottom up, and lineup setting will occur from the top down. But I’m still not going to post the rankings, because this project is monopolizing too much of my time already, and putting together everything I’d want for a post would eat up way too much of my time. I may decide to post them in no-frills fashion later, though.

There were a few other things that I’ve noticed. For one, I often ended up with the same players on the same teams on the same site, and even when I didn’t, the running back/wide receiver balance was often out of whack in the same way on the same site. For example, nearly every single Yahoo team has Garrett Hartley on the roster, because Yahoo’s rankings absolutely buried him. Right now he’s only the 16th best kicker under Yahoo’s scoring system, but he’s remained high enough on most other week-to-week rankings I haven’t had reason to replace him, though that may change this week with him on bye. Also, most Yahoo teams ended up drafting entire benches of running backs with very few wide receivers, which may have something to do with Yahoo’s starting lineup of three wideouts, two running backs, and no flex. For another, there were some teams that, for one reason or another, were almost entirely autopicked instead of picked by me, and those teams have a strong tendency to be the strongest ones, especially after factoring out Fox teams. (I have eight Fox teams; every last one is in the top half, placing fourth or better in their 10-team league, with five in my top 12. The players there aren’t very good, is what I’m saying.)

This convinces me to make a few rule changes for drafts next year should I continue with this. For one, I had been considering limiting my options to the top 25 available players in ADP, but couldn’t find a universal list I was confident in; now I think I’m definitely going to limit myself to the top 25 ADP for that site (possibly top 20 for leagues with 10 or fewer teams). I’m also going to give a site’s native rankings an increased role in determining who I pick.

The median is right where you’d expect, in the middle of the pack for each league… but considering how much I’m dominating the Fox leagues, that just shows how far I have to go everywhere else.

Sunday Night Football Flex Scheduling Watch: Week 5

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NBC’s Sunday Night Football package gives it flexible scheduling. For the last seven weeks of the season, the games are determined on 12-day notice, 6-day notice for Week 17.

The first year, no game was listed in the Sunday Night slot, only a notation that one game could move there. Now, NBC lists the game it “tentatively” schedules for each night. However, the NFL is in charge of moving games to prime time.

Here are the rules from the NFL web site (note that this was written with the 2007 season in mind, hence why it still says late games start at 4:15 ET instead of 4:25):

  • Begins Sunday of Week 11
  • In effect during Weeks 11-17
  • Only Sunday afternoon games are subject to being moved into the Sunday night window.
  • The game that has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday night during flex weeks will be listed at 8:15 p.m. ET.
  • The majority of games on Sundays will be listed at 1:00 p.m. ET during flex weeks except for games played in Pacific or Mountain Time zones which will be listed at 4:05 or 4:15 p.m. ET.
  • No impact on Thursday, Saturday or Monday night games.
  • The NFL will decide (after consultation with CBS, FOX, NBC) and announce as early as possible the game being played at 8:15 p.m. ET. The announcement will come no later than 12 days prior to the game. The NFL may also announce games moving to 4:05 p.m. ET and 4:15 p.m. ET.
  • Week 17 start time changes could be decided on 6 days notice to ensure a game with playoff implications.
  • The NBC Sunday night time slot in “flex” weeks will list the game that has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday night.
  • Fans and ticket holders must be aware that NFL games in flex weeks are subject to change 12 days in advance (6 days in Week 17) and should plan accordingly.
  • NFL schedules all games.
  • Teams will be informed as soon as they are no longer under consideration or eligible for a move to Sunday night.
  • Rules NOT listed on NFL web site but pertinent to flex schedule selection: CBS and Fox each protect games in five out of six weeks, and cannot protect any games Week 17. Games were protected after Week 4 last year as well as the first year of flexible scheduling, because NBC hosted Christmas night games those years and all the other games were moved to Saturday (and so couldn’t be flexed), but are otherwise protected after Week 5.
  • In the past, three teams could appear a maximum of six games in primetime on NBC, ESPN or NFL Network (everyone else gets five) and no team may appear more than four times on NBC. I don’t know how the expansion of the Thursday Night schedule affects this, if it does. No team starts the season completely tapped out at any measure; eight teams have five primetime appearances each, but only the Broncos and Bears don’t have at least one game that can be flexed out. NBC appearances for all teams: DAL 3 (1 flexible), NYG 3 (1 flexible), PIT 3 (1 flexible), DEN 2, DET 2 (1 flexible), SF 2 (1 flexible), NE 3 (1 flexible), BAL 2 (1 flexible), PHI 2 (1 flexible), SD 2 (1 flexible), NO 2, GB 3 (2 flexible), HOU 2, CIN 1, ATL 1, CHI 1, NYJ 2 (1 flexible). All primetime appearances for all teams: DAL 4 (1 flexible), NYG 5 (1 flexible), PIT 5 (1 flexible), DEN 5, DET 4 (1 flexible), SF 5 (1 flexible), NE 4 1 flexible), BAL 4 (1 flexible), PHI 5 (1 flexible), SD 5 (1 flexible), NO 4, GB 5 (2 flexible), HOU 4, CIN 3, ATL 4, CHI 5, NYJ 4 (1 flexible), OAK 2, SEA 2, ARI 2, KC 2, CAR 2, TEN 2, all other teams 1.

Here are the current tentatively-scheduled games and my predictions:

Week 11 (November 18):

  • Tentative game: Baltimore @ Pittsburgh
  • Prospects: 4-1 v. 2-2; one of the hottest rivalries in the NFL, but are the Steelers more like those two losses than those two wins?
  • Likely protections: Cardinals-Falcons (FOX) and Chargers-Broncos or Jets-Rams if anything (CBS).
  • Other possible games: Colts-Patriots and the unprotected game(s), with Eagles-Redskins as a dark horse.

Week 12 (November 25):

  • Tentative game: Green Bay @ NY Giants
  • Prospects: 3-2 v. 2-3; a pair of name teams, but both look a little questionable so far, especially the Packers.
  • Likely protections: Vikings-Bears or Rams-Cardinals if anything (FOX) and Ravens-Chargers (CBS).
  • Other possible games: Thanksgiving Weekend, paucity of good games. Besides whatever game Fox doesn’t protect, Seahawks-Dolphins is a dark horse.

Week 13 (December 2):

  • Tentative game: Philadelphia @ Dallas
  • Prospects: Very iffy at 3-2 v. 2-2, but never count out an NFC East showdown.
  • Likely protections: 49ers-Rams or Vikings-Packers (FOX) and Steelers-Ravens (CBS).
  • Other possible games: Seahawks-Bears and whatever game Fox doesn’t protect, with Bengals-Chargers a dark horse.

Week 14 (December 9):

  • Tentative game: Detroit @ Green Bay
  • Prospects: The Lions look to have fallen back into their old morass at 1-3, and the Packers may not be that much better. This may be the likeliest game to lose its spot.
  • Likely protections: Bears-Vikings or Cardinals-Seahawks (FOX) and Chargers-Steelers or Ravens-Redskins (CBS), with either network possibly leaving the week unprotected.
  • Other possible games: Basically, whatever games aren’t protected.

Week 15 (December 16):

  • Tentative game: San Francisco @ New England
  • Prospects: 4-1 v. 3-2, possibly the tentative game in the best shape.
  • Likely protections: Broncos-Ravens, Colts-Texans, Steelers-Cowboys, or nothing (CBS) and Giants-Falcons (FOX).
  • Other possible games: Vikings-Rams, Packers-Bears, and the games CBS doesn’t protect.

Week 16 (December 23):

  • Tentative game: San Diego @ NY Jets
  • Prospects: 3-2 v. 2-3; somewhat mediocre, but who knows if the Jets will be driving the Tebow bandwagon by this point.
  • Likely protections: Vikings-Texans, Giants-Ravens, Bears-Cardinals, 49ers-Seahawks, or nothing (FOX) and Bengals-Steelers if anything (CBS).
  • Other possible games: Besides the unprotected games, Redskins-Eagles is a dark horse.

Week 17 (December 30):

  • Playoff positioning watch begins Week 9.

How The Streak Will Continue

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So, we’re in the thick of football season right now, and even with my efforts to condense and reduce the number of projects I’m working on I still have quite a lot, so I decided to put together a schedule, both to help manage my work on them, and to remind me to do them in a timely fashion. So effective immediately, here are the posts you can expect each week, with exact dates subject to change:

  • Monday (starting in four weeks): Last-Minute SNF Picks
  • Tuesday: FF50 Challenge Power Rankings
  • Wednesday: College Football Rankings
  • Thursday: Sunday Night Football Flex Schedule Watch

Fridays are free and I may take advantage of them to do webcomic reviews in November; certainly I would expect most webcomic posts to wait until then if possible. Some webcomic posts may come Monday before the last-minute picks start or in weeks where I’ve already made my final prediction, though, and the whole structure will start to break down in December after the college season ends and fantasy leagues start hitting the playoffs.

2012 College Football Rankings – Week 5

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I am astounded at how closely the C Ratings are hewing to the polls this early in the season. Sure, there are a lot of wacky ratings, such as Texas Tech at . But take a look at the top two teams: Alabama and Oregon. Bama is especially surprising, as they were considered national championship contenders mostly coming off their championship last year. Yet look at what they’ve done the first five weeks of the season: dominate all comers, including some pretty good teams. The rest of the SEC, and the country, is on notice.

Meanwhile, one week after the unification of the 2010 TCU title with Princeton-Yale, the split claims to the 2009 Boise State title will be unified, thanks to Washington’s upset of Stanford. Expect some clarity near the top of the rankings with the pack of four SEC teams at 7-10 playing each other, as well as Texas taking on aforementioned unified title holders West Virginia, as we enter a big week of games.

How the C Ratings are tabulated: First, A Ratings are tabulated by multiplying the total score ratio, which is expressed by (points-opponents’ points)/points, by the winning percentage. Score ratio minimizes the effect of running up the score. Next, B Points for each game are tabulated by (margin of victory)/(opponent’s A rating)+/-1 for wins, and -(margin of loss)/(1-opponent’s A Rating)+/-1 for losses. The “+/-” is + for road games and – for home ones. The total number of B Points is multiplied by the A Rating to get the B Rating. Finally, the C Rating is tabulated by taking one-tenth the difference between the team’s B Rating and the average of his opponents’ B Ratings and taking the result off the B Rating. The three ratings go A, B, C across. Click here to see the complete ratings.

1 Alabama SEC ’06 Boise St.
5-0 LW: A Rat: .906 B Rating: 30.339 C Rating: 26.250 AP: 1 Coaches: 1
The way the Tide has rolled to start the season is incredible. Now they get a week off to catch their breath.
2 Oregon P12 BCS Title
5-0 LW: A Rat: .808 B Rating: 21.988 C Rating: 18.856 AP: 2 Coaches: 2
Oregon showed the Cougars who’s the boss. But Washington won’t roll over quite as easily as their little brother.
3 Texas Tech B12 BCS Title
4-0 LW: A Rat: .858 B Rating: 19.571 C Rating: 17.005 Coaches: 24 —
Iowa State’s defense managed to hold their scoring down for a while, but the Red Raiders pulled it out and are starting to attract attention around the country. Now all eyes are on them against Oklahoma.
4 Texas B12 BCS Title
4-0 LW: A Rat: .774 B Rating: 18.636 C Rating: 16.270 AP: 11 Coaches: 9
Texas whiffed on their chance to impress the rest of the country, beating Oklahoma State by only five. Now they have a big test with West Virginia’s high-flying offense coming to Austin.
5 Florida State ACC BCS Title
5-0 LW: A Rat: .863 B Rating: 18.115 C Rating: 15.992 AP: 3 Coaches: 4
The Seminoles slip in the raw numbers for scoring the fewest points of the entire season, but with North Carolina the highest-ranked ACC team they haven’t played, Florida might be the only thing standing in the way of 13-0.
6 Kansas State B12 BCS Title
4-0 LW: A Rat: .773 B Rating: 15.977 C Rating: 14.024 AP: 7 Coaches: 8
K-State moves up despite not playing, thanks to Stanford’s upset and wins by Miami and North Texas. Now their in-state rivals come to Manhattan.
7 South Carolina SEC BCS Title
5-0 LW: #12 A Rat: .813 B Rating: 14.901 C Rating: 12.341 AP: 6 Coaches: 6
The best performance from the SEC’s “next four” was clearly the other USC, which earned their poll ranking with a 38-17 demolition of an underrated Kentucky team.
8 LSU SEC BCS Title
5-0 LW: A Rat: .795 B Rating: 15.159 C Rating: 11.895 AP: 4 Coaches: 3
LSU did well for themselves as well, but letting an FCS school get that close to an upset won’t do you any favors.
9 Georgia SEC BCS Title
5-0 LW: A Rat: .772 B Rating: 11.636 C Rating: 9.450 AP: 5 Coaches: 5
Neither Georgia nor the Gamecocks have faced anything quite like they’ll face when they play each other this weekend.
10 Florida SEC BCS Title
4-0 LW: A Rat: .761 B Rating: 9.803 C Rating: 8.163 AP: 10 Coaches: 11
Stanford’s upset and Notre Dame’s fall down the rankings mean Florida stays put despite idle hands. All the more preparation time they’ll need for the Tigers.
11 Ohio State B10 Probation
5-0 LW: A Rat: .705 B Rating: 10.295 C Rating: 8.071 AP: 12 BlogPoll: 12
A good-by-Big-Ten-standards Michigan State team overcomes the one-point margin of victory. But it doesn’t get any easier when Nebraska comes into Columbus.
12 Stanford P12 BCS Title
3-1 LW: A Rat: .468 B Rating: 9.060 C Rating: 7.937 AP: 18 Coaches: 18
Defense is Stanford’s calling card this year, never allowing more than 17, but against Washington the offense couldn’t pick up the slack. Expect them to beat Arizona at home; Notre Dame (3rd-fewest points allowed) in South Bend is another story.
13 Notre Dame BCS Title
4-0 LW: A Rat: .792 B Rating: 8.814 C Rating: 7.195 AP: 9 Coaches: 10
Navy giveth (demolishing VMI) and taketh away (getting shut out by San Jose State). But now they control their own destiny, and Miami’s not as good as their 4-1 record.
14 West Virginia B12 Prncton/Yale
4-0 LW: #15 A Rat: .706 B Rating: 6.660 C Rating: 5.619 AP: 8 Coaches: 7
The 63 allowed matters more than the 70 scored, but it was a team ranked in the C Ratings and the polls. But Texas is a far bigger test.
15 Arizona State P12 BCS Title
4-1 LW: #14 A Rat: .609 B Rating: 7.237 C Rating: 5.062 — —
The Sun Devils ended both of the things we brought up last week against a not-that-great Cal team. They’ll slip further for idle hands before getting a chance to show off against a national audience against 1-4 Colorado.
16 Clemson ACC BCS Title
4-1 LW: #19 A Rat: .532 B Rating: 4.872 C Rating: 4.125 AP: 15 Coaches: 15
Clemson bounced back with a double-digit win over Boston College. But a good G-Tech team desperately wants a road bounce back of its own.
17 Cincinnati BST BCS Title
3-0 LW: #18 A Rat: .752 B Rating: 4.798 C Rating: 4.055 Coaches: 23 Legends: 24
People are starting to take note of the Bearcats; their win over V-Tech wasn’t much, but they’re knocking on the door of every poll they aren’t already in.
18 Oregon State P12 BCS Title
3-0 LW: #23 A Rat: .606 B Rating: 4.102 C Rating: 3.659 AP: 14 Coaches: 17
Oregon State continued their string of victories against the Wildcats. Perhaps when Washington State comes to Corvallis, they can even win by more than a single score.
19 Iowa State B12 BCS Title
3-1 LW: A Rat: .486 B Rating: 2.940 C Rating: 3.219 — —
That’s not a setback you want to take at home, but now the Cyclones have a chance to prove their bona fides in Fort Worth against a TCU team earning a bit more respect.
20 Louisiana Tech WAC BCS Bowl
4-0 LW: A Rat: .642 B Rating: 6.592 C Rating: 2.977 — —
Louisiana Tech’s six-point win over 2-2 Virginia is as painful as Iowa State’s loss, no thanks to Illinois getting blown out by Penn State.
21 TCU B12 BCS Title
4-0 LW: #21 A Rat: .847 B Rating: 5.574 C Rating: 2.754 AP: 15 Coaches: 13
If it’s a conference with more tests the polls want, it’s a conference with more tests TCU’s gonna get. It all starts this week against Iowa State.
22 Toledo MAC MAC Title
4-1 LW: #43 A Rat: .507 B Rating: 3.985 C Rating: 2.249 — —
The Rockets’ only loss was in OT to Arizona, but their squash of Western Michigan on the road shows what they’re really capable of.
23 Northwestern B10 BCS Title
5-0 LW: #40 A Rat: .702 B Rating: 3.345 C Rating: 2.068 AP: 24 Coaches: 22
Yes, Michael Wilbon, the Wildcats are for real! Their squash of Indiana has made everyone take notice, and with Ohio State and this week’s opponent Penn State ineligible for bowls, the way may be clear for a trip to the Rose Bowl.
24 Ohio MAC BCS Bowl
5-0 LW: #20 A Rat: .691 B Rating: 5.876 C Rating: 1.776 BlogPoll: 25 —
Beating the worst team in FBS? Not impressive. Beating them by a field goal? Even less so. And now a potential showdown with Toledo in the conference title game will hang over their season.
25 Mississippi State SEC BCS Title
4-0 LW: #25 A Rat: .794 B Rating: 3.298 C Rating: 1.597 AP: 20 Coaches: 19
Mississippi State manages to stay up despite idle hands, partly due to losses by surrounding teams, and are ready to get back into the meat of the SEC.


37 teams total with positive C Rating (none with negative B Rating)

2009 Boise State title: #55 Washington (3-1), .421, -2.916, -2.196

Off Top 25: #33 Baylor (was ), #38 Rutgers (was #22)

Unbeaten teams not on Top 25: Louisville, #38 Rutgers, #48 Texas-San Antonio (all in positive B Points, Rutgers and Texas-San Antonio not in positive C)

Rest of Watch List: #26 Boise State (3-1), #27 Texas A&M (3-1), Nevada (4-1), Middle Tenn. St. (3-1), #30 Oklahoma State (2-2), UCLA (4-1), #33 Baylor (3-1), #34 Northern Illinois (4-1), #35 Iowa* (3-2), #36 San Jose State (4-1), #37 Pittsburgh (2-3)

Other Positive B Ratings (all 3-2 unless otherwise noted): #39 BYU, #40 North Carolina, #41 Fresno State, #42 Western Kentucky* (4-1), #43 Penn State*, #44 Michigan State, #45 Nebraska (4-1), #46 Tennessee, #47 Utah State (4-2), #51 Purdue* (3-1), #52 USC (3-1) (*=Newly Positive)

No Longer Positive: #49 Oklahoma, #57 Arizona, #60 Central Florida, #67 Georgia Tech, #70 Minnesota

Bottom 10: #115 Southern Miss, #116 New Mexico State, #117 Rice, #118 Army, #119 Akron, #120 Colorado, #121 Idaho, #122 Hawaii, #123 Tulane, #124 Massachusetts

Best game of week: Georgia @ South Carolina, 4pm PT, ESPN

The major-league-baseball contract post-mortem

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I don’t understand what baseball was doing in its negotiations for a new broadcast contract. Leave it to baseball to screw things up once again.

First, they told Fox that FX wasn’t good enough and it needed an all-sports network to be a serious contender, but then later apparently decided it didn’t want to prop up NBC’s own sports network, while also allowing TBS, which is almost exactly equivalent to FX (especially since all of Turner’s other non-NCAA Tournament sports are on TNT) to continue to even sniff baseball rights.

Then, they allowed ESPN to sign their agreement in advance and lock up all three of its existing packages – despite the fact that this would effectively eliminate NBC as a contender, since they were too smart to overpay for the shitty Sunday afternoon package, and reduce Fox and Turner’s interest for the same reason.

Then, they made a lot of noise about unifying not only the Saturday and Sunday afternoon packages, but the entire postseason with a single partner, going so far as to tell ESPN they would take their single wild card game and like it. And since they weren’t going to accept Turner’s CBS-alliance scheme, where CBS got the World Series, All-Star Game, some odd LCS games, and exactly zero regular season games, that meant that the contract was Fox’s to lose.

But wait! It turned out that, again, Fox wasn’t dumb enough to pay through the nose for the shitty Sunday afternoon package either! So when Turner refused to go away, not wanting to let go of TBS’ baseball legacy through its long history of Braves games, MLB ended up accepting a deal that amounts to the status quo.

The differences? Fox will now have a doubleheader of games each Saturday, so its all-sports network will have either one or two games each week, except I can pretty much guarantee that in weeks it has just one, it’ll be worse than the Sunday afternoon package; Fox gets back in the division series, splitting with TBS in similar fashion to the LCS’s and sending two games to MLB Network; and TBS gets co-exists for its Sunday afternoon games, so it won’t be blacked out in the home markets of the teams, except that means absolutely nothing because no one even knew TBS had regular season games going up against local games and everything else in sports Sunday afternoons… and TBS will now only have games the last three months of the season, so the problem where TBS seems to come from out of nowhere to take over the postseason will now get even worse!

What the hell? Why didn’t ESPN come back into play when it became clear that MLB was going to have to split up the postseason after all? Heck, ESPN and Fox could have had a league split running right through the wild card, division, and league championship series before Fox takes over the whole World Series. Sure, ESPN would probably have had even less interest in the Sunday afternoon package, but then those games would have gone to MLB Network where they belong, which is surely a boon to that network – and more important, it would have been better for baseball as a whole. Hardcore baseball fans with Extra Innings may be rejoicing over the end of blackouts of out-of-market Fox games (which I don’t think will amount to as much as you might think with Fox’s decreased inventory), but this may be even more confusing for the casual fan than the old agreement; TBS still comes from out of nowhere to take over the postseason, and ESPN shows up for the tiebreakers and one wild card game and then completely disappears. The shambling corpse of TBS’ old Braves package just will not die despite being pumped full of lead repeatedly, using the postseason as a shield. What was baseball thinking? It couldn’t have been this.

I think that, for all the money baseball raked in with this deal, they left money on the table by being too hasty to accept ESPN’s Godfather offer to keep all its existing packages in order to box out NBC. I bet baseball could have more than made up the difference in heightened interest from three partners for whatever ESPN left on the table. It didn’t end up working out very well for ESPN either; besides whiffing on its attempt to get more than one measly wild-card game, ESPN must surely know at this point that Fox’s potential all-sports network is a bigger threat than NBC’s, and as such its best play is to pit the two against one another so that both are left with a fraction of what ESPN has and unable to gain much ground, but there isn’t even any evidence that they lent any support to the Turner/CBS alliance scheme. Instead they continue to be so myopically focused on NBC that they keep handing contracts into Fox’s lap! They’ve managed to kill everyone else, but like a poor marksman, they keep! Missing! The target! KHAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!

Fox continues to be the only outfit with much sense in the sports TV wars. The baseball contract is the crown jewel for an outfit that already has plenty of programming to hit the ground running with an all-sports network. The last piece will come when Fox finishes its early renewal of the NASCAR contract, giving the network Sprint Cup races, the All-Star Race, and possibly Nationwide and Truck races. (I’ve heard that NASCAR isn’t thinking about a NASCAR network anymore, but unless it wants to foist practice and qualifying on its other partners, I don’t see Fox wanting to keep it on an all-sports network every week.)

NBC, meanwhile, now turns to NASCAR as its last real chance to get a killer app for NBC Sports Network, with the Big Ten awaiting as a last resort, but it may already be too late for them to catch Fox. All their numerous bells and whistles of side programming, from NBC SportsTalk to Costas Tonight to NFL Turning Point to Caught Looking to Sports Illustrated to The Lights, may ultimately be all for naught, a way to cover up the network’s lack of real programming; they may have given NBC a head start on infrastructure, but Fox may want to have all its infrastructure in place from the start, given their acquisition of baseball rights for a nightly highlights show. The NHL may be regretting not shacking up with Fox when it had the chance.

All five contenders in the sports TV wars have their count go up by one because ESPN, NBCSN, and CBSSN just signed a new agreement with the Atlantic 10 at the same time. Most basketball games go on NBCSN and CBSSN, with ESPN getting the conference tournament finals with, curiously, the semis on CBSSN and the quarters on NBCSN. The PBR and Mountain West recognize that NBCSN > CBSSN. Why doesn’t the Atlantic 10?

Sport-Specific Networks
10.5 12.5 6 5.5 1 1.5

I will admit, I am morbidly curious to meet Emily’s parents. I have a feeling they’ve got to be at least as eccentric as Hannelore’s.

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(From Questionable Content. Click for full-sized space constraints.)

Why is it that I was groaning when I was reading this comic?

Was it because this presages a lengthy storyline involving wacky hijinks among most of the cast which Jeph seems to specialize in? It shouldn’t; such a storyline should be fun and provide for some unique interactions between characters, including some character development for the new ones, advancement for the Dora/Tai relationship, and perhaps some new relationships brewing. Perhaps it’s because I have a sinking feeling that despite all of that, the storyline is ultimately going to amount to Marigold and Emily being shoved down our throats for weeks on end.

Or maybe it was because of what’s implied about the size of the house, which makes me wonder if this is going to be Space Station Arc 2: Electric Boogaloo. Even if Emily’s parents don’t live in the equivalent of a space station, if the arc focuses primarily on its setting, and perhaps on characters we’ve never seen before and will barely see again, that might actually be worse than having Marigold and Emily shoved down our throats for weeks on end.

I think Questionable Content is an awesome comic, at its best one of the three best comics I read, so why does it give me similar feelings to those I get while reading Ctrl+Alt+Del? My relationship with this comic might be even weirder: I absolutely love the comic, and yet I keep expecting it to fail and frustrate me at every turn.

(Damn you, exceedingly tall comic, for forcing me to flesh out every QC post I make, in this case while Jeph is livestreaming the drawing of the next one!)

Update on my school year

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Okay, I’ve clearly completely failed at managing my projects vis-a-vis actual schoolwork, because I’m tired all day and I’m falling horribly behind on it, despite the fact that I was trying to make one of my projects into schoolwork.

Obviously the FF50 challenge is a major timesuck, but there’s one or two other projects as well, which are actually starting to crowd out one another, and I’m not sure how to weed them out. I can’t abandon leagues much faster than I’m already doing; if I’m in contention for a playoff spot, let alone the championship, for me to then abandon my team would cause utter chaos. Already down to 42 leagues before I even started, I was thinking of dropping to 32 next year, and now I’m thinking even lower, because I have never put in all the roster moves I would have liked to before deadline.

Thoughts on the new baseball contracts coming Wednesday.

The powers that be want to add a seventh post-BCS bowl?

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Why? Okay, I get that they want to add an auto bid for the best team not from a New Year’s Day bowl conference, but couldn’t they just tell the selection committee to select at least one such team for the other bowls? Are they that greedy that they’d rather add another bowl, even if that means extending the new postseason to December 30 and ruining its elegance, rather than allow the big conferences to lose a single spot?

Combine that with reports that this is as much about giving the Big 12 and Pac-12 a backup tie-in (like what the SEC and Big 10 want for the Orange Bowl) as anything else, and it seems like the non-New Year’s Day bowls are sinking fast; in years they’re not hosting a semifinal, they’re basically holding pens for whatever leftovers are still around after the semifinals and New Year’s Day bowls make their picks, to give the bowl a reason to exist as part of the rotation. Hell, in years when none of the New Year’s Day bowls are semifinals, you might as well book a non-BCS v. Big 12/Pac-12 matchup for whatever New Year’s Eve bowl isn’t a semifinal without adding a seventh game, and take the pressure off the selection committee’s shoulders entirely.

Reassessing the new sports radio wars

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CBS may not just be the favorite to take the spot behind ESPN Radio in the Darwinian world that has developed in national sports radio. It has a chance to run down ESPN for .

In an absolutely shocking move, Jim Rome, the dean of national sports radio hosts, will be jumping ship to the new CBS Sports Radio network when it launches this January. Rome does have his existing relationship with CBS Sports and the CBS Sports Network, but I am amazed that he would leave his home of many, many years to join a brand new sports radio network when he never left Premiere for ESPN Radio in all the time he was hosting Jim Rome is Burning, always maintained his show’s independence from Premiere’s Fox Sports Radio network, and repeatedly stated his commitment to the terrestrial radio stations that made him, to the point that if you don’t get a station that carries his show, your only recourse is to stream one that does, or sign up for his “Jungle Insider” package. I didn’t even think his contract with Premiere was up for renewal yet. I would also note that CBS Sports Network would love to air a TV simulcast of the show, but Jim Rome seems to have been adamantly against the idea of any such thing for some time now.

Why would Rome do this? I suspect the main reason is the changing shape of sports talk radio. Rome has boasted on his show that he has more stations than ever carrying it, but that hides some attrition among the stations that matter most. If you’re a major market sports station – by which I mean any market with big-time professional or college teams – your bread and butter is going to be local shows talking about local teams that people care about, which you control all the advertising for instead of splitting with a syndicator. By far the most distributed shows of the existing sports radio networks are the ones occupying the period from the start of primetime, when most of the games start, until the start of morning drive, despite these often being the ones with the least promotion and the smallest names, because the rest of the time is usually occupied with local shows (NBC seems to have realized this); despite what I said about CBS’ bank of existing big-market sports radio stations, don’t expect them to carry much CBS Sports Radio programming.

Many big-market stations, including some of Rome’s oldest and most loyal affiliates, have been cutting back on their coverage of Rome’s show or dropped it entirely for local shows. WKNR in Cleveland shunted the first hour off to a sister station with a signal barely leaving Cleveland proper; KILT in Houston dropped the whole show entirely, both of them among Rome’s earliest affiliates with fundamental roles in the growth of the show. Rome may have decided that, in order to maintain his audience and relevance, he needed to find a platform that would give him the biggest exposure in the national sports radio landscape of today, one reliant on streaming and TV simulcasts to find today’s audiences.

Besides elevating CBS Sports Radio, this could prove absolutely devastating to Fox Sports Radio, already essentially a simulcast of flagship station KLAC’s lineup, despite not officially having Rome in its lineup (or the bank of play-by-play rights Fox has recently won for it) – especially if Dan Patrick, whose contract with DirecTV is reportedly up soon, decides to join NBC Sports Radio, in which case it could plunge to very nearly the level of Yahoo as co-favorites to ultimately fold. If DirecTV manages to keep Patrick and keep him on FSR, they should be able to hold off NBC Sports Radio for the time being, but ultimately the fate of FSR depends largely on how much presence Premiere wants to maintain in the sports talk radio market going forward.

The biggest threat to any part of ESPN’s hegemony may end up having very little to do with television.