College football 2020 offseason thread

Most good journalists are open-minded and skeptical. They question things. They don't just swallow what someone says as truth, they seek a variety of opinions, discern the facts and then lay it out. To just say "all journos are Democrats" is BS. Most I know are non-affiliated by registration. They want transparency. They want 2 plus 2 to equal 4 and will show their work, not just say "the answer is 4."

 

This "expert" is a PhD in epidemiology who was framing base-case (i.e., no social distancing, etc.) projections (from somewhere else, I might add) in a "what if?" scenario that was put in front of him by an interviewer. That others, including you apparently, can't get your head around what he was saying and the context in which he was saying it ain't on him.

 

He was framing “let it burn,” whatever that means. If he meant no safety measures at all, then he was framing a fantasy at the time he said it. Because there’s never been a point in which that was true nationwide.

He had another interview where he said “fuck you” or somesuch nonsense to an interviewer’s hypothetical.

Maybe he’s toned it down since then. We were still in the throes back then of “death scoreboard,” in which we had to present the virus as a terrorist, or a war, or Krakatoa.

 

Obviously a progressive Democrat ...

 

Yours is a total non-sequitur. A "what if" question was put before him. He answered it. It wasn't his "what if." It wasn't even his projection. It was him framing the numbers to put them in a more understandable context. Either you don't have the courage to simply say, "Ah, I had that wrong," or you don't have the cognitive chops to realize just how wrong you've had it.

 

He left Wake Forest for Georgia, which immediately recruited over him by taking a second transfer QB.
Probably not a bad move to get another chance at a (hopefully) normal season in 2021. They'll bring in more competition, of course. But why burn your last year of eligibility in a season that will be reduced in significance at best.

 

Increasingly, I just don't think this is true.

Because of massive desk layoffs, writers have been empowered to such a degree that many of the guardrails editors used to make reporters better - and reporters do get better - are gone, leaving, for the most part, a reporter's biases, inclinations and, most of all, competitive streak and need to win. That's generally a good thing for reporters to have in the proper context. But, today, it's "get the story by any means necessary, protect any source with any agenda, if skepticism stops you from winning, don't be skeptical and, above all, try to be on the 'right side' of a topic so as to further plug sources for info."

I don't think journalists want their biases to shine through. But it's like Woj in that moment where he told a US Senator "fuck you." It may hurt his parent company, it may damage his credibility with readers as an objective reporter, but it improves his standing with the only people who matter to him: His colleagues and his sources. Can you imagine if ESPN said "you know, Woj, we're going to a policy where you can't write 'league sources' anymore but have to name the people giving you this information. Sorry." Woj would quit. He couldn't do what he does if anyone had to stand behind what they told him. That's the state of sports journalism. Woj really works for them, not ESPN. ESPN just pays to be his publishing platform.

That balance is gone. It's all about the celebrity reporter and their reputation. People lose their way in that. The power moves from the power the journalist inherently has - to be on no one's side - to the power a national reporter needs to keep.

Clay Travis - barely a journalist - isn't any different.

 

I'm willing to blame the reporter for her shitty framing of this quote, but here's the context:

But the reality is that even after we pass the initial peak of infection, the virus is still active. We have already lost more than 16,000 Americans to this disease. Bringing back sports soon would give people a reason to stay inside, a reason to feel hopeful. It would probably also cost more lives.

“If people just decide to let it burn in most areas and we do lose a couple million people it’d probably be over by the fall,” says Binney. “You’d have football. You’d also have two million dead people. And let’s talk about that number. We’re really bad at dealing with big numbers. That is a Super Bowl blown up by terrorists, killing every single person in the building, 24 times in six months. It’s 9/11 every day for 18 months. What freedoms have we given up, what wars have we fought, what blood have we shed, what money have we spent in the interest of stopping one more 9/11? This is 9/11 every day for 18 months.”

The context leading into his quote is "bringing back sports soon." Then he says "let it burn in most areas" - no clue what that means - and we're at 2 million dead. We don't know what the question was. It wasn't included. Since the story is about NBA, MLB and NHL coming back, I don't know how the streams got crossed into the doomsday scenario.

 

JT Daniels transferred from USC through the portal. Daniels is a 5-star who started for USC as a true freshman. He tore up his knee on the last play of the first half of the season opener last year.

 

Wait, are you saying decisions about this football season during a pandemic can be made without politics being involved!?!

 

You're right. I had forgotten the identity of the more recent transfer. I assumed that was another senior-to-be. I think Daniels had an appeal for immediate eligibility and won it. So now Newman is screwed. He'll have to sit out and do nothing at Georgia and go somewhere else for 2021. Or he could just cast his lot for the 2021 draft now. Wonder how up-front the Dawgs were about Daniels when they were recruiting Newman. Or if they had any inkling Daniels would be available.