Like I said earlier, I’m not sure how much live-tweeting I’ll do during the SOTU tonight. But to the extent I do tweet it — and also, to the extent Becky tweets it — our tweets will appear in the CiL window below. You can join in the conversation by tweeting something “@brendanloy” (or “@MileHighBecky“); those reply tweets, too, will appear below.
Let me be clear: it’s an open thread
Twas the night before SOTU, and all through the House
Not a member was stirring, not even to grouse.
The prompters were hung ‘fore the podium with care
In hopes that Obama soon would be there.The partisans, nestled all snug in their beds,
dreamed of cross-the-aisle prom dates to enhance #NewTone cred.
And Bachmann, the wingnut, and Boehner, the sap,
had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.–me, last night, on Twitter
I’m not sure how much live-blogging/tweeting of the State of the Union I’ll do tonight. Maybe a lot, maybe only a little; I haven’t decided yet. My parents are in town, and will be watching with us, so that’s one factor. Another factor is how successfully we’re able to manage the conflict between the speech and the girls’ bedtimes. Still another factor is that I might like to actually listen to the speech, and live-tweeting tends to equal live-snarking, which is a very different way of experiencing a speech from actual, honest-to-goodness listening. But, who am I kidding, I’ll end up live-tweeting at least somewhat. Even if I plan not to, I’ll grab my iPhone or laptop the instant Boehner makes a face or Biden yawns or the camera pans to some bipartisan odd couple sitting together awkwardly. I can’t help myself. 🙂
In any event, until the big event this evening, this thread is your venue to talk about the speech: What do you expect? What are you hoping for? What should Obama say? What will he say? Why is Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan giving the Republican response? (What? Paul Ryan? Oh. Never mind.) What sort of crazy s**t will Michele Bachmann say in the Tea Party Response? Why isn’t Bernie Sanders giving a Socialist Response? Which member of the Cabinet will skip the speech? Will the Supreme Court show up? What random members of the public will Obama point out during the speech? How drunk will people get if they play the SOTU drinking game? (Hint: very.) Make no mistake: there’s a lot to talk about. So let me be clear: comment away!
WAC back to zombie status as Utah State, SJSU reportedly jump ship [UPDATE: It’s aliiiiiiiive!!!]
TUESDAY UPDATE: It sounds like this was a false alarm. Here’s the official statement from the Mountain West Board of Directors:
Over the past two days, the Board of Directors has engaged in a very thorough discussion of several key topics pertinent to the future of the Mountain West Conference. This has included, but not been limited to, issues related to television, the Bowl Championship Series and membership. The Board feels strongly the membership configuration already established going forward creates outstanding prospects for future success. In addition, we are continuing with our strategic initiatives related to our television partnerships and the MWC’s efforts to effect change in the BCS structure. The Board is excited about what is undoubtedly a bright future for the Conference.
In other words, no expansion right now. So… uh… never mind! (The WAC-enstein Zombie: IT’S ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!) Original post below.
The bleedin’ pub’s on fire!
Comments Off on The bleedin’ pub’s on fire!
This evening, I went with my parents (who are in town visiting), Kristy and V to hear Brian Clancy, a local Irish pub singer — no relation to the Clancies of Makem/Clancy fame, though he sings a lot of their stuff — sing at the Irish Snug. During his second set, he sang “The Old Dun Cow,” a very funny song about a pub catching fire (and everyone running to the basement to drink up the booze). Here’s the chorus:
There was Brown! Where? Upside down!
Lappin’ up the whiskey on the floor.
“Booze, booze!” the firemen cried
As they came knockin’ on the door
Oh don’t let ’em in till it’s all drunk up
Somebody shouted MacIntyre! (MACINTYRE!)
And we all got blue-blind paralytic drunk
When the Old Dun Cow caught fire.
And then — true story — maybe 20 or 30 seconds after Clancy stopped singing, before he’d even started the next song, the fire alarms went off.
As my tweet says: “And we all got blue-blind paralytic drunk when The Irish Snug caught fire!!!”
Well, not really. The show was halted (and replaced by recorded music to help drown out the screeching alarm) for maybe 15 minutes, as the Fire Department came to the scene and checked things out. There was no fire, and everything was fine; I’m not sure what caused the alarm to sound, but the firefighters promptly turned it off, which allowed Clancy to resume his show.
But regardless, wow, what awesome timing! LOL! As you can see above, I took a bunch of video, which I then mixed together on the spot, using iMovie on my iPhone, and tweeted within maybe a half-hour of the incident, while still at the pub listening to Clancy. Note: technology is amazing.
Loss at MTSU ends DU’s winning streak
Just two days after their euphoric 38-point home win over Arkansas State, the Denver Pioneers fell back to earth with a 59-49 road loss to Middle Tennessee State, ending their eight-game winning streak and giving them their first loss in Sun Belt play. I wasn’t able to watch the game, but DU committed 20 turnovers and allowed 16 offensive rebounds, which pretty much tells the tale.
Denver is now 6-1 in conference and 10-10 overall, heading into a crucial showdown next Saturday with division rival North Texas, which is 5-2 in conference and 16-4 overall, at DU’s Magness Arena. (The teams will play again in Denton, TX on February 26.) The Sun Belt West appears, for the moment anyway, to be a two-team battle between the Pioneers and the Mean Green, with Arkansas-Little Rock now having 3 losses and everyone else having 4 or more.
Countdown reaches zero
MSNBC talk-show host Keith Olbermann unexpectedly announced the end of his show Countdown today. The eight-year-long show was the highest-rated on MSNBC. Olbermann, who gained fame as a host of Sports Center on ESPN, started the show as a humorous look at the news, but morphed into a vocal liberal critic in the later half of the Bush presidency. (Hat tip: President Bartlett for the title.)
Well… that was fun.
Denver is 6-0 in the Sun Belt, 10-9 overall — above .500 after a 2-9 start! — and riding an eight-game winning streak, their longest ever in Division I, capped by this evening’s utter demolition of Arkansas State at Magness Arena.
Just an amazing, phenomenal performance by the Pioneers, winning by 38 points — their largest margin of victory since returning to Division I in 1998-99. Needless to say, they dominated in every facet of the game, and they never let up or lost focus.
Now, 3 road games out of the next 4. And the home game? Against North Texas.
Liveblog: Arkansas St. (+2.5) at Denver
It’s #1 vs. #2 in the Sun Belt West tonight at Magness Arena, as things start getting real in conference play. Denver vs. Arkansas State might not be the Mid-Majority’s Game! Of! The! Night! (despite my dreams to the contrary), but it’s the G! O! T! N! in our hearts. Mike Jarvis, coach of the Sun Belt’s only other undefeated squad (Florida Atlantic), calls Arkansas State “one heck of a team,” and like the Pioneers (once 2-9, now 9-9), the Red Wolves are on something of a roll (10-10 after a 1-6 start). Denver is favored by a mere 2.5 points, which means Vegas believes this would basically be a pick-em game on a neutral floor. The “other” Pioneer Post, which I increasingly suspect is written in large part by robots (but I digress), calls the game “a Sun Belt bout of epic proportions.” That’s perhaps a tad overdramatic (if not oxymoronic), but we’ll go with it! It’s gonna be EPIC!!!
But the epic G! O! T! N! I! O! H! isn’t all that’s on tap tonight in the mighty, mighty Sun Belt. No-sir-ee, we’ve got a full slate of hot! hot! hot! SBC action, including some games with big implications for the Pios. If all three home teams win in UALR @ FIU, NTEX @ ULM, and of course ARST @ DEN, the Pioneers would have a three-game lead in their division by night’s end. (By contrast, if the all three road teams win, Denver would have just a one-game lead over a trio of teams — with games coming up against all three between now and February 5, and two of those three on the road.) Also, can Western Kentucky finally win an SBC game? And which of the SBC East’s three-loss teams will win the ESPN3 game, and stay nominally alive in the race to catch those 6-0 Fighting Jarvises of FAU?
(By the way, if I sound sarcastic above, I don’t mean to. I’m just feeling a bit punchy and silly. I’m genuinely excited about tonight’s game, though! My mental transition from covering a disastrous season to covering one with real potential again is just about complete. Hopefully tonight doesn’t screw that up!)
Anyway, DU’s tipoff against Arkie State is at 7pm MST. I’ll be at Magness, watching from press row and live-tweeting, as per usual. And unlike some previous scattered, multi-topic liveblogs during DU games, we’re going to try to stay (mostly) on task tonight. All of my tweets, and tweets at me, will display in the Cover It Live window below. So will tweets from anyone on Kyle Whelliston’s Sun Belt list. Meanwhile, to keep us abreast of the broader mid-major picture, any tweets by @midmajority, or at him, will also appear, as will tweets by @bbstate (final CBB game scores) and @pixlvision (links to games that are watchable online).
The liveblog will start started at 2:00 PM MST. The evening’s first SBC game, UALR @ FIU, tips at 5:00 PM. That’s also approximately when Bally and I will be leaving downtown and heading over to DU.
You can join in the conversation by tweeting something “@brendanloy“; it’ll appear below. You can do this using the reply window at the bottom of this post. (NOTE: After the first tweet, you will need to retype “@brendanloy” in the window for each subsequent tweet.) OR, you can comment using CoverItLive’s built-in commenting system. I have to approve your comment before it will appear, though, so there may be a delay; tweeting at me is faster.
[game over, tweet box removed]
Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Pawlenty, Barbour, Daniels… and 13 others
Two years to the day before America either inaugurates a new president or re-inaugurates the current one (or, you know, fails to inaugurate anybody due to the declaration of martial law amid the post-apocalyptic nightmare following the End of the World in 2012), Larry Sabato offers some political junkie porn in the form of 19 — count ’em, 19 — breakdowns of potential GOP candidates. (And I decided to call it “political junkie porn” even before I read this statement: “The GOP field is not set. The contenders are in various stages of undress as the strip tease proceeds.” Um, #PANIC?!)
Anyway, Sabato says: “No one can be rated as having an ‘excellent’ chance at winning the nomination (yet someone will eventually win). Mitt Romney, widely considered to be leading the early pack, starts out as a weak frontrunner. Six actual or possible contenders are placed in the First Tier; four more in the Second Tier: four in the Third Tier; and five in the Fourth Tier. Obviously, the nominee is likely to be found in Tiers 1 and 2.” The first-tier contenders are Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin (#PANIC!!!), Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, and Mitch Daniels (described as “everybody’s second or third choice”; my tentative first choice, for what little it’s worth). Money quote: “One of the most famous pre-candidates in recent presidential history, Sarah Palin continues to dominate a campaign she has not entered and may never enter.” The second-tier contenders are Newt Gingrich, Mike Pence, John Thune and Marco Rubio (who would have half the Senate experience Obama did in ’08; more likely to be a VP candidate, Sabato says). Among those in the third tier is Michelle Bachmann (#PANIC!!!!!). Among those in the fourth tier are Ron Paul and John Bolton.
Anyway, enjoy!
While the WAC is falling, Texas on the rise
Two interesting stories this week that could be the tremors indicating further tectonic shifts in the world of college football.
First, a report from Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, that WAC members San Jose State and Utah State are potential targets for further Mountain West expansion (presumeably aiming for a 12 team league and the coveted conference championship game option).
Losing one or both of those teams would be a devastating blow to the allready beleagured WAC. A recent change in NCAA rules eliminating the continuity clause, and thus assuring the WAC’s continued gaurenteed berths in the NCAA tournaments, was cause for celebration by embattled WAC commish Karl Benson, but his league is allready stretched for teams. Right now the 2012 season will include just 8 teams, San Jose State, Utah State, New Mexico, Idaho, Texas State, UT San Antonio, Louisianna Tech, and Denver (basketball only). Without the first two the viability of the league falls into serious doubt as 6 teams is below the threshold needed for tournament berths, and just 5 in football would be a scheduling nightmare.
What are the options for poor Karl and the WAC misfits?
First, they could search for additional teams to join, although they were barely able to do that by pulling in UTSA and Texas State this round. Montana has allready turned them down, and Cal Poly and UC Davis recently agreed to join the Big Sky, not something they would have done if they were seriously interested in the WAC. Who is left? Western Sun Belt or C-USA teams, but why leave for a half-dead conference when they are stable where they are now?
Second, they could just wholesale merge with the Sun Belt, forming a 17 team super conference (16 for football) and split into an east and west division. That seems like the most viable option, but depends on whether the Sun Belt is even interested.
Third, some of them, such as Idaho might end up dropping back to D-1AA or joining the Sun Belt/C-USA piecemeal.
Of course the two schools may decide to stay or not even get invites from the Mountain West.
Regardless of what happens in the WAC/MWC, news out of Texas could foreshadow a seismic shift that could render all the above moot anyway by leading to bigger changes. In a deal announced today with ESPN, Texas will launch a 24 hour Longhorns network this fall. ESPN, which will help setup, launch and operate the network will pay the school $300 million over the next 20 years. Thats a lot of money.
Despite statements by Texas President William Powers that the Longhorns are “firmly commited” to the Big 12, its not hard to imagine that with a deal like that in place that the Longhorns could follow BYU’s recent example and opt for independence. Such a move would likely signal the end of the Big 12 as it stands. Without the Longhorns providing the glue to hold the league together teams would probably be picked off by the other leagues, especially the Pac-12 as it looks to move up to 16 teams. If I had to make a guess I’d say things fall out as follows:
To Pac-12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Baylor
To SEC: Texas A&M
To Big East: Kansas, Kansas State
To Big Ten: Missourri
To MWC/C-USA/Sun Belt: Iowa State
On the other hand, the Big 12 teams could try and stick together, pulling in a 12th member such as BYU or TCU to fill out back to 10 (or both plus one more for 12), but I think thats less likely to happen.
Looks like it’ll be awhile yet before the conferences settle into a stable period.