Historically, its eight institutions have not allowed student-athletes to compete in a fifth year or as a graduate student, even in the case of medical redshirts. As a result, athletes who redshirted a year have had to transfer elsewhere if they wanted to use their last year of eligibility. This is a completely different policy than that of nearly every other conference in the country. For Binghamton and its America East counterparts, student-athletes regularly compete as graduate students or fifth year seniors after medical redshirt seasons.

It is also noteworthy that no other Division I conference in the country has been as conservative as the Ivy League throughout the pandemic. It was the first conference in the country to suspend spring sports last March, and it remains the only conference to not resume competition in some capacity. This year’s fall and winter sports were canceled months ago, and no decision has been made on the status of spring sports. It seems unlikely that any Ivy League school will compete in any sport for the duration of the 2020-21 academic year, and that has been apparent for months at this point.

The decision is clearly the right choice for the conference, but it has come too late for many of its student-athletes. According to ESPN, more than 20 Ivy League men’s basketball players have already entered the NCAA transfer portal. Consider the cases of all of the nonrevenue sports. There are hundreds of other athletes that have known for months that their chances of having a season this year were slim but had no idea whether they would be allowed to return next year.

The NCAA granted spring student-athletes an additional year of eligibility shortly after the suspension of the 2020 season. Fall athletes were given an extra season last August, and winter athletes earned the same privilege in October, despite most programs finding a way to play a modified season in some fashion.

If the Ivy League had made its decisions at a similar time as the NCAA, these seniors would have had months to research graduate programs and consider their options as they make important decisions about their future.

It has been obvious for some time now that the Ivy League would not compete this year, so why did student-athletes have to wait in limbo to find out if their conference would give them the same ability as every other athlete in the country? The answer, it appears, is the history and tradition that the Ivy League is rooted in.

The conference has made it clear that this is a one-time exception, and not an indication of willingness to change the long-standing policy moving forward. While tradition and history are certainly something to be respected, the world is in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis and it is unfair to make student-athletes wait for a relatively straightforward decision.

Also worthy of consideration is the plight of last year’s spring seniors, which has basically become collateral damage in the current ruling. Last March, the Ivy League leadership likely did not foresee that this year’s sports were at risk of being canceled and may have been unwilling to throw away that history and tradition for only a small portion of its athletes. However, those seniors now appear to have been shortchanged.

With several one-year graduate programs available nowadays, including popular MBA programs, the chance to continue playing a sport as a graduate student could provide beneficial academic experience for student-athletes, in addition to making up for losing a season of competition.

While it is commendable that the Ivy League finally granted this year’s seniors an extra year to compete, the student-athletes of the Ivy League deserved that decision in a much quicker timeframe than when it was provided.

Winner: Wisconsin

One football program that already experienced a bout with the coronavirus is No. 10 Wisconsin. The Badgers took a three-week hiatus between games due to COVID-19 spread within the program. Coming out of that hiatus, there was the potential for Wisconsin to be slow and sloppy in its first game in three weeks. Instead, the Badgers looked like they hadn’t broken stride at all. Wisconsin (2-0, 2-0 Big Ten) romped to victory over Michigan at the Big House on Saturday night, topping the Wolverines 49-11. The game was over not long after it started, with the Badgers building a 28-0 lead within the first 20 minutes. Wisconsin won the game the patented Wisconsin way, with stifling defense and a scintillating running game. The Badgers outgained Michigan (1-3, 1-3 Big Ten) on the ground by 341 yards to 47. It was a performance that cemented Wisconsin’s status as a Big Ten and national title contender.

Loser: Stanford

It was only five seasons ago when Stanford last made the Rose Bowl, rolling over Iowa to a 45-16 victory on the back of a monster performance by running back Christian McCaffrey, but it feels like it was much deeper into the past. Stanford’s football program has been on a steady decline since that glorious day. Last season, the team posted a losing record for the first time since 2008, and this season, the program is off to an 0-2 start. The Cardinal began the season with an uncompetitive loss against rivals Oregon, and then this past weekend, the team lost a close game at home to Colorado. Stanford’s defense has not shown up yet this season, allowing 35 points and over 400 yards of offense in both of the team’s games. After success earlier this decade, it is now clear that Stanford is now a rebuilding program.

Winner: Northwestern

If any team is going to emerge as a challenger to Wisconsin in the Big Ten West, it looks like it will be No. 19 Northwestern. The Wildcats have quietly gotten off to a 4-0 start this year, and their victories include solid road performances at Iowa and Purdue. The way the Wildcats have been winning games this season has been on defense. Across four games, Northwestern has given up just five touchdowns. The Wildcats are giving up only 302 yards per game on average, have been holding opponents to a conversion rate of under 30 percent on third down and have allowed just four touchdowns on 14 red-zone possessions. The offense, meanwhile, hasn’t been eye-popping, but it has done just enough for Northwestern to win games, particularly on the ground. Wisconsin may be a bit too tough for this sturdy Northwestern team to handle, but it has a shot. We’ll find out a lot more about whether Northwestern is for real next week when they meet Wisconsin head-to-head at home. It should be a very interesting game.

Winner: USC

No. 20 USC has played two games this season, and in both of them the Trojans needed a game-winning score in the final two minutes to pull out victories. On one hand, the feat is impressive. The resiliency that sophomore quarterback Kedon Slovis and the USC offense have shown to be able to pull off two stunning comebacks in a row is remarkable. Slovis himself is off to a hot start this season. He has completed over 71 percent of his throws for over 700 yards in just two games. On the other hand, these comebacks haven’t come against top opponents, they’ve come against the Pac-12’s two Arizona teams, which are mediocre at best. Therefore USC’s performance so far this season is a mixed bag; the Trojans have played beautiful football down the stretch to pull victory from the jaws of defeat twice, but against opponents, they should have beaten more handily. Luckily for them, their schedule isn’t so tough this season, so an appearance in the Pac-12 Championship Game is very possible.

Winner: Indiana

It appears that Indiana’s opening-day victory against Penn State was no fluke. After having the resiliency to come back and beat the Nittany Lions (0-3, 0-3 Big Ten) in overtime, the Hoosiers (3-0, 3-0 Big Ten) won both of their next two games by double digits. In their most recent game, the Hoosiers took apart the Michigan Wolverines, a team they hadn’t beaten since 1987. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Michael Penix Jr. continues to look good under center. He completed 30 of his 50 pass attempts for 342 yards and three touchdowns against Don Brown’s Michigan defense. All of a sudden the Hoosiers are up to 10th in the nation in the AP Poll, higher than every team in the Big Ten with the exception of No. 3 Ohio State. For a program that’s been a six-to-seven-win team seemingly forever, the opportunity to potentially make a New Year’s Six bowl is probably most welcome.

Loser: Penn State

As surprisingly good as Indiana has been, Penn State has been just as surprisingly bad. It’s one thing to lose a close game on the road in overtime to a team that has turned out to be very solid. It’s another to get swatted aside at home by Maryland. The Nittany Lions lost by 16 points to the Terrapins (2-1, 2-1 Big Ten), and the score is misleading, as Penn State scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns when the game was already out of reach. Led by sophomore quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa —Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s brother — Maryland’s offense had an efficient, easy day against the Nittany Lions. When Penn State had the ball, it could not muster any running game whatsoever, forcing redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford to throw the ball 57 times, and it was clear that he could not handle that load. Clifford completed fewer than half of his passes and turned the ball over three times, one of which was a fumble return for a touchdown. This season has been nothing short of a train wreck thus far in Happy Valley.

Winner: Liberty

It’s only No. 22 Liberty’s third season in the Football Bowl Subdivison (FBS), and yet it already looks very comfortable in the top division of college football. The Flames (7-0) are off to a perfect start this season, as it hasn’t just been bad teams they’ve beaten along the way. Last month, the Flames earned at 17-point road victory against Syracuse, an ACC Division opponent, and this past week the Flames defeated another ACC opponent. Last week’s game against Virginia Tech was a lot closer than the game against Syracuse, but Liberty still managed to march into Blacksburg and put up 466 yards of offense and 38 points in the home of a program with a history of success. The game ended on a game-winning, 51-yard field goal by senior kicker Alex Barbir. With four games remaining on its schedule, it is very possible that Liberty reaches double-digit wins this season, an impressive feat.

Loser: Pac-12

Last week was the first week of the Pac-12 football season, and yet hardly anyone is talking about it. It is true that the conference has far fewer quality teams this season than the other Power Five conferences do, but it even feels like the few quality teams the conference has aren’t playing any games with consequence. Last week’s Pac-12 games might have been overshadowed by marquee matchups like Florida vs. Georgia and Clemson at Notre Dame, but even so, there was very little attention being paid to No. 12 Oregon’s victory over Stanford, a significant rivalry game that used to carry so much weight in the national conversation. Though the season is just getting started, it feels like the Pac-12 may have kicked off just a bit too late to have any chance of its teams competing for a national title. A Pac-12 team may have to go undefeated in order to be in the College Football Playoff conversation, and even then, a spot is no guarantee. We don’t yet know how the selection committee will judge an 8-0 Pac-12 record against an 11-1 record of an SEC or ACC team, for instance, but common sense seems to lean in favor of the team that played 50 percent more games. The Pac-12 scrambled to put a season together in time for CFP consideration, and while they made the official deadline, they still may have just missed the train.

Being a Jets fan myself, the pure misery of watching this team play the game of football is at an all-time high this year. The 2020 New York Jets might be the worst Jets team I have laid my eyes upon since becoming a fan.

The amount of pain this team has dragged me through in my teenage years has been wildly abundant. I haven’t witnessed a Jets playoff run since I was in the fourth grade. To put that in perspective, I am now a sophomore in college. Even after missing the playoffs for the 10th straight season, I still consider myself an optimistic fan — but after watching this team play this year and seeing our “savior” Sam Darnold regress, it’s hard to ignore the fact that it always has been and will be the “same old Jets” until further notice.

Anyone with some sort of football knowledge can easily come to the conclusion that Adam Gase has no idea how to be an NFL head coach. Making matters worse, the roster itself might be the worst in recent history, which is hard to believe considering the awful Jets teams over the past decade. However, even with former head coaches Rex Ryan and Todd Bowles, teams with equally poor talent were, for the most part, competitive in games. This is the complete opposite of the Gase-led Jets.

The Jets have been 7-17 with Gase as head coach. They weren’t even competitive in the games they lost last year, and the same is true for most losses this year. As the Jets’ head coach, Gase has 13 double-digit losses. What does this show? It shows that the players aren’t coming onto the field on Sundays well prepared and continue to get blown out. It is clear that if the players aren’t prepared and are unsure of what to do in certain situations, it is on the coaches. Even with the poor rosters, Ryan and Bowles had some years when the team was still competitive, meaning they were at least coached well. As a Jets fan, it’s honestly sad that Gase is so bad he makes Bowles look like a good coach.

Even though it’s very clear Gase is a terrible head coach and will be fired either during the season or after, the root of the problem is the ownership. The Johnsons have been incompetent owners since they purchased the Jets in 2000. Woody Johnson, who is the true owner of the Jets in the Johnson family, has made wrong decision after wrong decision since he stepped in as owner. It’s clear due to all the losing seasons the Jets have been doing in recent memory.

Then, a glimmer of hope occurred in 2016, when Woody Johnson gave ownership duties over to his brother Christopher Johnson. That hope faded quickly once he hired Gase as head coach, and even went as far as calling him a “brilliant offensive mind” this year. Just to inform anyone who isn’t familiar with the situation, the Jets have been dead last in almost every offensive category since Gase became head coach. To be fair to Christopher Johnson, he can’t say bad things about his head coach publicly, but the fact that Gase hasn’t been fired yet is concerning. Either way, it wouldn’t be outlandish to conclude that he has lost the trust of most Jets fans.

Well then, what’s next? Is there any hope for the future? The one bright spot of the organization is general manager Joe Douglas. Thus far, Douglas has made smart decisions for the team’s future, such as saving cap space for this upcoming offseason, making smart draft choices in the 2020 NFL Draft and stockpiling draft picks for the future. Even recently, he has traded proven veterans for even more late-round draft picks to further improve the Jets’ future draft capital. However, if he isn’t the right guy for the job, it might be another five years until the Jets even sniff the playoffs.

As for now, all there is for Jets fans is hope for the future. The only thing keeping us around is the unrealistic hope of future greatness that comes each offseason. Even though being a Jets fan may have taken years off my life, I’ll be sticking around hoping one day I will witness the Jets win a Super Bowl. Until then, I’ll continue to complain to my father asking him why on Earth he made me a New York Jets fan.

Winner: Ohio State

It’s only been two weeks since the Big Ten began its football season, but the Big Ten title already seems like it’s been locked up. Road games at Penn State are never easy, but No. 3 Ohio State (2-0, 2-0 Big Ten) made it look relatively comfortable. Junior quarterback Justin Fields looks extremely comfortable once more in head coach Ryan Day’s system. Against the Nittany Lions (0-2, 0-2 Big Ten), Fields threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns and threw an incompletion only six times. With Penn State and Michigan looking shaky in the Big Ten East, Ohio State should cruise to another Big Ten Championship Game. It is still unknown how strong of a team No. 10 Wisconsin is because it has had two of its games canceled due to the spread of COVID-19, but if the Buckeyes continue to play like this, they should earn a spot in the CFP once more.

Loser: Michigan

Ohio State’s historic rivals, however, did not fare so well last week. The Wolverines (1-1, 1-1 Big Ten) were flying high after a blowout win at Minnesota. The special teams were making plays, the offense looked dynamic and junior quarterback Joe Milton looked like a smart, effective solution under center. None of that held true last week against Michigan State. The Spartans (1-1, 1-1 Big Ten) looked like a diminished team after losing to Rutgers last week, but they shocked the college football world by beating Michigan on Saturday. The game wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated. The Wolverines could not get their running game going, forcing Milton to throw the ball more, and he wasn’t nearly as accurate as he was against the Golden Gophers (0-2, 0-2 Big Ten). Also, Michigan’s defense had no answer for freshman wide receiver Ricky White, who had 196 receiving yards. Jim Harbaugh is now 1-6 at home against Ohio State and Michigan State as UM’s head coach. That certainly won’t please the alumni.

Winner: BYU

Last week I wrote about how No. 6 Cincinnati has surged into the top 10 in the AP Poll. This week, it’s No. 9 BYU that has made the leap under the radar. The Cougars (7-0) are an independent program and thus gets to construct its schedule entirely on its own. It is true that their schedule isn’t incredibly tough, but the opponents that they did face, they clobbered. Of the seven games they won this year, their margin of victory was at least 17 points in six of them and at least 31 points in five of them. We’ll see what BYU is really made of on Friday when they face No. 21 Boise State on the blue turf. Should they win, the Cougars are in the conversation for a New Year’s Six bowl.

Winner: Trevor Lawrence

Whenever a quarterback does extremely well in college football, there’s always an underlying worry that it’s not the quarterback’s natural talent at work, but rather the particular system that the quarterback is operating under. That is the reason why quarterbacks like J.T. Barrett and Dwayne Haskins did so well at Ohio State but so poorly in the NFL. But in junior quarterback Lawrence’s case, whatever small doubts there were about this issue is gone. In No. 1 Clemson’s recent game against Boston College, the Tigers (7-0, 6-0 ACC) struggled for much of the game and won by the skin of their teeth. This was a game that, with Lawrence under center, Clemson would have dominated. Obviously, Lawrence would have wanted Clemson to win more comfortably, but the fact that the Tigers’ performance dropped so much without him is a testament to his incredible talent. NFL teams will be happy.

Winner: Oklahoma State

I’ve been skeptical of No. 6 Oklahoma State for the past few weeks, but now I’m ready to declare that the Cowboys (4-0, 3-0 Big 12) are legitimately in the conversation for the College Football Playoff. The Cowboys faced their first real test of the season when they faced then-No. 17 Iowa State, and they performed admirably. Oklahoma State’s defense held strong in the game, limiting the Cyclones (3-2, 3-1 Big 12) to just 162 passing yards and 21 points. In a conference that historically features high-flying offenses, having a defense that can make plays and slow teams down can be a huge asset. The Cowboys are the only remaining undefeated team in the Big 12. That will be put to the test in the coming weeks, with tough games against Texas and Oklahoma in Oklahoma State’s near future. Should they overcome those opponents and win the Big 12 Championship Game, they would have a very strong case to be included in the CFP.

Loser: James Franklin

One could make the argument that coaching in college football is even more important than coaching in the NFL. College players are less experienced with the game of football and therefore need more direction from their coaches in order to make smart plays. In Penn State’s opening game against Indiana on Saturday, Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin failed to provide that direction, allowing one of his players to make a mistake that cost Penn State (0-1, 0-1 Big Ten) the game. Up by one with under two minutes remaining, Penn State had the ball on Indiana’s 14-yard line. With only one timeout remaining, Indiana’s only chance was to allow Penn State to score a touchdown so they could get the ball back, and Penn State played right into the Hoosiers’ hands, with sophomore running back Devyn Ford going straight into the end zone. Indiana would tie the game up and win in overtime. I don’t blame Ford in this situation. He’s a sophomore in college, and his natural instinct is to go as far as possible on every play. In that situation, it is up to the coach to huddle up his players and press them not to score. The fact that they did score is evidence that Franklin did not do a good job of this. He is the main reason Penn State lost that football game.

Winner: Cincinnati

Often in college football there will be a team that flies completely under the radar until all of sudden they break into the top 10 and everybody asks, “Where the heck did they come from?” This year, that team is No. 7 Cincinnati. About a decade ago, Cincinnati was a good program, having won four Big East titles in five seasons from 2008 to 2012. With the collapse of the Big East, Cincinnati remained in its successor conference, the AAC, but struggled in its first few seasons in the lower-profile conference. Now, it seems that Cincinnati has returned to national prominence. The Bearcats (4-0, 2-0 AAC) are undefeated, with two of their victories coming against 6-1 Army and then-No. 16 SMU. The game against the Mustangs (5-1, 2-1 AAC) was particularly impressive, as the Bearcats were on the road and still managed to crush SMU by 29 points. The race to be the highest-ranked conference champion of the Group of Five conferences is always an interesting one to watch, with a New Year’s Six bowl berth on the line. Right now, Cincinnati is the clear front-runner.

Winner: Greg Schiano

It has been a brutal few seasons in Piscataway, New Jersey. Ever since Rutgers moved from the Big East to the Big Ten, it has looked completely out of place. The conference’s biggest teams consistently whaled on them year after year, with the Scarlet Knights even losing to Michigan once by a score of 78-0 at home. Heading into this season, Rutgers was on a 21-game losing streak in Big Ten football. At the birthplace of college football, the football looked dead. But the program sprung back to life a little bit last week upon the return of Greg Schiano, who coached Rutgers from 2001 to 2011 before leaving for the NFL. In his first game back, Rutgers earned a surprise 11-point victory at Michigan State to clinch their first conference victory since Nov. 4, 2017. Granted, the Spartans (0-1, 0-1 Big Ten) are much diminished following the retirement of 12-year head coach Mark Dantonio, but the victory is impressive nonetheless, especially given how Rutgers has looked the last few seasons. Rutgers (1-0, 1-0 Big Ten) likely will not perform as well once they face tougher opposition like Ohio State and Michigan, but the win was one that they really needed, and one that Rutgers fans surely are grateful for.

In different ways, seemingly everyone familiar with Emrick has praised him for his work and for the way he treated others.

Among the NHL media, there has been a clear trend in the sentiments shared about Emrick. He has been exceptionally helpful and supportive of all of his peers, helping many of them develop into the broadcasters they are today.

In a 2017 column, Richard Deitsch, then a writer for Sports Illustrated, discussed how Emrick has been helping young sports broadcasters over the last several years. During visits to college campuses and other public appearances, he offers to have students send him audio samples of their work. He listens to the recordings and offers feedback during the summer.

“My wife Joyce and I are always on vacation in Michigan and I can usually listen to one or two a day,” Emrick said. “I usually email or handwrite my thoughts to them while I am listening so it’s more stream-of-consciousness than anything else. Some send five to ten minutes, others an hour.”

Emrick, who holds a Ph.D. in communications, noted that Washington Capitals announcer John Walton and Edmonton Oilers broadcaster Jack Michaels were among those who have taken him up on that offer throughout the years. Both eventually worked their way into prominent broadcasting roles.

Hearing those stories as a member of a student media outlet is remarkable. For the preeminent hockey announcer in the country, who travels nine months of the year calling games, to go out of his way during the offseason to help young broadcasters allows for unprecedented access to one of the most well-known sports media figures in the country.

Among the younger announcers already working in the NHL, stories have poured in about Emrick’s unsolicited support of their work. Brendan Burke, the television voice of the New York Islanders, recounted a story on Twitter from his first year with the team in 2016.

After calling a game-winning overtime goal in his third broadcast with the Islanders, Burke checked his email and found a message from Emrick applauding his work on the call.

“I’ve never seen someone as universally loved as Doc,” Burke said to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski. “I was going to go on Twitter and share some stories before I looked and realized everyone had a story like mine to share. It made me feel less special, and made him feel more special to me at the same time.”

Regardless of who NBC chooses to replace Emrick, they will probably do a good job in the booth. However, there is only one Doc. The Stanley Cup Finals won’t have the same feel without his signature calls and extensive vocabulary. Away from the broadcast booth, it is hard to imagine another media personality in any sport building the level of respect that Emrick earned throughout his career.

As he enters retirement, hockey fans will hear significantly less from Emrick — however, his legacy will live on. It is impossible to measure the influence he had on other broadcasters around the league and the impression he made on countless numbers of young broadcasters he has advised over the years.

The Tampa Bay Rays were going to be the heroes that everyone needed. They were going to bring justice to the Astros, who had cheated their way to a World Series appearance in 2019 and a championship in 2017. Additionally, they were going to bring light to a dark world that was already wounded from COVID-19 and from the death of NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant.

Down three games to none and with the entire world rooting against them, the Astros found themselves in a major hole. They had lost three consecutive games to the Rays in which the Astros were outscored 11-5. Additionally, the Astros never looked legitimate, as they had finished the regular season with a losing record. It was never a matter of if, but a matter of when this Astros team would be eliminated.

However, the Astros refused to simply rot away, storming back to win three consecutive games, putting the entire world on notice. Houston started by winning the next two games in game four and game five. In game four, Jose Altuve led the charge, hitting a home run in the first inning and an RBI double in the third inning. In game five, Carlos Correa lifted the Astros over the Rays with a walk-off home run late in the ninth. In game six, the Astros once again staved off elimination, scoring four runs in the fifth inning, forcing a decisive game seven.

At this point, the Astros found themselves in elite company. Historically, the Astros became only one of two teams to force a game seven after being down 3-0. The other team to pull off this feat was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who went on to secure the World Series in game seven. Would history repeat itself from 2004? For a moment, the world stopped spinning on its axis, as everyone waited in fear to see if the villainous Astros would be victorious.

Thankfully, the Rays woke up and took care of business, officially eliminating the Astros in game seven 4-2. Rays starter Charlie Morton looked brilliant, allowing just two hits in five scoreless innings. Rays superstar rookie Randy Arozarena got the bats started for the team, hitting a two-run homer in the first inning. The Rays would later lead the Astros 4-0 heading into the eighth inning.

In the eighth inning, the Astros began showing signs of life. With bases loaded, Correa rose to the occasion, hitting a two-run RBI single. At this point, the Astros found themselves in scoring position with Astros players on first and second base with Alex Bregman at bat. On a 1-2 pitch, Peter Fairbanks struck him out with a 100-mph fastball. The Rays would hold on to win game seven and keep the Astros from advancing to the 2020 World Series.

One cannot begin to fathom the chaos that would have ensued if the Astros had advanced to the World Series. The MLB investigation confirmed that in the previous years, the Astros used a camera system to steal signs from pitchers. Aside from the official investigation, there was video footage alleging that Altuve was wearing an electronic device that would reveal pitches to him. This was most notable in 2019 where Altuve hit a walk-off home run against Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman in game six of the American League Championship Series. After the home run, Altuve was allegedly telling Astros players not to take off his shirt and began to hold his shirt tightly. Although the wearable device was never officially proven, it would not have surprised anyone if these wearable devices were a real thing.

Regardless of the wearable devices, the MLB Investigation found the Astros’ cheating through an extensive operation that was assisted by the use of technology. With this game seven loss, the world can rest peacefully knowing that the Astros will not be playing in the World Series this year. After the elaborate cheating system that the Astros pulled off in previous years, they have finally met their ultimate fate: a one-way plane ticket back to Houston, Texas.

Winner: Florida State

For the Seminoles, last week’s victory over then-No. 5 North Carolina must have felt like a glass of cold water in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Prior to that win, Florida State (2-3, 1-3 ACC) had produced its only win of the season against Jacksonville State. The Seminoles’ results this season include being handled comfortably by Notre Dame, losing at home to lowly Georgia Tech and getting walloped by in-state rivals No. 11 Miami (FL). The argument can be made that FSU is in its worst stretch in a long time. The ‘Noles are coming off two losing seasons in a row, the first time they have done that since the 1970s (excluding seasons where they had wins vacated by the NCAA). For a fan base that is frustrated with this football program, getting a victory over a top-five team in front of a raucous home crowd must have felt good. It looks like the Seminoles have also found their future starting quarterback in sophomore Jordan Travis. Hopefully, for FSU, the UNC win is the first step in returning this program to its former glory.

Loser: Tennessee

Coming into the season, the two teams at the top of the competition for an SEC East title, like every year, were Georgia and Florida. Beyond them, though, Tennessee was possibly in the best position to challenge those two heavyweights and pip them to the post in the race for a spot in the SEC Championship Game. After winning their first two games of the year, the Volunteers (2-2, 2-2 SEC) skyrocketed into the top 15 just in time for a big matchup at Georgia, a game that they started very well. It all fell apart in the second half, however, as Georgia (3-1, 3-1 SEC) ended up seeing them off comfortably. Even more embarrassingly, the Volunteers then lost their following game at home to Kentucky by a 27-point margin. Tennessee now finds itself outside the AP Top 25 altogether and has no chance at reaching the SEC title game.

Winner: Texas A&M

Who would have thought coming into the year that the second-best team in the SEC West would be Texas A&M? After getting swept aside by No. 2 Alabama early in the season, Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies (3-1, 3-1 SEC) responded with two impressive wins in a row, included a thrilling upset victory over highly regarded No. 10 Florida (2-1, 2-1 SEC). Now, A&M finds itself ranked seventh in the nation. After everyone thought they’d been dismissed from the College Football Playoff conversation after losing to the Tide, the Aggies aren’t totally done for yet. Their head-to-head loss against ‘Bama does hurt them — in order to win the division they’ll need to run the table and Alabama needs to lose twice, which is a tall order. Still, this is the best the Aggies have looked in years, and a New Year’s Six bowl is very much on the table for them.

Loser: Syracuse

We’re only five games into the season, and it already looks as though the season’s over for Syracuse. I understand that Syracuse isn’t much of a football school, but after having found some recent success under head coach Dino Babers, surely the Orange should have higher expectations than 1-4. Other than their victory over Georgia Tech (2-3, 2-2 ACC), the Orange (1-4, 1-3 ACC) hasn’t mustered much of anything this season. The season hit a new low last week with a 17-point loss at home to Liberty, who is only in its third season in the FBS. The Flames (5-0) are a well-coached team with Hugh Freeze at the helm, but it isn’t too much to expect a Power Five school to at least make it a game against the Flames at home. It won’t get any easier for the Orange, as it travels to the South for a road game at Clemson, who is just coming off a 73-point performance against the Yellow Jackets. Don’t hold your breath, Orange fans.

While there are elements of the plan that would have benefited the English game, the overall effect would have been harmful and Premier League clubs were right to reject the plan. The plan represents a blatant power grab by England’s biggest clubs and an attempt at placation by sending smaller clubs some money. The Premier League has allowed each club to have a single and equal vote in all matters since its inception, and Project Big Picture would change that drastically.

But even the less controversial aspects of the plan would still lessen the competitiveness of the Premier League, and would thus harm English football as a whole. For instance, the reduction of the size of the Premier League makes it more difficult for lower-league clubs to make it into England’s top division because there are fewer spots available. The plan would also take away an automatic promotion spot from the EFL Championship, England’s second tier. Under Project Big Picture, only the bottom two Premier League clubs would be automatically relegated. The third-to-last team would enter a playoff with team three through five in the EFL Championship, leaving open the possibility of survival for that club. This would both make it more difficult for Championship clubs to advance to the top flight and would lessen the excitement around the Premier League’s relegation race.

Another aspect of the plan would send around $450 million to the lower leagues to help out with losses suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a good and necessary gesture — everyone agrees that the football pyramid is worth saving and that the rich EPL should pitch in to help save smaller clubs from going under. But the plan also calls for 25 percent of the Premier League’s annual television revenue to be sent to the lower leagues each year. Perhaps Liverpool and Manchester United need to be reminded that not every Premier League club is as rich as they are. Many smaller clubs in the Premier League suffered heavy losses during the pandemic, and they too need the television revenue to stay healthy. It would be hard on clubs like Burnley and Fulham if that much money were to be deprived of them. Even Tottenham had to take out a 175-million-pound loan from the UK government to cover losses suffered as a result of the pandemic. Sending that much money down to the lower leagues is both unnecessary on a permanent basis and hurts the clubs currently in the Premier League.

The Premier League, upon rejection of Project Big Picture, has vowed to hold long, extensive talks about making reforms to the English game. It absolutely should. The bigger clubs definitely have a legitimate gripe about the number of fixtures they play in a single season. They make a good suggestion when they call for the end of the EFL League Cup, a useless tournament that nobody cares about anymore. But with Project Big Picture, the big clubs have reached way too far. They are, in essence, telling smaller clubs, “Here’s some money, now go away.” They seek to consolidate power and leave smaller clubs no chance to compete on their level. Project Big Picture would have destroyed any sort of parity within the Premier League, which is what makes the EPL the most-watched and most entertaining football league in the entire world. The preservation of the Premier League’s competitiveness must be the top priority in any future talks, and all parties involved need to remember that.

Many top sports news outlets called for a first-round upset of the Lakers by the Trailblazers because of Portland’s small-ball style that could spread the Lakers’ defense thin. After an initial loss, Los Angeles quickly adjusted its offensive scheme and proceeded to win the next four matchups and the next two rounds 4-1 as well.

With a stacked free agency this summer, the champs may have new competition, not to mention injured stars that will be returning to lead their teams — Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will be back in play for the Warriors and Nets, respectively.

If Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka looks to secure key additions to his roster in free agency, who might he target? The three most key players of the Lakers are Anthony Davis, LeBron James and arguably Rajon Rondo. This trio is a wealth of talent, experience and leadership. On top of James’ leadership, he also hand-selected key pieces of this championship squad. Davis was a talent that James scouted, and the clues came together when Davis signed with the same agency as James, Klutch Sports Group, shortly before Davis was sent to LA.

Many players on the Los Angeles roster vouch for James’ impact and how he rebuilt the franchise, particularly in this season.

“[James] is the system,” said Lakers forward Jared Dudley, according to Newsday. “The coach might call plays, but [James] is calling 80 to 90 percent of the plays when he’s in there. Now coach [Frank Vogel] is really great on Xs and Os out of timeouts.”

Rondo also remarked that James recruited the veteran point guard for his postseason play — the players did not mention the Lakers’ front office as reasons for joining Los Angeles.

James chased Davis as his co-star in Hollywood, as James’ playmaking and vision combined with the latter’s finishing and inside scoring is a deadly combo. On top of that, Davis is an elite rim protector and solid perimeter defender.

Although James calls the majority of play in-game, head coach Frank Vogel’s impact is not to be overlooked. His defensive schemes and ability to adjust are critical to keeping the grand strategy of a series and the season in mind.

The regular season was decidedly average for the Lakers, only marginally better in most statistics. A lack of increase in most statistics from the regular season to the playoffs do not show how Los Angeles was able to sit atop the NBA, and so it comes down to Xs and Os, and how Vogel and James were able to adjust and play chess throughout the playoffs against opposition.

Winner: North Carolina

Who would have thought that just three games into the season the North Carolina Tar Heels would crack the top five in the AP Poll? Facing their toughest game of the season last week against then 19th-ranked Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels (3-0, 3-0 ACC) exploded on offense, putting up 56 points and gaining nearly 700 yards through four quarters. Sophomore quarterback Sam Howell had a solid outing, throwing for 257 yards and three touchdowns on just 23 attempts, and the Tar Heels’ ground game dominated the match, combining for 399 yards and five touchdowns. UNC didn’t have a flawless performance defensively, but if the first three games of the season are any evidence, the defense doesn’t need to be flawless. For the next few weeks, the Tar Heels’ schedule is pretty simple, so don’t be surprised if they remain undefeated a month from now and remain in the top five.

Loser: LSU

For the first time in nine years, the defending national champion has slipped out of the AP Top 25. This happened after the LSU Tigers (1-2, 1-2 SEC) lost a close, back-and-forth game against unranked Missouri. Once again, LSU’s offense was not the problem, as it scored more than 30 points as per usual. But for the second time this season, the Tigers conceded more than 40 points in defeat, this time to a team that had previously been winless. Nobody can be surprised that LSU has taken a step back this season, given how many players it lost in the offseason. But, to fall twice in three games to two currently unranked teams is a steeper fall than what was expected. LSU still has Auburn, Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M to play this season, and it seems that the Tigers may have to win one or two of those games just to reach a .500 record this season. Not what Ed Orgeron wanted from his team this season.

Winner: Clemson

I mentioned last week that the ACC has increased in competitiveness this season, with the Tar Heels, No. 13 Miami (FL) and No. 4 Notre Dame all posing credible challenges to No. 1 Clemson’s domination of the conference. Well, the Tigers (4-0, 3-0 ACC) faced their first big challenge from one of these programs last week when they hosted the Hurricanes, and Clemson calmly dispatched them without much difficulty. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables once again put in place an effective game plan, stifling the Miami offense and electric redshirt senior quarterback D’Eriq King. Junior quarterback Trevor Lawrence was as effective as ever on the other side of the football, connecting on 29 of 41 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns — not to mention, he also ran for a TD. I never really expected Clemson to fall short of another ACC title this season, but perhaps the Tigers will have an easier time of it than expected.

Loser: Florida

I held high hopes for Florida this season. Prior to the season starting, I thought they would beat Georgia and secure a spot in the College Football Playoff (CFP). But the Gators’ loss last week to No. 21 Texas A&M has me rethinking my optimistic outlook for them. Obviously, nothing is certain in a conference as tough as the SEC, but it seemed that Florida’s schedule was favorable enough that it could have gone undefeated heading into the SEC Championship Game. Had the Gators (2-1, 2-1 SEC) made it there, even a close loss to Alabama should have been enough to send them through to the CFP. Now that they have a loss, however, they’ll have to beat both No. 3 Georgia and likely No. 2 Alabama in order to make it to the CFP — an extremely difficult task. To succeed in the SEC, a conference with so many top-tier teams, it is imperative that you beat the teams that are inferior to you, and No. 10 Florida failed to do so. The Gators’ path toward CFP contention is now much harder because of that.

This year, the NHL free agency period opens up on Oct. 9, and there are many players available for hire. Coyotes forward and former MVP Taylor Hall, Panthers forward Mike Hoffman and Blues defensemen Alexander Pietrangelo, among others, will be able to sign new contracts with teams throughout the league.

As the NHL’s salary cap of $81.5 million will not increase due to lost revenue from the pandemic, it will be increasingly difficult for teams to sign players that may demand a chunk of their salary cap. The issue that I and many others have is that the universal cap isn’t fair to teams that play in heavily taxed areas.

Take the 2020 Stanley Cup Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have their captain, forward Steven Stamkos, signed to an $8.5 million per year contract. In terms of talent, Stamkos is among players like Connor McDavid and Patrick Kane, who have $12.5 million and $10.5 million contracts, respectively.

Not to mention that the Lightning also has star forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, Conn Smythe winner Victor Hedman and former Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of the league’s top goalies. With all of those players on the roster, the Lightning is basically a super team.

What gives the Lightning the ability to offer these comparatively lower contracts, signing these types of players for less than $10 million per year, is Florida’s lack of an state income tax. While Florida doesn’t have any state income tax, New York has among the highest state income tax rates in the country. Florida residents also pay less in real estate taxes compared to New York, which could influence a player looking for a new home. In general, Florida is the 46th most taxed state, while New York is first.

Given all of this, Florida and states that are taxed less are more likely to be able to sign players to cheaper deals, and it allows for super teams to be built. If a player was deciding between the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, the money in Tampa would be worth more than in New York. Take Steven Stamkos’ contract for example. If he were to move from Tampa to Manhattan, he would need to earn nearly $24 million to maintain his current standard of living at $8.5 million a year per year, according to NerdWallet’s cost of living calculator. In context to the salary cap, Stamkos is currently about 11 percent of Tampa’s cap. If he went to New York and received a contract adjusted for the cost of living, he would be about 29.5 percent of their cap.

Teams in states like Texas, Nevada, Tennessee and Florida, where the state tax rate is zero, have an unfair advantage when signing players, while teams in California, New York, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey have to offer more money to players so that they will sign due to the differences in tax codes. The league should step in and adjust the salary cap for each market so that the team has an equal pot of money to sign players.

Winner: Alabama

After last season’s off year in which they didn’t even make a New Year’s Six bowl, the results of this past week show that the Crimson Tide (2-0, 2-0 SEC) are on track to being the bosses of the SEC West once more. The Tide returned much of its starting talent on offense for this year, including dynamic playmakers like senior running back Najee Harris and junior wideout Jaylen Waddle. Redshirt junior quarterback Mac Jones looks like he’s grown into his starting role for No. 2 Alabama, and the Tide still has the best coach in the game right now. No. 17 LSU, conversely, has lost a lot of talent to graduation and the NFL, while No. 13 Auburn and No. 21 Texas A&M don’t look nearly as good on the field as Alabama in these early weeks. Unsurprisingly, all three of those teams have taken a decisive loss in their first two games, while Alabama has cruised to two victories. If nothing strange occurs, Bama should roll to another SEC Championship Game in December.

Loser: Big 12

Much has changed in the year 2020, but Texas is still same old Texas. The Longhorns (2-1, 1-1 Big 12) seem to always make everyone think that they’re title contenders at the beginning of the season, only to lose an important game at some point in the season to an inferior opponent. That is what happened last week, when the Longhorns lost a home game to TCU because of a turnover at the goal line. It is clear that they are not College Football Playoff material. Because Texas fails to take the next step year after year, and because the Big 12 has no other teams of real quality, the fortunes of the Big 12 tend to rise and fall with those of Oklahoma. This year, the fortunes of Oklahoma have taken a nosedive. The Sooners (1-2, 0-2 Big 12) have lost both of their conference games this season, and their new starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler, has looked good at times but has made big mistakes in key moments, including a bad interception that ended last week’s game at Iowa State. Perhaps No. 10 Oklahoma State can make its case with some convincing wins down the line, but as of now, it doesn’t look like any Big 12 team will make the College Football Playoff this season.

Winner: ACC

Some conferences have taken a hit this year, but others have improved. One conference that has improved is the Atlantic Coast Conference. Gone are the days when Clemson was the only top team in the conference and the rest of the ACC was garbage. For the first time in a long time, the ACC has some quality besides the top-ranked Tigers (3-0, 2-0 ACC). The conference definitely benefits from No. 5 Notre Dame’s inclusion, which only runs through this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, this season sees improvement from the ACC’s traditional teams as well. Two seasons ago, North Carolina was a mere two-win team, but under second-year head coach Mack Brown, the program has undergone a complete turnaround and now sits eighth in the AP Poll. No. 7 Miami (FL) is a strong team as well, having convincingly dispatched Louisville and Florida State in consecutive weeks. As of now, four of the top 10 teams in the AP Poll are ACC teams, which is the most of any conference at the moment. It’s not expected that any of these teams will knock Clemson off its perch, but at least Clemson will have to play some meaningful games instead of breezing through conference play like in previous seasons.

Loser: Mississippi State

The Mike Leach era at Mississippi State almost got off to a stellar beginning. In the Bulldogs’ first game of the season they marched into the home of the defending champions and overwhelmed LSU (1-1, 1-1 SEC), catapulting into the AP Top 25 in doing so. LSU is a diminished team from last season, but even so, it was no easy contest. Compared to that game, facing unranked Arkansas, who have been SEC basement-dwellers for a while now, at home should have been an easy matchup, but the Bulldogs’ offense had a much harder time against the Razorbacks (1-1, 1-1 SEC) than it did against the defending champions. Redshirt senior quarterback K.J. Costello threw the ball nearly 60 times, but only one of those passes was a touchdown, compared to three interceptions. Instead of a perfect start to the season, Mississippi State fell to 1-1, and are now once again outside the AP Top 25.

In the cases of Diego Maradona, Tyson Gay and Arnold Schwarzenegger, any past doping incidents have been mostly swept under the rug and each athlete is still regarded as one of the all-time best competitors in their respective fields. All have been extremely influential in their respective sports and have manifested entire generations of new, inspired athletes.

However, PED use is still frowned upon and often leads to judgement toward the user. Almost all elite level competitions have banned steroid use during play to mitigate the chances of athletes showing up on game day with an unfair advantage. Most players are required to take a drug test, and if they fail, they can’t compete.

In any major sport, including soccer, football and basketball, among others, doping is synonymous with cheating, and most fans do not take kindly to other players trying to get the upper hand on their favorite team or athlete. PED scandals tend to result in a bad image for any player, followed by some sort of fine or punishment. It is in an athlete’s best interest to neither openly discuss nor admit to steroid use.

While PEDs can be wildly dangerous and should be banned under almost all circumstances, the current attitude the public shares toward steroid use is one backed by no real education on the subject.

For starters, how easy do you think it is to pass a drug test? For habitual, predictable testing periods, athletes can easily predict when to start or stop taking certain PEDs. While some drugs can take a few weeks to leave the body completely, others may only take two to three days. Hypothetically, a particularly smart athlete who knows when they might get tested could cycle steroids in their off-season, get off of their supplements a few days before they are tested and immediately continue to juice the second after they urinate into their test cup.

PED testing is almost exclusively for athletes. Steroids are no more difficult to obtain than any hard, socially unacceptable drug on the illegal market. Just as someone who “knows a guy,” any built, extremely lean fitness influencer on social media can get their hands on PEDs.

Herein lies the problem. Since people are so quick to judge others for their PED use, very few people in the fitness industry will come out and openly admit to steroid consumption. While it is understandable that association of a desirable physique with drug use could result in audience members juicing in order to achieve their dream body, the opportunity costs of the public’s current mentality potentially outweigh this concern.

On social media, the most aesthetic bodies are achieved through genetics, hard work, drugs or a combination of the three. All three are primarily kept behind the scenes. Since influencers are concerned with transparency about steroid use tarnishing their image online, they are forced to lie about their experiences and ultimately leave drugs out of the equation for their success. If the average audience member were to try to work toward the standard promoted on social media, they would likely fail to meet that unrealistic expectation without the aid of PEDs (with exceptions). This is the recipe for feelings of inadequacy and negative body image for social media consumers.

In truth, more people in the fitness industry have begun opening up about PED use. At this point, many engaged members of the fitness community are aware that most competitors in the running for elite-level bodybuilding competitions are enhanced. Additionally, some individuals on social media have openly revoked their “natty” status and have started to educate their audiences about the serious dangers and potential benefits of taking PEDs.

However, outside of the knowledge within the fitness community, normal people typically have no idea what’s going on. The negative stigma behind PED use is still real. Steroids are seen as this extreme, insanely risky drug, when in reality something like an injection of synthetic testosterone is not too far from taking birth control. Along with this, mild PED dosage is not nearly as dangerous as the potential risks of irresponsible alcohol consumption, and alcohol is widely considered a socially acceptable drug.

In regards to PEDs, the lack of public education has done a major disservice to social media consumers in the electronic age. In health class, I hardly recall ever talking about steroids in depth, and my school was well-funded. For underfunded programs, I doubt that PEDs become a focal point of their discussions either. Arming susceptible students with information about steroids would not only help prevent the prejudice against those who choose to take them, but also avoid the possibility of people getting hooked in the first place.

Heading into the finals, the Heat are in the midst of a historic playoff run. They have only lost a total of three games thus far — sweeping the Pacers, easily dispatching back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in five games and powering past the Celtics in six games. Their playoff win percentage is higher than the 2013 Heat, which boasted LeBron James and the Big Three. On top of that, they are doing this all as the fifth seed — the first fifth seed team or lower to make a finals appearance in over 20 years since the New York Knicks in 1999.

A championship team typically features at least one generational talented superstar. In the past five years, those players have included Stephen Curry, James, Kevin Durant and most recently Kawhi Leonard.

Unlike these previous championship teams, the Heat are not carried through one such player. With all the odds stacked against them, how did they pull off this improbable journey? It all comes down to one thing: culture. The Heat are a scrappy bunch who operate cohesively as a unit. In summary, this team is built on underdogs.

“You had to go through something in life that put a chip on your shoulder,” said longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem. “And that’s built grit inside you that you’re willing to go through extreme circumstances to get where you’re trying to go.”

For starters, the Heat has four undrafted players which include All-Rookie first team member Kendrick Nunn, sharpshooter Duncan Robinson, along with Haslem — who is currently the longest tenured player in franchise history.

Goran Dragić, who averaged 21 points against the Celtics, started off his professional basketball career in Europe. After spending five seasons in Europe, Dragic was drafted in 2008 with the 45th pick in the second round. He went on to win the Most Improved Player Award in 2014 and was named to his first All-Star selection in 2018.

Jimmy Butler is the ultimate underdog. When Butler was just an infant, Butler’s father abandoned his household. At age 13, Butler was kicked out of his house and became homeless, living house to house. Amid all the uncertainty in his life, this 13-year-old Butler held on tightly to one dream — a dream to play in the NBA. Butler’s unwavering self-determination along with his extraordinary work-ethic is how he got drafted with the 30th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Since then, Butler has gone on to become a five time All-Star and now finds himself in his first NBA Finals with the chance to win his very first championship.

Even Miami’s head coach Erik Spoelstra was once considered to be an underdog. Spoelstra started off with the Heat as a video coordinator and frequently got promoted in a 13-year span from video coordinator to assistant coach to advanced scout to finally getting Miami’s head coaching position in 2008. Spoelstra went on to coach James and the Big Three, helping the team win two titles as its head coach.

Do I really need to go any further? Do I need to bring up this past draft where 12 teams passed up on Tyler Herro, who torched the Celtics for 37 points and shot 50 percent from 3-point range? Should I bring up the draft in 2017 where many teams passed up on Bam Adebayo as he ultimately ended up on the Heat with the 14th selection?

It is this shared identity of resilience and self-determination that connects this team together. As you have seen, this organization believes in itself even when others are quick to rule them out. When a collective set of underdogs unite together and believe in each other, anything becomes possible. This is the magical formula that Heat president Pat Riley has instilled in his team. In this case, the common goal is to win the championship and this organization will do whatever it takes to achieve this goal.

This is the precise reason why Butler and the Heat are the perfect marriage. Butler thrives on teams that encourage extreme levels of accountability. Unlike on other teams where players may have taken his bluntness personally, this team embraces his personality. At the end of the day, everything is done in order to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the championship.

Once again, the Heat find the odds stacked against them as the Lakers are the presumptive favorite to win this year’s NBA title. The official odds have the Lakers at -5.

This year’s Lakers will be no easy opponent by any means. James is looking to capture his fourth NBA title and is chasing the likes of Michael Jordan. Additionally, this Lakers team is hungrier than ever, as winning this particular title would carry an extremely profound meaning with the death of Kobe Bryant earlier this year. But in some weird way, the Heat truly embodies the values that Bryant and his Mamba mentality stood for — the mentality to reach for the impossible and to do whatever it takes to succeed in the face of adversity. Ironically, the Heat almost embodies these values more so than the current Lakers team, who have several former number one overall picks in James, Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard. Surely, we can all take away an important life lesson from this year’s Heat team.

Overall, this will not be the first time the Heat have been underdogs. There is a common saying that history tends to repeat itself. That being said, don’t be surprised if, once again, the Heat finds a way to shock the world.

With a 3-1 lead over the Nuggets, a conference finals matchup between both Los Angeles teams seemed inevitable, but unfortunately, that all fell apart when the Clippers lost three consecutive games to the Nuggets.

This wasn’t the first time Doc Rivers and the Clippers had blown a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. In 2015, the “Lob City” Clippers held a 3-1 lead over the Houston Rockets. The Clippers had a 19-point lead deep into the third, but ultimately lost after getting outscored in the fourth quarter 40-15, mainly by the likes of Josh Smith and Corey Brewer.

This season was supposed to be different. They had just signed the reigning finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and had traded for 2019 MVP candidate Paul George. Prior to these acquisitions, last year’s team had won 48 games and took the reigning champs, the Golden State Warriors, to six games. They successfully retained the talents of Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell, players who were acquired when the Clippers traded away Chris Paul in 2017. Even with four players averaging nearly 20 or more points in the regular season, this team still couldn’t get the job done.

So what exactly went wrong? Is there anyone in particular to blame for the Clippers shortcomings?

First and foremost, credit must be given where credit is due. We must tip our hat to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. This marked the second consecutive series where the Nuggets came back from being down 3-1. However, don’t be fooled. The Nuggets did not win this series. The Clippers lost the series to themselves.

Leonard was never on the same level as LeBron James. One may argue that since Leonard was the Finals MVP last season, he is better than James. However, that would be the equivalent of saying, “Since James averaged one less point this season than the prior season, James has regressed as a basketball player.”

The impact James has on a basketball team is astronomical compared to the impact Leonard has on a team. When Leonard left the Raptors, the Raptors still boasted the second-best record in the East and were a couple of possessions away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. When James left the Cavaliers in 2018, the Cavaliers tied for the second-worst record in the league, only ahead of the New York Knicks.

The other argument that is often made is that Leonard beat the Warriors team last season that was going for a three-peat. However, people seem to forget that Kevin Durant did not play in the series. Additionally, when Klay Thompson got injured, the Warriors were leading in Game 6. Overall, Leonard is not held to the same level of scrutiny that James is. Unless James is on your team, it will take a lot more than one man to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Leonard had a bad game. Everyone else had a bad series. Williams, who averaged 20 points at one point in the regular season, averaged just 10 points on 36 percent for the series. Harrell, who averaged 19 points in the regular season, averaged only 12 points in the series. Many of us knew that James and Anthony Davis were the better duo than Leonard and George. The X-factor for the Clippers was their depth.

But most importantly, The Clippers never found their identity. This might be attributed to chemistry issues. There were reports by Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard that players resented the special treatment head coach Doc Rivers gave to George despite his inconsistent play. This was never an issue for Leonard, as he, for the most part, delivered. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, “multiple teammates had verbal spats with George throughout the postseason, citing in their exchanges a lack of accountability from him.”

Accountability is one of the most underrated ingredients for a championship-caliber team. It is historically proven that accountability starts with the leaders of a team, either from a coach or the best player. It’s no secret that Leonard is not a vocal leader. In LA, that person was supposed to be Rivers. Safe to say, that never worked out.

The Lakers are the biggest brand team in the NBA. The Clippers are considered to be the second team in town. James is the biggest brand name in sports. Leonard is one of the most humble players in sports. James and Davis were both former No. 1 draft picks. Leonard and George were drafted 15th and 10th overall, respectively. James and Davis chased the bright lights of California. Leonard and George were raised in Southern California. Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard were big names off the bench of the Lakers. Williams and Harrell were trying to make a name for themselves, being former 45th and 32nd overall draft picks, respectively. The Lakers are a historical franchise. The Clippers are the underdog franchise. Herein was an opportunity for the underdogs. Leonard and George were supposed to be the hometown heroes. Yet, this underdog identity never fully materialized.

The Clippers were full of dogs, but they never got to bite. Better yet, they didn’t even get to sniff the Lakers.

When it comes to the greatest of all time debate for basketball, with all due respect to the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant, there are two players that are a class above the rest: Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Both dominated and defined the NBA during their careers, but regardless of what happens in this year’s playoffs, James has proven that he’s the greatest player of all time.

The strongest argument in favor of James is the impact he makes on the team he plays for. Since the 2002-03 season, the season before James entered the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers averaged just under 22 wins a season. When James joined the roster, the team skyrocketed to 50 wins. That is simply absurd. Never before has one player been the difference between a championship contender and a fixture in the lottery.

On two separate occasions, James joined the Cavaliers and transformed them from a cellar dweller to a guaranteed finals berth. Even after Kyrie Irving left the Cavaliers, James still led them to the finals. When Jordan left the Chicago Bulls to play basketball in 1993, the team still won 55 games without him and took the eventual Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks to seven games in the conference semifinals. The Bulls obviously needed Jordan to win a championship and they were worse off before he came back the next year, but Scottie Pippen was more than capable of leading a team to success on his own.

James, excluding this year, has never played with a player as good as Pippen. Jordan had Pippen his entire reign of dominance, and despite the perception of Pippen as a sidekick, he is one of the best forwards to ever play the game.

In terms of individual playing ability, James’ size and strength, paired with his agility, make him impossible to stop. He is as good of an athlete as anyone in NBA history, but he has the size and strength to overpower any defense. James is also the best passer in the game, and has been his entire career despite not playing point guard. His passing ability will keep him at an elite level for longer than other players. Even when he loses the athletic ability, he will be able to impact the game, like Steve Nash or John Stockton, in the final stage of his career. At age 35 and in his 17th year in the league, he is still in the MVP conversation and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

A point that must be addressed is James’ finals record compared to Jordan’s. There is no denying that a 3-6 finals record is less than ideal; however, just like Jordan’s early career losses to the Celtics and Pistons are not held against him, James’ losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors are just the result of him playing all time great teams. The team James carried to the finals in 2007 was the worst team to ever make the finals. The Golden State Warriors was a super team assembled just to defeat James. Jordan never had to go through a super team like the Warriors because of how the league was when he played.

Even after the Warriors won 73 games, they still felt like they needed the greatest scorer of all time to defeat James and the Cavs. The series with that 73-win Warriors team was legendary. James rallying his team back from 3-1 down and completing arguably the best play in finals history, the block on Andre Iguodala, is what cemented his place as the greatest.

Overall, the size and strength of James makes him a more versatile player, and his ability to turn any roster into a contender by joining it is unprecedented in NBA history, making him the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball.

The Islanders are what many sports fans and columnists refer to as a Cinderella story. They have defied the odds to get to the point at which they are at right now. After losing seven straight games at the end of the abruptly shortened regular season in March, the Islanders were on fire when the NHL returned in August. They defeated the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals almost seamlessly. Then, the Islanders took a 3-1 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers, and eventually won the series in game seven by a score of 4-0.

After winning their first game of the restart, the Islanders had 3000/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup on Aug. 3, by far the longest odds for any remaining teams. Now, they are 1200/1 to win it all, and still heavy underdogs in the conference finals against Tampa.

Cinderella stories are always fun to root for. Some of the most notable New York examples include the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII upset against the previously undefeated New England Patriots, the 1969 “Miracle Mets” that won the World Series and the Joe Namath-led Jets that upset the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

In American history, it’s hard to top the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” men’s hockey team. The ragtag group of college-aged players beat the powerhouse Soviet team, giving Americans hope during a rather dark time.

The underdog isn’t supposed to win, so if they do, it makes it that much sweeter, and if they lose it’s because they were supposed to.

Now let’s break down why the Islanders, in particular, are fun to cheer for. For starters, the way that the team is built. They have no superstar player. They have good young players who are strong role players, but they have no “name” that is universally familiar with casual hockey fans. They play a team-first type of game, which is all about defense and being a complete unit. It can be boring to watch, but winning isn’t boring. It’s exciting.

On a more serious note, the Islanders do represent all of New York. New York was one of the hardest-hit areas of the world with the coronavirus pandemic. New York City and Long Island were under extreme stress with the pandemic, and the Islanders’ run has given the fans of the tri-state area something to smile about in a period of sadness.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the New York Yankees made a deep playoff run. Many fans supported the Yankees from around the country due to their geographical association. It didn’t matter that the Yankees were a dynasty, and had won four out of the five last World Series. What mattered was New York. The Islanders are this year’s New York team to root for.

As long as players are unpaid, they should be treated like any other student and given the freedom to transfer to a school that fits them better if necessary, without having to sit out a year. While this may dramatically change the way college basketball operates, it is a necessary change in order to give athletes the freedom they deserve.

It should be noted that players of non-revenue sports, meaning every sport except for football, men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and baseball, are not currently required to sit-out after transferring. If a lacrosse or softball player wants to transfer, they are immediately eligible to play.

The key difference between the two types of sports is that nonrevenue athletes traditionally have very few opportunities to pursue professional careers after graduation. For revenue sports, football, basketball, hockey and baseball players have many opportunities to pursue professional careers, even for those that have no chance of reaching the major North American sports leagues.

The problem the NCAA has is an identity crisis. Its stated values revolve around allowing student-athletes to get an education while playing the sport they love and preparing them for life after athletics. However, many athletes are in school with the primary goal of pursuing a professional career.

As long as they remain unpaid, college athletes should be given every opportunity to maximize their own potential to monetize their athletics careers. Regular students routinely transfer for career-oriented reasons, so those seeking to become professional athletes should be given the same opportunity.

For mid-major schools, such as Binghamton University and its counterparts in the America East (AE), this may mean a substantial change to the way they operate should the transfer rules change.

The AE has seen a few basketball players in the past few seasons that have been good enough to transfer to power conference teams. Most notably, BU’s standout sophomore guard Sam Sessoms decided to transfer to Penn State at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season, in spite of the sit-out rule.

I have no doubt that allowing a one-time waiver will make it even harder for programs like Binghamton’s to retain a player like Sessoms, but I think it’s completely fair for a player with professional aspirations to make a choice that is in his best interest, rather than the team’s best interest. For Sessoms, it made little sense to remain at a fledgling mid-major program like BU.

However, other players like Vermont’s two-time AE player of the year, senior forward Anthony Lamb, chose to play out his entire career in the mid-majors. Vermont has consistently been the best program in the AE, with a proven coach and a consistent flow of talent. Despite playing on a mid-major team, Lamb has drawn the attention of NBA scouts and has a legitimate chance to be drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent.

In baseball, Binghamton sees players drafted by MLB teams and signed to independent leagues every year. With an experienced and well-respected coach and a strong commitment from the athletics department, BU’s baseball program is likely to continue to thrive if a one-time waiver is allowed.

If a one-time transfer waiver is added, mid-major programs like Binghamton will be under pressure to build competitive atmospheres that allow their players to draw the attention of professional teams, or they will have to focus on recruiting players more interested in the educational aspects of playing college sports.

While this will dramatically alter the collegiate athletics landscape, as long as players remain unpaid, these changes are necessary to allow college athletes that are pursuing professional opportunities to maximize their own potential of monetizing their athletics careers.

Originally, the “one-and-done” regulation was implemented as a response by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to cheaters in shorter distance races. Sprinters would often take advantage of the previous false start rules, purposely jumping the gun either to play mind games with their competition and set them on edge before the race or use the extra leniency to predict the gun and gain bonus milliseconds from their efforts. Neither of these were feasibly possible after the rule changes in 2010.

The current regulations have hit sprinters the hardest. Quick reaction to the gun can be a deciding factor for the outcome of a race. Combine that with the intense anxiety of performing in the final of a world championship 100-meter dash in front of millions of people and you’ve cooked up a recipe for complete disaster. Additionally, sprinters coming out of blocks must come up into the “set” position, where the athlete is generally leaning forward and off balance in preparation for the gun to go off. It’s not uncommon for athletes to prematurely fall forward and end up watching the race from the sidelines.

Perhaps in high school or collegiate athletics, expecting athletes to move past these issues would be harsh; however, people don’t anticipate such problems in the upper echelon of the sporting competition. Nevertheless, it still happens.

At the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea, Usain Bolt, 100-meter world record holder, jumped the gun in the 100-meter final over a year after the new regulations had been put into place. Audible disappointment from both the crowd and the commentators filled the stadium as Bolt walked off the track, head in hands, only to watch his Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake take the gold. In the 2012 IAAF Diamond League 100-meter finals, Tyson Gay, 100-meter American record holder, took the same exit that Bolt did the year prior, dropping out of the event.

“If [Bolt] had false started in New York, everyone would have been upset, and they’d have been booing, and wanting him to be let back into the race,” Gay told The Guardian in 2010. “It takes something like that to happen and I think it would be a wake-up call.”

Even with Gay’s prediction becoming a reality, the rule is still in place over 10 years later, and it seems that the rule-makers will continue to stand their ground for the near future.

Among athletes, the stance on false starting can be controversial. On one hand, having one or two fewer competitors in the race means a better chance at taking the gold, but the attitude of some athletes in track and field doesn’t necessarily reflect that mentality. For many, track is a sport about personal growth. While winning is at the very core of almost every athletic event, there’s often a deeper desire to compete with oneself in conjunction with competing among others. The feeling of getting a new personal record shows the growth and development many people crave, even if the new time, distance or height is only marginally better than the last. Fewer athletes means less competition, and less competition means less of a reason to push oneself and earn new personal records. The feeling of taking first in the 100-meter dash with a time .5 seconds over one’s personal record (PR) can be equally as rewarding as taking fourth with .1 seconds shaved off of it. If your competitors jump the gun, the race isn’t going to be the same with one or two athletes down.

As spectators of the sport, we also lose out. Some people travel thousands of miles to watch these big events in hopes of seeing an entertaining race with major athletes like Bolt and Gay, only to have their hopes dashed by one false start from their favorite competitor.

As satisfying as it is to watch Bolt or American sprinter Christian Coleman dismantle their opponents, we often watch in hopes of a competitive race. It’s not always fun watching Bolt race against eight other athletes who haven’t broken 10 seconds in the 100-meter, as we already know the outcome. However, Gay’s false start in 2012 took away what could’ve been an extremely entertaining event. Both Gay and Blake have PRs of 9.69 in the 100-meter, and it should’ve been a close race from the gun. Spectators were robbed of that pleasure, and Blake predictably swept the field in 9.76 seconds, with Jamaican sprinter Nesta Carter striding behind him in second place at 9.95 seconds.

The sacrifice the IAAF made back in 2010 hasn’t truly paid off. Cheaters are an inevitability, but a systematic solution to unsportsmanlike behavior isn’t the best solution. Instead, officials should watch for consistently dirty athletes who take advantage of the false start rules and bar them from competing if they continue their behavior. Until the current false start rule changes, track and field will never have the same punch it once did.

Iona plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), one of the most geographically similar leagues to the AE. As a result, the Gaels regularly play AE teams during their nonconference season. For schools like BU, Albany and Stony Brook, the thought of having a famous national champion coach in their buildings seemed unthinkable prior to the hire. Now, it could very well be reality come November.

There are several concerns surrounding Pitino’s hire; he was fired by Louisville in 2017 after the program faced multiple recruiting scandals and was referenced as part of an FBI investigation into bribery in collegiate athletics. The ethical questions surrounding Pitino can be debated, but one thing is clear — mid-major college basketball in the Northeast just got a lot more interesting, and the pressure is on other mid-major programs in New York state, as one of the most notable names in the sport is now a regional rival.

Iona is a private college with around 4,000 students located in New Rochelle, New York. Under former head coach Tim Cluess, the Gaels reached six NCAA tournaments in the last decade, including four straight prior to this season. Statewide, only Syracuse has more appearances in that time. Among mid-major programs in the state, Buffalo has the next highest amount of appearances after Iona and has reached the second round of the tournament twice. While Buffalo has seen more success winning in the tournament than Iona, it can’t claim the level of star power the Gaels now have on their bench.

Syracuse is clearly the gold standard for basketball and all college sports in New York, but for the first time in recent memory, there is a coach as notable as Jim Boeheim working in the state. Pitino won two national championships, although the second was vacated by the NCAA, making his total number of titles equal to Boeheim’s.

While no one is suggesting that Iona men’s basketball will become anywhere near as strong as Syracuse, but it has a chance to become a powerhouse among mid-major programs in the state. Other MAAC teams in New York state such as Manhattan, Canisius, Niagara and Siena have struggled to overtake Iona in recent years, and that gap will only widen with Pitino in charge.

Additionally, BU and other AE teams, as well as New York state teams in the Ivy League, Patriot League, Northeast Conference and others, will now have the chance to challenge themselves in nonconference play with what could become one of the top mid-major programs in the country.

Prior to stepping down, Cluess was arguably the most successful mid-major coach in New York state. Most basketball fans had some familiarity with what he was doing with Iona, but few knew much about him personally. Now, the Gaels have a marquee name that every fan is familiar with. It’s hard to calculate exactly what effect it may have on recruiting, but it’s easy to imagine things getting even better.

Whether or not he deserved another chance in Division I basketball is debatable, but the hiring of Pitino as Iona’s new head coach indisputably has a chance to establish a new powerhouse in mid-major basketball, and the impact of that will be felt throughout the entire college basketball landscape in the state of New York.

Ultimately, the decision to postpone or cancel these sporting events is the right one, as the safety of athletes, coaches and fans is paramount. Yet, that doesn’t mean these developments haven’t been a gut punch to the sporting world. Sports are arguably the most popular aspect of our culture, and when they got taken away so suddenly, a lot of people were left in a state of sadness, and rightfully so. Sports are such a big part of people’s lives, including my own, and it’s okay to struggle with how to deal without sports for the next month or two.

What is in danger of being lost in the aftermath of these suspensions and cancellations is the economic impact it will have on a lot of people who work in the sports industry. I’m not talking about big corporations like the NBA and the Premier League, which will likely suffer some significant loss of revenue but will ultimately recover. I’m referring to all of the hourly staff whose work helps the leagues run so smoothly. All of these people and their families are likely to suffer immensely tough times under these conditions.

So many of the thousands of people who work in the sports industry will have no work to do while the suspensions remain in place. The people who staff stadiums and arenas during games will obviously lose out on paying hours, as will those who maintain the grounds at baseball and soccer stadiums and the ice at hockey arenas. This includes those who manage and maintain facilities at colleges and high schools. Even those who work higher-paying jobs, such as those in ticket sales, are potentially at risk of losing out on some wages.

Local businesses and restaurants are also likely to suffer under these suspensions and cancellations. Hotels, restaurants and bars in cities that were scheduled to host March Madness games, for example, will suffer a hit because of the tournament’s cancellation. Sports bars across the country are also facing a substantial loss of revenue, since the number of patrons coming to these establishments will inevitably decrease because there simply are no sporting events to watch.

It is imperative that the leagues that have shut down, as well as all the teams that make up these leagues, develop a plan to provide compensation and economic relief to their workers who otherwise can’t earn their wages. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has already announced a plan to compensate the team’s hourly workers who are impacted by the NBA’s suspension. Similarly, Zion Williamson, a forward for the New Orleans Pelicans, has pledged to help the employees of his home arena through this rough time. Since then, more teams and players have pledged their support, but others have thus far refused to do so. Leagues and teams across the world must follow the lead of Cuban and the Mavericks.

The federal and state governments should step in where they can, especially for workers in state universities such as Binghamton University, who are technically state employees. However, since COVID-19 is impacting the economy in so many different areas, it is unclear how much assistance government can provide. That is why it is even more important that the private sector get involved however it can.

As fans, our recognition of greatness in sports is often limited to players and coaches, and we often forget how many people are involved in making the sports we love happen. Now that they are in a time of need, we cannot forget them. We have to recognize their plight and push the leagues and teams we love to assist them until the day comes that sports can resume worldwide.

Though it’s possible that this argument benefits from hindsight, there are two reasons why it was clear at the time that drafting Nelson should have been a higher priority for Gettleman. First, a running attack was already devalued by modern football analytics. This renders the selection of a running back with a high draft pick wasteful, even if it’s the “generation talent” that Gettleman described Saquon Barkley as. Analytics suggest that a passing-oriented offense is the most efficient way to score points and win games. While it may seem that this supports drafting a promising young quarterback, I argue this was more reason for Gettleman to fortify the offensive line.

This also leads to my second point. The team’s offensive line was horrendous on and off the field in 2017. Remember Bobby Hart and Ereck Flowers? Part of the reason Manning struggled at the end of his career was because of a lack of protection. As a quarterback without the ability to scramble out of the pocket to extend plays, Manning became gun-shy whenever he felt pressure, thus forcing him to either throw the ball away or check it to a nearby running back for at best a minimal gain.

A line anchored by Nelson would have given the two-time Super Bowl MVP, under contract for two additional years, more protection to stay in the pocket, allowing top receivers like Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard more time to get open. If this happened, Manning potentially would have looked less old and finished.

Entering the draft with the game plan of drafting Nelson would have allowed the Giants to be better constructed for the future. They still would have been in position to take Daniel Jones, who was projected as a late first rounder at best, in the 2019 draft. Additionally, Jones showed enough with his play that there’s no guarantee he won’t be as good or better than most of the 2018 prospects.

Yes, Josh Allen took the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs in 2019 and Sam Darnold can look dynamic at times for the New York Jets. However, both have been prone to questions regarding health, accuracy and turnover tendencies. Early signs of promise don’t guarantee long-term success. Do I have to remind you of Mark Sanchez, who took the Jets to the AFC Championship game in his first two seasons and then bottomed out? Then there’s Josh Rosen, who couldn’t beat out Ryan Fitzpatrick for the starting job on a bad Miami Dolphins team, his second organization in his two-year career.

Gettleman shouldn’t even feel too much regret for passing on Lamar Jackson. No team, including the Baltimore Ravens, knew he would be as dynamic as he has been. If Baltimore did know, they wouldn’t have waited until their second pick of the first round to draft the future MVP.

Gettleman thought the free agent additions of offensive tackle Nate Solder and offensive guard Patrick Omameh, combined with the selection of guard Will Hernandez with a second-round pick, would have strengthened the line. However, Solder hasn’t lived up to the hype after signing a record-setting contract, and Omameh only lasted half a season of the three-year deal before getting cut. While Hernandez has been solid, he hasn’t been as good as Nelson, who has already turned in two First-Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl seasons.

The Giants would have been better off drafting Nelson instead of Barkley and running back Nick Chubb instead of Hernandez. (Chubb was selected one pick after Hernandez by the Cleveland Browns.) Plus, planning on taking Nelson would have negated the need to sign Omameh, thus allowing that money to be used on stopgap quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. With his higher potential, Bridgewater would have been a more useful backup option in case Manning proved to be washed up.

The Barkley versus Darnold debate will be discussed in New York sports for years and will likely define Gettleman’s tenure as the Giants’ general manager. However, considering that winning is all that matters in New York, the real debate should be Barkley versus Nelson, especially if Gettleman continues to fail at building an adequate offensive line.

Soccer fans are highly traditional, and therefore often loathe to make changes to the laws of the game, which is why the football community has placed all of the blame for the controversial rulings on the recent insertion of video review into European football. Yet the reality is that VAR is doing very well at the job it is supposed to do: Enforcing the laws of the game and correcting officiating mistakes by the referees. The problem lies not with VAR, but with the laws of the game itself.

Soccer is a unique sport because so many of its major rules are subjective rather than objective, meaning they are subject to the opinion of the referees rather than to an objective measurement. What one referee thinks is a foul, another referee might not. What one referee thinks is a severe yellow card, another might deem a red. What one referee might see as an intentional play of the ball with the hand or arm, another referee might see as the arm being in a natural position. More than any other sport, the laws of soccer have wide gray areas.

Given that this is the case, is it any surprise that VAR has led to such controversy? In a sport where two people watching the same play can reasonably have opposite opinions on what the proper call should be, every time VAR makes a decision, half of viewers are going to get upset. In order to set some kind of standard, the Premier League has instructed VAR officials to only overturn “clear and obvious errors” by on-field referees, which is why there are very few nonpenalty and nonred card calls that VAR overturns. But that hardly clears things up, because on any given potential penalty or red card or handball, there are fans who will argue there was a clear and obvious refereeing error.

The laws of the game are so subjective that on any given play there will be a wide swath of viewers who think VAR got it wrong. There are those who clamor that VAR got it wrong in upholding a call on the field, claiming there was a clear and obvious error. Yet the few times that VAR does overturn the ruling of the referee, it gets accused of breaking its promise not to “re-referee” games. It simply cannot win.

There are some aspects of the rules of soccer that are objective, but even when VAR deals with those, it gets bashed. There have been several occasions this season where VAR has chalked off goals that were millimeters offside. Fans have gotten annoyed at these calls, saying that VAR was not intended to chalk off goals that close. But you know what? Those plays are offside, even if it’s only barely so, and VAR’s job is to enforce the rules. If that’s a problem, then change the rules to give the attacker a few centimeters’ worth of leeway — don’t criticize VAR for doing what it’s supposed to do.

In every other major sport in the world, from American football to hockey, from basketball to baseball, video review works without major issues. Only in soccer is there a problem. Therefore, the fault does not lie with the video-review system, but with the sport itself. Prior to VAR’s implementation, there were still controversial rulings and noncalls all across the sports; VAR’s insertion into the game has only continued that, and, to be frank, there is nothing that can be done to get rid of controversy in soccer. It’s just the nature of the game. Fans need to realize that and accept it instead of pointing fingers at VAR, which is just doing its job.

Winner: The College Football Playoff Selection Committee

For the second week in a row, I have the selection committee as a winner because the decision it had to make could not have been easier. No. 5 Utah lost on Friday night against No. 13 Oregon in the Pac-12 Football Championship Game, eliminating them from contention. No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Clemson all won their championship games, with LSU (13-0, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) taking No. 4 Georgia out of contention in the process. That made the Big 12 Championship Game between No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 7 Baylor a de facto play-in game for the final spot, which Oklahoma (12-1, 8-1 Big 12) won. Four playoff spots, four teams in the Power Five with one loss or fewer: It doesn’t get much easier than that. It’s always fun when the committee has a dramatic decision to make on Selection Sunday, but I have to admit, I feel some satisfaction when the decision on who gets in is decided on the football field and not in a conference room. Your 2019 College Football Playoff: No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Oklahoma.

Loser: The Pac-12

For a few weeks, it was actually looking good for the Pac-12. They had two teams ranked ahead of the top Big 12 team not that long ago, and both Oregon (11-2, 8-1 Pac-12) and Utah (11-2, 8-1 Pac-12) were getting key wins to stay below two losses. But in the last three weeks of the season, everything unraveled. Oregon probably controlled its own destiny heading into week 13, but then it lost that game to Arizona State. That and Alabama’s loss in the Iron Bowl propelled Utah to the fifth spot; had the Utes won the Pac-12, they would have had a strong case to jump into the playoff. Instead, they lost to none other than Oregon. Once again, the Pac-12 has played itself into oblivion, with each team having at least two losses, and once again, the conference has missed out on the playoff. They have the fewest playoff selections among the Power Five conferences.

Winner: Memphis

Not only was week 15 important for determining the College Football Playoff field, but it also featured a heated race among three or four teams for a spot in the Cotton Bowl. The top-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five gets an automatic selection to a New Year’s Six bowl. In years past, there have been teams that ran away with this distinction, but this year it was a tight race heading into the final Saturday of the season. After a back-and-forth conference championship game in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), No. 17 Memphis has won that race and will represent the Group of Five in the New Year’s Six bowls. Facing No. 20 Cincinnati for the second time in as many weeks, the Tigers (12-1, 7-1 AAC) faced a much stiffer challenge from the Bearcats (10-3, 7-1 AAC) this time around, but were able to engineer a game-winning drive that ended in a touchdown with 1:14 remaining, grabbing a victory and sending Memphis to its biggest bowl game in program history.

Winner: Joe Burrow

Congratulations, Mr. Heisman. The official announcement of the winner will not be made until Saturday, Dec. 14, but the Heisman race has been all but won by redshirt senior quarterback Joe Burrow of LSU. Other contenders made their cases this past weekend as well. Sophomore quarterback Justin Fields of Ohio State had a solid outing against No. 8 Wisconsin, and Buckeyes junior running back J.K. Dobbins had another strong running performance, but Burrow was outstanding on Saturday. He threw for nearly 350 yards and completed four touchdown passes, tearing the Georgia Bulldogs (11-2, 7-1 SEC) to shreds. Georgia’s defense came into the game ranked fourth in the nation, but that did not stop Burrow from gunslinging the ball wherever he wished. I’d be shocked if anyone else took home the Heisman this year.

Honorable Mention: Body Slammin’

Not much went right for Georgia in the SEC Championship Game against LSU, but there were a couple of bright spots early in the game. In the first quarter, Georgia thought they had recovered a fumble deep in LSU territory. Head coach Kirby Smart was so thrilled by the fumble recovery that he tried to chest bump one of his defensive players. It did not end well. The player bumped Smart with so much force that he got slammed to the ground. And it turned out that the player was down anyway, and the fumble didn’t count. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, coach.

Winner: Ohio State

If there was any doubt as to who is the best team in the country, those doubts were erased on Saturday when No. 1 Ohio State rolled past their archrivals, No. 13 Michigan, with extreme ease. Michigan (9-3, 6-3 Big Ten) had been playing tremendous football over the past few weeks and were facing the Buckeyes (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) at home, but none of that mattered. Ohio State moved the ball up and down the field at will, putting up 56 points without much resistance. There’s an argument to be made for No. 2 LSU being the best team in the nation, but after beating No. 10 Penn State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks without difficulty, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Buckeyes are at the top of the totem pole.

Loser: Alabama

For the first time in the era of the College Football Playoff, the Alabama Crimson Tide will not be one of the four teams selected to compete for a national title. This was ensured when No. 5 Alabama fell in the Iron Bowl to No. 15 Auburn. Alabama’s offense played well enough to win the game, scoring 45 points, but the Crimson Tide (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) got in their own way against the Tigers (9-3, 5-3 SEC), committing several unforced errors, including an illegal substitution late in the game to seal Auburn’s victory and end Alabama’s playoff hopes. The Crimson Tide played a weak schedule this season. Only two of the opponents they faced are currently ranked, and Alabama lost both of those games. It’s almost unthinkable to say this of Nick Saban’s team, but what I’ve seen from Alabama this year leads me to a simple conclusion: This year’s Alabama Crimson Tide is not an elite team. The selection committee seems to think so too, dropping them to 12th in the latest rankings. As a result, the Crimson Tide will likely be spending their postseason in the Cotton Bowl.

Winner: The College Football Playoff Selection Committee

Thanks to losses by Alabama and No. 8 Minnesota, the selection committee’s job just got easier. A one-loss Alabama team always presents the committee with a difficult choice to make, but Auburn took that potential snag out of the equation. Minnesota’s loss to No. 12 Wisconsin took the Golden Gophers (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) out of the playoff picture as well. Strong wins by No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 9 Baylor ensure that the Big 12 champion will be a one-loss team after those two teams clash this Saturday. Potential tough decisions do remain, such as what to do if LSU (12-0, 8-0 SEC), Ohio State or No. 3 Clemson lose their championship games, or who to put in between the Big 12 champion or No. 5 Utah. But overall, the playoff picture is much clearer now than it was prior to this week, and that always benefits the selection committee.

Loser: Intense rivalries

The Iron Bowl aside, Saturday’s rivalry games were hardly exciting. It’s not unfair to expect both teams in a rivalry game to bring the best intensity they can muster, given that they’re going up against the team they hate the most, but too many of the week’s rivalry games were awfully one-sided. Ohio State trounced Michigan, No. 4 Georgia rolled past Georgia Tech, Clemson (12-0, 8-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) romped past South Carolina and Oklahoma (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) won comfortably over No. 21 Oklahoma State. Each of those winning teams extended long winning streaks against the teams they beat. For a rivalry to be at its best, the two teams involved need to be on relatively even footing, and we didn’t see that across most of the games this weekend, which was disappointing, to say the least.

Honorable Mention: North Carolina

I mentioned at the beginning of the season that it would be a remarkable story if Mack Brown’s return to North Carolina resulted in a turnaround, and that’s what Brown managed to achieve this season for the Tar Heels (6-6, 4-4 ACC). After beating up on NC State on Saturday, North Carolina has won more games this year than in the past two seasons combined. Its six wins this season also makes the Tar Heels bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016. Turning a two-win team into a six-win team represents the first step to potentially building the North Carolina football team into a respectable program. ]]> https://www.bupipedream.com/sports/college-football-week-13-winners-and-losers/112864/ Mon, 25 Nov 2019 12:59:53 +0000 http://www.bupipedream.com/?p=112864 Week 13 was an interesting week in college football. Some teams’ playoff hopes barely survived, while others saw their playoff hopes crash and burn. Here are the winners and losers from week 13, coming to you a few days early!

Winner: Oklahoma

The Sooners are living on the edge. Faced with a 25-point road deficit last week against Baylor, Oklahoma roared back to seal a comeback victory and keep its playoff hopes alive. This week, No. 9 Oklahoma faced TCU at home and almost experienced the opposite scenario. Against the Horned Frogs, it was Oklahoma that took a big lead early, only to see TCU close the gap late and almost complete a comeback against the Sooners. Fortunately for Oklahoma, it held onto both the win and its narrow playoff chances. By virtue of the win, Oklahoma (10-1, 7-1 Big 12) also clinched a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game, where they will have a rematch against No. 14 Baylor (10-1, 7-1 Big 12). Oklahoma has a very narrow path to the playoff, but should the Sooners win their final two games of the year against No. 21 Oklahoma State and Baylor, they certainly have a strong case.

Loser: Oregon

If Oklahoma’s playoff hopes survived, then No. 6 Oregon’s died. The Ducks were up against an Arizona State team that had lost four games in a row. In their last game, the Sun Devils had given up 35 points in a loss to Oregon State, yet the Ducks were perpetually stymied by ASU head coach Herm Edwards’ defense for most of the game. And then, when Oregon’s offense finally woke up and started scoring some points, the defense gave up an 81-yard touchdown pass on third-and-16, basically ending the game. It was a lifeless performance by Oregon (9-2, 7-1 Pac-12), and one in which the Ducks likely saw their playoff chances collapse. If there’s one message the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has consistently sent every year in making its College Football Playoff selection, it’s that a team’s second loss is fatal.

Winner: Alabama

No single team benefited from Oregon’s loss more than No. 5 Alabama, as one hurdle standing between them and the College Football Playoff was knocked down. The consensus is that Alabama (10-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) would need a lot of help to make the playoff, and this week they got it. Oregon was the likeliest team to get that fourth playoff spot, assuming No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson all won their respective conferences. A one-loss Oregon that won the Pac-12 would definitely have been a better team than Alabama, but now that Oregon’s out of it, can the same be said of the other playoff contenders? Is a one-loss No. 7 Utah team better than the Crimson Tide? Is Oklahoma or Baylor? Those are much tougher calls and ones that could even be in Alabama’s favor. Does Oregon’s loss mean that Alabama is favored to get in now? I’d still say no, but the path is certainly easier now for Nick Saban’s team.

Loser: SEC

It was the second-to-last week of the regular season. Selection Sunday is almost upon us. There were big, consequential games in most of the major conferences, games that made or broke teams’ seasons. And the biggest game in the SEC was Texas A&M at No. 4 Georgia. Or maybe Arkansas at LSU? Those games are hardly consequential and interesting. These matchups stem from an awful practice by many SEC schools to schedule nonconference games against really weak opponents this week of the season. For example, Alabama hosted Western Carolina, while No. 15 Auburn played against Samford, games that were over after the end of the first quarter. I understand that these smaller schools receive significant compensation for playing in these games, but could the SEC schools at least do us the favor of scheduling these games at the beginning of the season? Not a single fan wants to watch this garbage at this crucial point in the season. It’s a bad look for college football, and it’s a horrible look for the conference that calls itself the best conference in college football.

Honorable Mention: FIU

On one side, it was a storied football program, the Miami Hurricanes, who have five claimed national titles and six Orange Bowl victories. On the other side, it was a football program that’s not even two decades old. FIU has only appeared in four bowl games in its history, winning two of them. Yet this discrepancy in greatness did not matter on the football field on Saturday, where the Panthers (6-5, 3-4 Conference USA) shocked the Hurricanes (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) in Marlins Park. The two teams had met three times previously, with Miami winning all of them, but now FIU has bragging rights in this crosstown showdown.

Winner: Oklahoma

The marquee matchup in week 12 sure lived up to all of the hype. No. 10 Oklahoma at No. 13 Baylor was billed as an elimination game between the two best teams in the Big 12, and both teams certainly played like their playoff hopes were on the line. The Sooners especially showed their grit and determination to stay in the playoff hunt by not throwing in the towel when they went down by 25 points in Waco, Texas. Oklahoma gave up no second-half points to the Bears’ potent offense and scored the final 24 points of the game to secure a major road win. After 12 weeks, Oklahoma (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) finally has a standout victory on its résumé and has the inside track to a Big 12 championship …

Loser: Oklahoma

… But despite the Sooners’ big accomplishment, the selection committee saw fit to only move them up one spot in its rankings, putting them in ninth. The come-from-behind victory did not give the Sooners the boost in the rankings they were hoping for. Oklahoma still sits behind No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Utah and is even still ranked below No. 8 Penn State. Clearly, the committee is saying that it does not put much stock in the Big 12’s strength and that it still holds Oklahoma’s loss to floundering Kansas State against it. If beating an undefeated Baylor team in Waco isn’t enough to impress the committee, I don’t know what would be. The way it looks, the Sooners would need a lot of help to get into the playoff at this point, and I’m very doubtful they’ll get it.

Winner: Michigan

Not many people have been paying attention to No. 13 Michigan over the past couple of weeks, but the Wolverines (8-2, 5-2 Big Ten) have been dominant in their last three games or so. Two of them were against fierce rivals, Notre Dame and Michigan State, and the Wolverines conquered both of them by large margins. Michigan’s average margin of victory in its last three games is 32 points. Defensive coordinator Don Brown’s defense is shutting opponents down, while senior quarterback Shea Patterson is settling into a rhythm that’s allowing this offense to hum. Even though Ohio State still has Penn State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) on its schedule, with the way Michigan is playing, you could argue that the Wolverines are the toughest obstacle in the Buckeyes’ path right now. And you know Jim Harbaugh will relish the chance to land a blow to Ohio State’s perfect season and earn his first victory against Michigan’s fierce rivals to the South.

Loser: Alabama

For the second time in two games, No. 5 Alabama’s season took a big hit. In week 11, the hit came in the form of the Crimson Tide’s loss to LSU, their first home loss in four years. This past week, the hit took the form of an injury to a key player. Junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a dislocated hip in Alabama’s game against Mississippi State on Saturday, an injury that will keep him sidelined for the remainder of the season. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Mac Jones is expected to step into the starting role for the remainder of the year. Jones performed admirably in his single start this season, when Tagovailoa was nursing an ankle injury, throwing for 235 yards and three touchdowns against Arkansas. However, it is obviously very doubtful that Alabama (9-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) will be as good with Jones under center as it was with Tagovailoa. The Crimson Tide already needs help to make the College Football Playoff, and this costly injury isn’t doing them any favors.

Honorable Mention: Oregon State

Every Power Five conference seems to have that one team that’s perennially terrible. The Big 12 has Kansas, the Big Ten has Rutgers and the SEC has Vanderbilt. In the Pac-12, the distinction usually goes to Oregon State, a program that won only nine games from 2015 to 2018, but this season things are turning out differently. The Beavers are 5-5 through 10 games this year and are only one win away from becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2013. Sometimes it’s the less important things in college football that are the most interesting.

Winner: Joe Burrow

Coming into the season, most people were talking about Clemson sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Alabama junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa being the front-runners to take home the Heisman Trophy at the end of the season. Well, you can now officially take that prediction and throw it out the window, because the Heisman Trophy has all but been locked up by LSU’s Joe Burrow. The redshirt senior quarterback continued his stellar season with an unforgettable winning performance against No. 5 Alabama (8-1, 5-1 Southeastern Conference), a team that usually shuts LSU down. Burrow threw for 393 yards and three touchdowns on 31-for-39 passing in the contest, and displayed nerves of steel in the high-pressure moments of the game. It’s not easy staying composed when Alabama is storming from behind, but Burrow did so, calmly leading his offense down the field for two crucial fourth-quarter touchdowns that sealed the game. The 46 points LSU scored were the most the Tigers have ever put up against the Crimson Tide. Now, LSU (9-0, 5-0 SEC) is the top-ranked team in the country, and Burrow and the Tigers’ offense seems unstoppable.

Loser: Big 12

With only four spots in the College Football Playoff, at least one of the Power Five conferences will miss out on a spot each season. Right now, the likeliest conference to not make the playoff looks like the Big 12. Both of the conference’s two remaining playoff contenders looked very shaky this past week. No. 10 Oklahoma went down to the wire with unranked Iowa State at home, only surviving because of a failed two-point conversion attempt, while No. 12 Baylor needed triple overtime to defeat TCU. Even worse for both of these teams, No. 16 Kansas State fell to Texas and dropped eight spots in the College Football Playoff Rankings as a result. This makes Baylor’s road win against the Wildcats (6-3, 3-3 Big 12) look less impressive, while it makes Oklahoma’s loss to them look even worse. The Sooners (8-1, 5-1 Big 12) and the Bears (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) play each other this Saturday, so one of them will get a much-needed marquee win, but neither of these two teams has any margin for error if they want to make the College Football Playoff.

Winner: Minnesota

Minnesota is the team that nobody saw coming. Many experts, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee included, dismissed the Gophers because of their relatively weak schedule. Finally faced with a tough challenge, however, the Gophers seized the opportunity to sling the doubt cast on them back in their doubters’ faces by beating No. 4 Penn State. The score was close, but Minnesota (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) looked dominant, driving the ball down the field at will. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Tanner Morgan threw only two incompletions in the game, and managed 339 passing yards on his 18 complete passes. As a result, No. 8 Minnesota has its first 9-0 record since 1904, and is recognized by everyone as legitimate title contenders. The Gophers is the team that nobody saw coming, but now it’s the team that everyone is talking about.

Loser: Wake Forest

If you’re a team that’s better than people expected, and it’s the week before you go up against a major opponent, you want to do your best to win so that you head into that big matchup with confidence. Wake Forest did the exact opposite. The Demon Deacons (7-2, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) looked lifeless down the stretch against Virginia Tech, giving up the final 23 points of the game to lose 36-17 on the road. Had Wake Forest won, it would have had the chance to jump into first place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division with a win over No. 3 Clemson this week. Instead, the Demon Deacons will face the Tigers (10-0, 7-0 ACC) as a deflated team and with no chance of stealing a division title.

Honorable Mention: Illinois

If you haven’t been following Illinois closely this season, I can hardly blame you. It has been an incredibly long time since Illinois was a relevant football program, but the Fighting Illini (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) have actually managed to put a decent season together. Their shock win over then-undefeated Wisconsin a few weeks ago has propelled them to a four-game winning streak. This past week, the Illini looked dead in the water against Michigan State, but they surged back with 27 fourth-quarter points to claim a win in East Lansing. That win has made Illinois bowl-eligible for the first time since 2014. It’s the Illini’s fourth season with Lovie Smith in charge, and maybe things are finally starting to click.