From: don.p.del.grande@gmail.com   
      
   > But my short list is Max Verstappen. 19 of the 22 F1 races this year, he   
   wins.    
      
   Like I said, Verstappen didn't meet the "unwritten rules" for the award - and   
   if they didn't exist, I am convinced it would have gone to Lionel Messi,   
   especially now that he is in MLS.  Then again, since Verstappen won the F1   
   race in Vegas, he could have    
   gotten it as part of that Vegas "team award" I mentioned.   
      
   A more recent example: when Affirmed won the Triple Crown, Steve Cauthen was   
   SOTY. When American Pharoah did, not only was his jockey not even considered,   
   even though he had won two of the tree Triple Crown races the previous year,   
   but SI's "short list"    
   included the horse.   
      
   > One of the ramifications of this award is that no one (not even Mahomes or   
   the Rangers) sufficiently had achievement to merit this award, nor even a   
   Lifetime Achievement Award like the year Favre won it.   
      
   They don't like giving it to one-offs. Sanders has the advantage of already   
   being a "name" - I'm pretty sure he has at least one Super Bowl ring (didn't   
   he win one with the 49ers?).   
   It took three World Series in a five-year span for someone from the San   
   Francisco Giants to win it.   
   It took four Tour de France "wins" for Lance Armstrong.   
      
   > The second is that you do have to wonder whether there is some real   
   admission of corporate tampering in American sports, to the end stated just   
   above.    
      
   Not so much "corporate tampering," but I wouldn't be surprised if the "real"   
   rule for choosing the winner is, "Whoever we think will sell the most issues   
   of the magazine, that has something to do with sports, as otherwise the only   
   multi-time winner would    
   be someone like Kathy Ireland."   
      
   > Two, if this guy is to be that lauded, it basically is another step toward   
   the open-facing of what Keith Olbermann calls "college-pro" football, and in   
   more than just the "pay the players, any way you can"... This guy fired a   
   significant number of the    
   former Colorado players and told them, straight out, they were unfit for FBS.    
   >    
   > (The real question should be how many of these players found other FBS   
   programs which enjoyed some level of success, but no one has actually done   
   that study.)    
      
   I am waiting to see if the players whose scholarships were cut and then left   
   the school will count against the school's APR. It is not clear if football   
   players who leave after the spring semester starts do. If enough players do   
   count against it, it    
   could drop the APR below the 930 needed for bowl eligibility next season -   
   assuming the NCAA doesn't realize this and suddenly announce, "Er, because of   
   'reasons', we are switching to Graduation Success Rate, where someone who   
   transfers counts toward    
   their new school."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)