From: darkstar7646@gmail.com   
      
   On Friday, December 1, 2023 at 7:39:49 AM UTC-8, The NOTBCS Guy wrote:   
   > > 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.    
      
   I think, even with your unwritten rules, then Messi should've won it instead.   
      
   But Verstappen, at that point, is the CLEAR winner.   
      
   > 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.   
      
   There could be issues with the inclusion of horse racing at all, especially   
   with the increasing horse fatalities.   
      
   > > 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 really doesn't matter if it's a one-off.  The point is, even the one-offs   
   didn't make the cut this year.   
      
   Deion won one with the Niners and one with the Cowboys.   
      
   > 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.   
      
   As I said, there's a real chance that there was no discernible winner, and I   
   told you what they needed to do.   
      
   > > 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."   
      
   Exactly.  Or Martha Stewart.  :)   
      
   But this is problematic, on so many levels -- and it's not Deion's mouth.    
   It's his actions.   
      
   > > 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."   
      
   Another possibility I didn't think of, but it's something you keep track of.   
      
   Mike   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)