Clemson fans, you are never going to live this one down.
It really has to sting that Maryland -- check that, freaking Maryland -- beat you to the punch on beer sales at football games.
The Prince George's County Board of Commissioners Wednesday approved Maryland’s proposal to sell beer at Byrd Stadium and Xfinity Center beginning in September.
The decision comes nearly a month after Maryland President Wallace D. Loh approved the student-led proposal, and he spoke to the board for nearly 30 minutes Wednesday about the initiative’s potential as an “amazing and bold experiment.” The board also heard a detailed pitch from a number of other Maryland representatives, including the University’s Chief of Police David Mitchell and Athletic Council chair Nick Hadley.
Only one board member, vice chairman Shaihi Mwalimu, opposed the move Wednesday, and Loh was careful to label the approval as a victory.
“I would describe it as an expression of confidence in our students and above all a commitment to their safety. That they learn to drink responsibly and safely in a monitored environment,” Loh said after the hearing.
With the approval, Maryland becomes one of the few power five conference schools to offer beer at athletic events. According to published reports, 32 of the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision schools allowed alcohol sales last season. Only five of those schools – Louisville, Miami, Minnesota, Syracuse and West Virginia – were from power five conferences. Loh also said Wednesday that both Ohio State and Texas will begin alcohol sales at home football games this fall.
Just did some quick research and calculations and, factoring in typical Maryland attendance and your standard mark-ups for beer, they should make somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 dollars.
And just wondering how common a refrain this might be in the future in College Park:
"I came here to do two things: Throw some batteries and drink some beer."
A few Thursday links:
-- Moneyball arrives at Nebraska: The Huskers hire a director of sports analytics and data analysis.
Zeleny will head a new department within the Huskers’ athletic department, which will work with all 24 of Nebraska’s sports to “collect, analyze and summarize data related to team and individual performance.” The team will also spend some time collecting data and analyzing it in relation to how the athletic department operates as a whole.
According to a press release issued by Nebraska, Tucker Zeleny, a recent PhD grad from Nebraska, will don that title going forward. Zeleny is a Nebraska graduate, completing his doctorate in statistics this past May. His dissertation focused on weigh lifting data collected by the Husker football team.
-- Rory McIlroy's absence moves Jordan Spieth closer to a grand slam.
Not surprisingly, the subject came up -- in every interview, and to the point where a reporter actually apologized to a player for having to constantly talk about it -- at the PGA Tour stop for the week, the John Deere Classic in Illinois, and at the European Tour warm-up, the Scottish Open. And not surprisingly, there were different opinions. The general conclusion seemed to be that it's simply an unfortunate incident that happened to an otherwise nice guy who really isn't much of a risk-taker at all and that soccer isn't the problem. Bad timing is.
"I say live your life, but I do try to stay away from dangerous stuff, too," Justin Rose said from the Deere. "Would I go skiing? No, I wouldn't. Would I go water skiing? No, probably not. … Would I play tennis? Yeah, I would. So you could probably just as easily roll your ankle playing tennis as you could playing football."
Added Tour player Marc Warren: "I think it's just another side of Rory McIlroy's life and what a normal person he is. That's what the appealing thing is about him. As incredible as he is in golf and as big a superstar as he is, he's still a normal guy at the end of the day doing normal things and going around, having a kick-about with his mates but unfortunately getting injured. … It's great to see him doing normal things as well as being a golfer."
And if there's anything to be taken away from this turn of events, it's that the charmed life and golf career of Jordan Spieth keep getting better. The Texas kid's swing, touch around the greens, smile and personality seem charted for legend. His receding hairline keeps him from all-time perfection, but that's why they have golf caps, right, Jim Furyk?
-- A former Ohio State recruit signs his paperwork with Jawja.
Mirko Jurkovic is one step closer to becoming an official member of UGA’s 2015 football recruiting class.
Jurkovic, who signed with Ohio State last February but was not admitted,, told the AJC on Wednesday that he signed his financial aid papers with UGA.
“It’s a lot of weight off the shoulders,” Jurkovic said. “I can finally stop worrying about finding a college and get ready for training camp.”
The 6-foot-5, 275-pounder talked with UGA offensive line coach Rob Sale and other Bulldogs staff on Wednesday to confirm an official visit to campus next Monday.
-- Didn't take Bobby Johnson long to start talking "Eye Test." Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman rips the notion that's often trotted out by the CFP committee.
The College Football Playoff took a step back this week. Its newest member revealed that he, like many before him, have a god-complex.
Former Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson has replaced Archie Manning on the committee, and Johnson told ESPN that he will “rely heavily on the eye test this fall,” according to the story that you can read here.
Oh brother. Will this never end? Will this self-belief that the committee members are anointed to be savants and look deep into the world of college football and determine who is the better team not by results, but by what they detect from the motion pictures they study?
Johnson said he will consider a variety of factors but “the old eye test is probably the most important. I don't want to get too involved with statistics. I like to watch games and then I'll go back and look at statistics and see what may have been the big difference in that one team winning or losing.
“It always gets down to who can execute and who can get the job done when the pressure's on. To me, that's the big thing. That's looking at the coaching staff, that's looking at the players, the kickers, everything. There's a lot of stuff to look at, but when it gets down to it, the old eye test is probably the most important.”
I swear. If I’m ever in need of a strait jacket, you can blame the College Football Playoff committee. This incessant need to look past results drives me batty.
The most important thing to look at — no, the ONLY thing to look at — is results. Who did you play? Where did you play? Who did you beat?
-- And we'll close with a sweet little number from Murray McLauchlan:
LW
