The Great Hambino

I wasn't even picking on Jackson specifically. I think he's been fine for a rookie asked to be a day 1 starter. But Kelly was a high-risk bet that didn't pay off, they're paying Fries like a pro bowler to be average, and Skule has been a disaster

Donovan Jackson doing his best Joey Gallo impression Their ability to run on 3rd and short relative to the investment in the OL they've made is incredibly disappointing

Turner looked like he was shot out of a cannon on that sack

Taunting on a run where you don't even pick up the first down is incredibly N9NE

Sounds like he fits right in to their team concept

That would be in the middle of the semester. It's where it is in the first place so they can be part of spring ball at their new school. I don't think it benefits anyone to have players hanging around spring ball that are already out the door at their old school while not being able to participate at their new one. If schools were more willing to accept mid-term transfers, then fantastic. But from my limited knowledge of how that works, it doesn't seem like a realistic possibility. Otherwise the portal would already be there. It's also more ideal if high school signing periods and portal windows were in alignment. If a high school standout QB signs at a place based on opportunity, but then a transfer portal QB lands there a couple months later, then you're just creating another batch of transfers. If those windows are aligned, everyone - high schoolers, transferrers, coaches - can make better, more informed decisions.

You could start with whomever's responsible for the prevalence of the semester system in American universities. Or the answer is "nobody" because no one is actually in charge of this sport. No one involved likes where it falls, but the forces of playoff expansion have prevented an easy or logical solution thus far. If they really don't want the portal happening during the playoffs, then Jan 1 needs to be the championship game, or at a bare minimum the semifinal round. In order for that to happen, something that some group - fans, schools, conferences, TV execs, etc - holds sacred will have to give. Are they willing to move all the historical rivalries off of Thanksgiving weekend by sliding the whole season one week earlier? Are they willing to sacrifice conference championship games (which I'd argue have outlived their usefulness in super-sized conferences with no divisions - see this year's ACC debacle) to make the playoffs fit better? Are they willing to encroach on the Army-Navy game? What's giving way so that the portal window can slot in after the playoffs but before it's too late to actually get transferring players into their new school? I think at least two of the three items above would have to give way to make it all fit. Don't know if I see that happening

If that's what happens, then I hope there's a feed where we can watch Lane Kiffin watch the game among the 375 alternate feeds ESPN will be putting out for the game

I don't like it. The last time they rested on their Hardy, they just gave JJ away to the Orioles

I believe the Hayes article said they were in the neighborhood of about $200M in 2019, which would be roughly in line with what most franchises in their value range carry on their books according to sources like Forbes

Even MS Paint doesn't have a hat big enough for that noggin. I feel your pain, Derek. Let's start a class action lawsuit against New Era, et. al. for misleading advertising and discriminatory production processes. "One Size Fits All" my arse

Just think: under last year's rules, Tulane would've gotten a bye and Ohio State would've played James Madison this weekend

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2025/12/fanduel-sports-network-shutdown-possible/ Main Street Sports Group, the artist formerly known as Diamond Sports Group and current owner of what's left of Fan Duel RSNs, just missed a scheduled payment to the Cardinals and apparently will be shuttered permanently if the proposed deal for them to be purchased by DAZN falls through. Roughly half the NBA still has local rights through them, and they're apparently takings steps to move all those in-house if necessary. It looks like the Twins might have some new roommates in the MLB.tv clubhouse come the start of the 2026 season. This could ultimately be a good thing for the Twins - the more local rights controlled under MLB.tv, the more lucrative that package potentially becomes

There is no salvaging the Correa trade. The longest-of-long-shots lottery ticket has already been discarded, and the salary savings have been pocketed by ownership. The payroll this year will at best be last year's payroll minus the Correa savings. There's no argument to be made that this was anything other than a salary dump. It should have been the final chapter of this era of Twins baseball, but they're insisting on adding an unnecessary epilogue to the story by refusing to move on from the current core.

In my opinion, Tom is already going back on his words about accountability and no half measures by even allowing Falvey to proceed with the ultimate half-measure strategy that has failed the last two seasons and is even more likely to fail again after stripping the team of its bullpen: trying to enhance a fatally flawed core with little FA nibbles on the margins. But if you want to argue that this is Tom giving Falvey one final chance, or perhaps its too far along in the offseason to pivot in a meaningfully different direction/find a viable replacement, then he has to decisively follow through with his promise of accountability if (lets be honest, when) this strategy fails yet again. If they're once again sellers at the trade deadline, Falvey has to be gone. Don't even wait for the end of the season. At the very least, remove him from the baseball ops side and have Zoll manage the trade deadline. Falvey can have no hand in the deadline if you're sellers and actually serious about accountability. Then clean house in the offseason. No internal hires - show that the country club mentality no longer flies here. Get an actual business mind to run the business side. Get a creative mind from an actual successful front office to run the baseball side. Demonstrate that you're willing to perform an exhaustive search to truly bring in the absolute best people for the job; you're no longer just looking down the hallway for the least incompetent person available. Familiarity means nothing. Hire based on actual talent. Then proceed with the rebuild that you weren't honest with yourself enough to admit began with the 2025 trade deadline.

Oh yeah? According to what code section or treasury reg? There is nothing preventing a business from taking out a loan/drawing on a line of credit/etc, making a distribution of cash to owners, and then contributing that cash to another entity. Any basis rules would not apply since there's no way the Pohlads are close to being out of basis in the Twins. Hell, if the two businesses were both wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pohlad Companies, the IRS wouldn't even consider the two businesses to be separate. I'm sure there's MLB rules preventing using the club as collateral for outside interests, and at some point doing too much of this might violate some debt covenants with your bank, but the idea that there's no way to get loan proceeds into a different company's hands is just not true My current organization just did this exact thing. Had the bank's blessing and everything

The owners are also the ones putting on this whole WBC shindig (and benefiting from its revenue) in the first place. I'm sure they understood that their players might be involved in this from time to time and happily accepted whatever risks resulted from that.

Not often you see a take age so poorly so quickly. I don't see Tulane losing by less than negative ten

That's not a bad idea

Clyde's awesome

Calls to Finebaum after the game are gonna put the Alabama power grid in peril

Tulane will keep their game closer than Bama. This is not a good team

This family is an excellent argument for an estate tax of 100%

I hope they're planning on a lot of Oliver & Ham in max protect schemes if they plan on letting Rouse be involved in any way. It's not a simple as "just give him a shot and see what happens" when it puts the young QB you've staked your entire professional reputation on in a shooting gallery

I'll be ... let's call it irritated if they're willing to pay a free agent reliever more than Duran's $7.6MM projected arb figure