What do the Irish need to do to host NCAA Tournament games?
It’s been another good season for Notre Dame, and the NCAA Tournament is a certainty barring a complete collapse down the stretch. The latest Bracketology rankings have them as a fifth seed. But only the top four seeds in each quadrant get to be host schools for the first two rounds. That means if the forecasters were charged with creating the bracket today, there would be no postseason action in South Bend.
This raises the question of what it will take to get the Irish that coveted fourth seed. Figuring this out requires more analysis than I’m equipped to do, so I turned to my friend and World Series history podcast co-host Lucas Mitzel for help.
Lucas likes to crunch college sports numbers, particularly as they pertain to the programs for North Central College, our alma mater as well as that of Nick Shepkowski, our site’s editor. I asked Lucas to do this in relation to the Irish’s chances of getting to host tournament games. He had a very quick turnaround from the moment I asked him, which is perfect timing given the gauntlet the Irish are about to face.
While these aren’t comprehensive figures for what the Irish need to get a fourth seed, this analysis does place a heavy emphasis on NET, the tournament selection criteria system that replaced RPI for the women a few years ago. So with that in mind, here is Lucas’ interpretation of where the Irish are at:
Scott Boras is the most influential agent in Major League Baseball. Nobody is going to deny that. He represents many of baseball’s biggest stars, and the league has actually had to legislate around his negotiating tactics. That’s cool and all, but man, he has some awful ideas when it comes to improving MLB.
On Wednesday, he proposed one of his worst ideas yet.
Speaking to reporters about the state of MLB and this offseason’s free agency, Boras said that he would like to see MLB move the World Series to a neutral site.
Scott Boras wants a World Series moved to a neutral site and the amateur draft moved away from the All Star weekend
Out of the four major American pro sports leagues, only the NFL plays its championship at a predetermined site. But the Super Bowl is a standalone, single-elimination championship. The World Series is a seven-game series, and postseason baseball thrives on the atmospheres we see from home fan bases.
Boras’ idea would basically mean asking fans to pay for week-long hotel stays in addition to expensive game tickets and travel. It’s a terrible idea that would destroy the atmosphere of a World Series (both on TV and in the stadium) and wouldn’t serve anyone involved. The 2020 World Series was played at a neutral site out of necessity, but for all of Rob Manfred’s bad ideas, even he wouldn’t move the World Series away from the competing teams’ stadiums.
No wonder MLB fans were not kind to Boras about the idea. It was that bad.
The Astros took the AL West division title, but the Rangers got the last laugh.
The Texas Rangers ended one of the longest championship droughts in the history of professional sports, capturing the World Series in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and winning the first title in the franchise’s 62-year history.
Despite not winning the AL West Division — that honor went to the rival Houston Astros — Texas went on an incredible run as a wild card squad, going 11-0 on the road in the postseason.
That run included knocking off the Astros in a seven-game ALCS, and at the Rangers’ championship parade, World Series MVP Corey Seager fired a shot across the bow at the Astros, and Alex Bregman specifically.
“I’ve just got one thing to say: Everybody was wondering what would happen if the Rangers didn’t win the World Series,” Seager said. “I guess we’ll never know.”
It’s a clear reference to comments made by Bregman in the clubhouse after the Astros clinched the AL West title via tiebreaker after both squads finished 90-72 in the regular season.
Former Florida right-hander Dane Dunning finished on top of the baseball mountain this year, winning a World Series with the Texas Rangers.
Texas Rangers fans across the country are celebrating following the team’s World Series run, and there’s reason for Gator Nation to join the party.
Former Florida right-hander Dane Dunning pitched in three of the five World Series games for Texas, helping secure the Commissioner’s Trophy. Dunning didn’t win it all at UF, but he was a member of the 2016 team that finished 52-16 and was eliminated in the College World Series.
As a junior, Dunning appeared in 33 games for Florida, mostly as a reliever. He finished his Florida career with 174 strikeouts, a 3.26 ERA and a .222 batting average against over 163 innings.
The Gators won it all the next year without Dunning, but it’s hard to turn down first-round money from the pros. The Washington Nationals selected Dunning with the 29th overall pick in the 2016 draft and traded him in 2017 for Adam Eaton.
He spent most of 2017 in High-A, starting 22 games for the Winston-Salem Dash. He returned to the Dash for just four starts in 2018 before being called up to Double-A Birmingham, where he finished the season. Dunning missed all of 2019 and half of 2020 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The Rangers acquired him in 2021 and now his name is etched in the history books as a World Series champion.
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Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win.
Yesterday there were six teams in the history of Major League Baseball never to win a World Series. Today, there are only five. The Texas Rangers are now forever immortalized in the history of baseball after winning the franchise’s first-ever championship.
If you’d told anyone before the season that the Rangers would be the only team left standing at the end, the only folks who would’ve believed were probably Rangers fans. But can you blame the rest of us? It was just two seasons ago that this team lost 102 games. The franchise hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2016.
Absolutely none of that matters today. The Rangers are World Series champions.
The moment the Rangers won it all was so satisfying. The team and it’s fans have waited 52 years for this. All 52 of them built up to this final moment and you could just feel the impact of Josh Sborz’s final pitch into Jonah Heim’s glove. What an electric moment.
Last, but not least, Rangers fans will sleep well knowing that nobody can flex on them anymore. Texas is no longer in Major League Baseball’s basement. It spent the money. It did the impossible. It won the World Series.
That, more than anything, has to feel great. Congrats, Rangers fans. Your squad earned this one.
How cold is too cold in the NFL? Let’s find out
Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
NFL players playing in negative temperatures has always baffled me. Like, how are they doing this? Why is this possible?
“But just how cold does it have to be to send veterans who’ve spent their whole lives between the hashmarks in November and December — and, with any luck, January — scrambling to their lockers for extra gear? What does that wind chill have to hit before they go full Michael Irvin?
Different players react to the cold in different ways. Fortunately, I got the chance to conduct an informal survey when For The Win was making the rounds at Radio Row in the run-up to Super Bowl 57. Over the course of several interviews with NFL veterans past and present, I was able to separate “cold” from “Vaseline cold.” Sort of.
So how cold does it need to be for stars to start bundling up? Well, sometimes the limit does not exist.”
He’s got insights from players ranging from legends like Brian Dawkins and Tedy Bruschi to current greats like Stefon Diggs and DK Metcalf. The answers vary, but my takeaway is the same every time.
So, look. Most of you know I’m a Washington Wizards fan. That’s an unfortunate disposition that I’ve brought upon myself. I’m not asking for pity. I just want you to know that, when I do finally completely lose my mind, it’ll be because of this team.
I know the Wizards are going to stink this year. The team traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis so it could start over anew. It was a needed reset.
After the team took down the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the franchise’s first-ever World Series title, the Rangers decided to belt out “Higher” with each other in the locker room as they doused each other in beer to celebrate.
It was as spirited a post-World Series victory sing-a-long as you could imagine for the Rangers, completing the Creed-fueled playoff run of a lifetime. They, indeed, took their team higher.
That startling achievement that Smith can now claim for his own started when he helped the Atlanta Braves win the World Series back in 2021. When Atlanta traded him to the Houston Astros in August 2022, he wound up winning yet another World Series that October.
Well, signing with the Rangers in March as a free agent gave Smith an unexpected advantage to win a third straight World Series this fall.
MLB teams might be lining up to contend for Smith’s services once he reaches free agency since his deal with Texas is about to expire, just for the World Series luck alone.
He seems to have all the good baseball vibes in the world right now, and we wouldn’t be shocked if he found himself celebrating one of these again with a new team next year.
The Texas Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-0, in Wednesday’s Game 5 to claim the franchise’s first World Series title. It was a win that longtime radio announcer Eric Nadel waited 44 years to experience, and his call of the final out did not disappoint.
This was how the last out sounded on 105.3 The Fan with Nadel on the call in Phoenix:
“He struck him out looking! It’s over. It’s over. The Rangers have won the World Series. Ranger fans, you’re not dreaming. The Rangers are the World Series champions. After 52 years in Texas, 63 years as a franchise, the wait is over. And the celebration has begun!”
And here is the final out of the game from Fox’s Joe Davis:
Bruce Bochy went from relaxing in retirement to leading a World Series effort for the Rangers.
The Texas Rangers have won their first World Series in franchise history, and they have future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy to thank for that.
After leading the San Francisco Giants to three titles as manager, Bochy came out of retirement this past offseason after a few years away to manage the Rangers.
It wound up working out spectacularly, as Bochy led the Rangers to a championship over the Arizona Diamondbacks in his first season managing the dugout.
While reflecting after the big win on how he got to this moment, Bochy recalled how he was relaxing in a recliner in Nashville, Tennessee, before he got the call to come back to the majors.
It’s really neat to hear Bochy describe how dramatically his life changed and how much it means to him to get to celebrate yet another impressive title effort.
Over a year ago, Bruce Bochy was retired sitting on a recliner in Nashville.
While Bochy didn’t really need to do anything else to confirm his future Hall of Fame status, this is just the icing on the cake for the legendary manager.
Now, he can return to Arlington to help Texas potentially win another title next year.
You’re not going to find many sports commissioners who are more universally loathed by fans than MLB’s Rob Manfred. And he doesn’t exactly help himself whenever he’s tasked with speaking for the league he represents.
Between struggling through questions about the Astros cheating scandal and any issue the league faces, he’s just ill suited for the job. Even a trophy presentation can prove tough for Manfred.
Following the Rangers’ 5-0 win over the Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the World Series, Manfred tried to congratulate the Rangers on their championship. Emphasis on tried because it sounded like this …
What is happening with his voice there? Even the easiest parts of his job are complicated for him.
You can’t blame the fans at Chase Field for booing Manfred, and you better believe that fans on social media had jokes for the commissioner’s rocky postgame introduction.
