u/That_Don_Guy_1

Pretty much lost in the shuffle of the "5 in 5" announcement, the NCAA Divsion I Cabinet approved moving when a women's volleyball team can have its first match from the Friday before 9/1 to the Thursday that is 15 weeks and 2 days before the first Saturday in December. If I counted right, this moves the earliest date back by 8 days. (For example, in 2026, the old rule was Friday 8/28, and the new one is Thursday 8/20.) This will apply starting with the 2026 season.

There are four football-related proposals that are expected to be voted on by the NCAA Division I Council today:

1. Let Sacramento State and North Dakota State (and, in future, any team in either year of its FCS-to-FBS transition that plays a valid FBS schedule) be bowl eligible with six wins.
2. If there are not enough 6-win teams to fill all of the bowls, let the bowl organizers choose any 5-7 teams regardless of APR, provided no 6-win team is left out as a result.
3. The FBS regular season will be the 14 weeks that end on Thanksgiving weekend (except that the Army-Navy game may be played after that date). In most years, this means Week 1 will start the Thursday that is 11 days before Labor Day. There will also be no more "automatic Week 0 waivers," even when Week 1 is Labor Day weekend, as it will be in 2030. In addition, the CFP Championship Game has to be played by the third Monday in January.
4. The FCS championship game can now be played on the second Monday in January, instead of having to be played by the day before that.

Okay, there's one other one that applies to all sports, but seems especially appropriate for football:
5. Enforcement staff shall make a formal allegation of tampering "if a reasonable person would infer that one or more parties engaged in impermissible conduct."
The institution/individual must "clearly demonstrate with credible and sufficient information that all communications complied with NCAA legislation" to avoid a determination that tampering occured.

Apparently, Adam Njie Jr. of Iona promised a bettor that he would shave points in the first halves of two 2024-25 games, against Rice and Sacred Heart, but reneged both times, even though the bettor threatened bodily harm after the first game.

The question the NCAA is asking is, does merely agreeing to shave points constitute a violation, even if the athlete didn't follow through on it?

My brother and I were at the Pinball Hall of Fame arcade in Las Vegas when he mentioned something: both he and I remember that when Flash first appeared (at the local bowling alley, back in the late 1970s), there was a light box on top of the backbox that would flash like a camera flash. I also remember that, at some point, it stopped working, either because it just burned out or the operator had gotten too many complaints about it affecting other games' players. However, neither one of us can find any reference to it being part of the game. None of the games' flyers or photos on IPDB even mention it. Did anyone else ever see this?

Apparently, starting this coming season, the "mega match" format must be in this order:

1. Baker 5-game total pinfall
2. Five-person team match (also total pinfall, presumably)
3. Best-of-7 Baker games
   Weren't the first two switched before this?

Rather than incoming athletes having 5 years of eligibility starting whichever of the season following their high school graduation and when they turned 19 came first, the NCAA has changed it so it starts when either (a) the athlete enrolls in college, or (b) the season following the one where they turned 19. Someone who turns 19, say, this October and enters college in Fall, 2027 will be eligible for the 2027-28 through 2031-32 seasons, when they will be 24 in their last season.
Apparently, the change was made at the request of ice hockey (where a number of players play "junior hockey" between high school and college), basketball (presumably for international player concerns), and the service academies.
Note that none of this takes effect until it is voted on, possibly in about three weeks.

This box is in my backyard. There is a switch on my circuit breaker panel for a hot tub, but I do not have one. What does this do, and where would the wires go?

Inside the electrical box

Wiring underneath the plastic plate shown above

Here is a link to the text of the Cruz/Cantwell "Protect College Sports Act."

Somebody with better eyes than mine take a look at it, and tell me if I am missing something, but I do not see any limit on how much an athlete can make from third-party NIL. It does say that all deals of more than $600 have to be reported, but I didn't see anything about them being limited.

Here is how the WCWS bracket works out (the winner of each listed super regional gets that spot in the bracket)
1: Alabama - LSU
8: UCLA - Central Florida
5: Arkansas - Duke
4: Nebraska - Oklahoma State

3: Oklahoma - Mississippi State
6: Florida - Texas Tech
7: Tennessee - Georgia
2: Texas - Arizona State

Note that the numbers apply only to where in the bracket they appear. The teams' actual seeds are used to determine the home team where necessary.
Here is the seed order:

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Nebraska
5. Arkansas
6. Florida
7. Tennessee
8. UCLA
9. Georgia
10. Texas Tech
11. Duke
12. Oklahoma State
13. LSU
14. (tied) Arizona State, Mississippi State
15. Central Florida

Also, they do not "re-seed" the teams for the WCWS for bracketing purposes based on which eight get in.

I noticed that a number of people are calling for "just the computers" to determine the CFP rankings. (A few others are calling to bring back the BCS system, but remember that 1/3 of that is a group of about 64 coaches and another 1/3 is either something like 64 members of the sports media or over 100 more-or-less random famous people, depending on whether you want the AP or Harris Interactive poll version.)
The NCAA is doing exactly this in Division II starting next season, with its NCAA Power Index. I figure that it can be used for FBS as well. The problem is, everyone has to agree on what "settings" to use.
If you were in charge of this, what numbers would you use for:
* What percentage should be based on record, and what percentage on strength of schedule (which is pretty much the average rating of the team's opponents)?
* Home field advantage - this is, how much weight should be given to a game won by the home team as opposed to a neutral site game. For example, if the weight is 90%, then the home team would be credited with 0.9 wins if it won, and the away team with 0.9 losses; on the other hand, if the home weight is 90%, the away weight is 110%, so if the away team wins, the away team is credited with 1.1 wins, and the home team with 1.1 losses.
* Overtime - should, say, a game that goes into a third or later overtime, with its "duelling two-point conversions," count the same as a regulation win? Or should it count, say, as 90% of a win and 10% of a loss?
* Quality Wins - there is a bonus for beating a "quality" team. This has two settings: (a) the minimum rating that designates a team as a quality team, and (b) the amount by which you multiply the difference between the rating and the minimum rating setting to determine the actual bonus.
* Retained Wins - normally, a win against a weak opponent that would lower the team's rating would not be counted, except that each team has to count a certain number of wins, starting with the strongest opponents and going down. (Also, a loss against a strong opponent that would raise its rating is not counted, and there is no cap on how many losses are counted.)

For example, the settings for Division II football are:
Record/SOS: 25 / 75
Home Field Weight: 0.95 (so away wins would be 1.05)
Overtime: counted same as regulation
Quality Win: minimum rating 52, multiplier 1/2
Retained Wins: 5.5 (but remember, most D2 teams only play 10 regular season games)

Also note that games against FCS teams are not counted. Remember Appalachian State's win at Michigan? NPI doesn't. I tried ranking all of the Division I teams together, but because of the very limited crossover, almost invariably, an FCS team ended up qualifying for the CFP.

The list of approved NCAA rules changes does not include one that was on the original list: if a player who was suspended for an entire game played in that game anyway, the game is declared a 3-0 forfeit, and both the player and the head coach receives a 2-game suspension.