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Updated 2025 SP+

You're excited about Nasir Rankin. You saw one of those preseason poll infographics that had Illinois 11th and you sent it to your cousin Brandon. Me? I can hardly contain my excitement about this latest SP+ update. What it shows for us is basically... impossible. Let me just

PMP25: Ceilings And Floors

The total for the fundraiser at the moment: $1,968. I leave the donation page up for the month of May every year, but NOBODY DONATE ANY MORE. 1968 was the year my dad graduated from college. So that's the perfect number for this year. The goal was

Identity

It's so funny how I use the paywall here. The idea behind the paywall is that you make the article nice and juicy and then WHAMMO you hit 'em with the paywall so that the reader scrambles to subscribe and continue reading. They simply HAVE to know

Golf Fans

You probably already knew this, but college golf tournaments are lightly attended. For the most part, it's just parents and maybe a few former players. Sometimes, the members of the local club (where the tournament is being played) outnumber any actual fans. They're there to watch

Deficit

I have about 45 minutes here before I'm leaving the house to go cover the golf regional in Urbana. I touched on this last week in my "back from LA" article but since writing it, it's been on my mind non-stop. In my 16+

PMP25: How To Watch A College Golf Tournament

This is the first of the Pick My Post articles for the 2025 fundraiser. All of these will be unlocked and open for anyone to read. With the NCAA Urbana Regional coming up on Monday, this basically had to be first. The request: tips on how to watch a college

2025 Pick My Post Fundraiser

It's tuba time again. I use a different tuba photo every year for this. This year it's a photo of the Marching Illini sousaphones from their fundraiser where they run a 5k while wearing (and occasionally playing?) their sousaphones. Hopefully they're playing. I mean,

Back From LA

There are too many things this time of year. On the last day of April you’re supposed to get all Justin Timberlake and say “it’s gonna be me” (but you say “it’s gonna be May” instead). And today (I'm writing this Sunday but it will

Portal-Free Since 2023

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.  As I’ve told you before, my dad navigated the world through jokes. It’s how men of his age communicated. You’re standing around in line at the bank in 1979, you see Fred, and as you

Heartbreak

I need you to study that photo. First off, please notice the red jacket (and the gray pants leg) all the way to the left. That's the BTN cameraman. His job was to get the team's reaction on 18 after Jake Birdwell's birdie putt.

Youth Movement

Remember the Penn State basketball game in 2006? The one where we had one a bazillion home wins in a row - at that point we had only lost three times at home in the 2000's - and then we inexplicably lost to Penn State at home? The

Up Close

My phone just buzzed. It was my ESPN app reminding me that the second round of the draft is this evening and SHEDEUR SANDERS STILL HASN'T BEEN DRAFTED. On the golf course earlier, I opened Twitter to see that Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman were going live to

Expectant

I think I can officially say that I've never experienced a game like the 2024 Citrus Bowl. It's April 22nd and it's just not going away. I can't recall a game with so many residual effects. And I've been doing

97 Minutes: Position Groups

I'm in Idaho at the moment. Actually, at this exact moment, I'm in charge of watching my grandson while he takes a nap. The nap will likely be an hour and a half. I have this little monitor here with both video and sound so I