WWTBAM Bored

Studio Movie Grill, a small theater chain that featured better-than-average bar food dining, filed for Chapter 11 this week. They have three locations in Atlanta that reopened back in August. As of now, the Atlanta theaters are still open four days a week, showing a mix of current films (some of them pretty much drive-in fare) and older movies for $5. Mrs. SSS and I went a few times before the pandemic. They have very nice reclining seats but they are suffering like all the chains with a lack of patrons due to lack of product and health concerns.

Justin Turner was removed from Game 6 of the World Series tonight because he had a positive COVID-19 test. The game continued and the Dodgers won, ending the Series. If Tampa Bay had won, who knows when Game 7 would have been played. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:18 pm

Justin Turner was removed from Game 6 of the World Series tonight because he had a positive COVID-19 test. The game continued and the Dodgers won, ending the Series. If Tampa Bay had won, who knows when Game 7 would have been played. --Bob

Turner was on the field during the trophy presentation as well.

The Nebraska-Wisconsin football game for Saturday is now cancelled due to an outbreak among the Badger team. With no wiggle room for make-up games, this game will not be made up and declared a no-contest.

https://journalstar.com/sports/no-9-wis ... fb8d1.html

And this brings up a potential pitfall -- tiebreakers when there aren't ties. Lets say that Perdue (now 1-0) loses to Wisconsin (also 1-0), but Wisconsin loses a game later in the season; both teams would win all other games this year. Both teams have one loss, and under normal situations (assuming no other teams in the mix), Wisconsin would have the tiebreaker.

Not so fast, my friend (to coin a phrase). Wisconsin would be 6-1 and Perdue would be 7-1. Based upon winning percentages, Perdue would win the division, with a .875 percentage vs. Whisky's .857.

It will be interesting to see if this comes into play as the season progresses.

Vandal wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:36 am

MLB is not happy about this. --Bob

Trevor Lawrence, Clemson's quarterback, and likely #1 draft pick if he goes pro, has tested positive for COVID.

Gary Goldstein tested positive today.

And now Wisconsin will miss its second game, this one against Perdue on Saturday. Like its Nebraska game, it will be declared a no-contest.

I was about to joke that UW might win the Big Ten by playing only one game, but I read that there is a league requirement that at least six league games be played, so one more lost game would mean that they're just playing for whatever bowl they end up in, not for the conference championship.

SpacemanSpiff wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:55 am

And now Wisconsin will miss its second game, this one against Perdue on Saturday. Like its Nebraska game, it will be declared a no-contest.

I was about to joke that UW might win the Big Ten by playing only one game, but I read that there is a league requirement that at least six league games be played, so one more lost game would mean that they're just playing for whatever bowl they end up in, not for the conference championship.

Technically, they are at the limit. The conference championship teams are decided after 8 games, with the 9th game pairing up teams by placement.

Besides, they really know that they are 1-2.

Nebraska is not having any issues with keeping its players from getting Covid.

Denver Broncos GM John Elway tests positive for COVID-19

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 141460002/

Vandal wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 04, 2020 6:44 am

Denver Broncos GM John Elway tests positive for COVID-19

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 141460002/

More bad news.

Good luck, John.

The football game between Virginia and Louisville has been postponed due to COVID-19. Ten players on the Louisville team tested positive for the virus and five others are in quarantine per ACC-mandated protocols. The game has tentatively been rescheduled for November 14.

Man who died of coronavirus wins election for North Dakota state legislature

Republican David Andahl, who died from Covid-19 in October, won his election to the North Dakota state legislature on Tuesday. Andahl, a "Trump Republican" according to the Grand Forks Herald, ran a primary challenge against a powerful Republican and won earlier this year. He was then endorsed by influential figures like Gov. Doug Burgum, who won re-election on Tuesday. ... Andahl was 55 when he died on Oct. 5, less than a week after he was admitted to the hospital for coronavirus infection. ... North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said last month that if Andahl won, the state GOP would appoint a replacement from the same party, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

The state of North Dakota, which has a population of just over 760,000 according to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent estimate, has the highest per capita Covid-19 case rate in the country.

Each state handles things differently if a candidate for office dies close to the election. Here in Georgia, John Lewis died after he had been renominated for another term, and the State Democratic party was given one day to put a replacement on the ballot. State Senator Nikema Williams was easily elected to a new term on Tuesday. The governor also ordered a special election for the last two months or so of Lewis's term. Williams did not run in that election (it would have been very embarrassing to lose in a low-turnout election like this), but seven other candidates did. There will be a runoff in early December and the winner will get to serve for a month in which Congress proabaly won't be in session all that much.

The Pac-12 hasn't even started its season, and it's already canceled its first game. This week's Cal-Washington game in Berkeley has been canceled because a Cal player has tested positive and others will be in quarantine. It will not be rescheduled.

Report: NBAPA Approves League Proposal for 72-Game Season, Dec. 22 Start Date

The NBA Players Association has voted to tentatively approve the league's proposal to begin the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. The season will consist of 72 games.

The league and players had previously considered starting the season on Jan. 18, though it appears crucial financial ramifications have been agreed upon to make a Dec. 22 date feasible.

The two sides will now work to finalize health and safety protocols, and are still discussing escrow withholdings of players' salaries for the upcoming season. Charania reports the current target is 17-18%, with the goal of lowering that figure to the normal 10% by 2022-23.

https://www.si.com/nba/2020/11/06/nba-p ... NK5wo5wuV8

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:16 pm

The Pac-12 hasn't even started its season, and it's already canceled its first game. This week's Cal-Washington game in Berkeley has been canceled because a Cal player has tested positive and others will be in quarantine. It will not be rescheduled.

The Pac-12 is now down to the old Pac-8 as a second game, Arizona at Utah, has been cancelled and will not be made up due to multiple positive tests on the Utah team.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:24 pm

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:16 pm

The Pac-12 hasn't even started its season, and it's already canceled its first game. This week's Cal-Washington game in Berkeley has been canceled because a Cal player has tested positive and others will be in quarantine. It will not be rescheduled.

The Pac-12 is now down to the old Pac-8 as a second game, Arizona at Utah, has been cancelled and will not be made up due to multiple positive tests on the Utah team.

If they get one more cancellation this weekend, can we call them the Six-PAC?

Three SEC games scheduled for this weekend have been postponed: LSU-Alabama, Texas A&M-Tennessee, and Auburn-Mississippi State. The latter two games have been rescheduled for December 12. However, LSU is already scheduled to play Florida on December 12, so there's no telling what's going to happen with that game.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:40 pm

Three SEC games scheduled for this weekend have been postponed: LSU-Alabama, Texas A&M-Tennessee, and Auburn-Mississippi State. The latter two games have been rescheduled for December 12. However, LSU is already scheduled to play Florida on December 12, so there's no telling what's going to happen with that game.

Double header.

SpacemanSpiff wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:46 pm

The Nebraska-Wisconsin football game for Saturday is now cancelled due to an outbreak among the Badger team. With no wiggle room for make-up games, this game will not be made up and declared a no-contest.

https://journalstar.com/sports/no-9-wis ... fb8d1.html

And this brings up a potential pitfall -- tiebreakers when there aren't ties. Lets say that Perdue (now 1-0) loses to Wisconsin (also 1-0), but Wisconsin loses a game later in the season; both teams would win all other games this year. Both teams have one loss, and under normal situations (assuming no other teams in the mix), Wisconsin would have the tiebreaker.

Not so fast, my friend (to coin a phrase). Wisconsin would be 6-1 and Perdue would be 7-1. Based upon winning percentages, Perdue would win the division, with a .875 percentage vs. Whisky's .857.

It will be interesting to see if this comes into play as the season progresses.

I'm bringing this up again because this situation might affect the national championship for Alabama

Bama's game Saturday vs LSU has been "postponed," per the SEC league office, due to COVID issues within LSU's football team (as has two other games this weekend, as noted above).

The problem is, there's no room to reschedule it; an earlier delay for the LSU-Florida game was placed into the remaining open slot of December 12. And, should the Bama-LSU game not be played, that leaves Bama vulnerable if they lose a single game and if Texas A&M wins out, since A&M would have a 9-1 record and Bama would have an 8-1 record (if tied, Bama would win the division by the head-to-head tiebreaker [Bama 52 A&M 24] but.... it isn't actually tied anymore). Which means a one-loss Bama might not get to the SEC Championship game, and thus might end up on the outside looking in come playoff time.

I shot this info to a beat writer at AL.com last night, and got a quick response from them, basically getting an "oh crap, we never thought of that" reply. Evidently they contacted folks at the SEC office and got a "stay tuned" message for now.

https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2020 ... eason.html

SpacemanSpiff wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:17 am

The problem is, there's no room to reschedule it; an earlier delay for the LSU-Florida game was placed into the remaining open slot of December 12. And, should the Bama-LSU game not be played, that leaves Bama vulnerable if they lose a single game and if Texas A&M wins out, since A&M would have a 9-1 record and Bama would have an 8-1 record (if tied, Bama would win the division by the head-to-head tiebreaker [Bama 52 A&M 24] but.... it isn't actually tied anymore). Which means a one-loss Bama might not get to the SEC Championship game, and thus might end up on the outside looking in come playoff time.

The SEC has informally said that teams can play on December 19 (the date of the SEC championship game) if they aren't involved in the championship. But LSU has two rescheduled games, with Alabama and Florida, both of which could well be playing in that game. And Florida holds the tiebreaker with Georgia for the SEC East title, but if the Florida-LSU game is canceled, and Florida loses another game somewhere, the same scenario arises. Of course, LSU has already lost three games, so they won't be involved in any championship scenario, but they have a better chance of knocking off Florida or Alabama than, say, Vanderbilt would.

Other games that may be in trouble this week are Cal-Arizona State (Cal's first game with Washington has already been canceled) and Georgia-Missouri.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:21 am

Other games that may be in trouble this week are Cal-Arizona State (Cal's first game with Washington has already been canceled) and Georgia-Missouri.

That would leave only three SEC games this weekend.

EDIT: UGA-Mizzou is now officially postponed per SEC office.

As Son-Of-Spiff said, "that's what the SEC gets for letting so many teams have a bye week on Halloween."

EDIT 2: LSU's problems seem to stem from a Halloween party, per a Sports Illustrated tweet.

https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/statu ... 5829826561

SEC has made a pronouncement regarding the divisional tiebreakers for this season:

https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2020 ... -2020.html

In the case of “unanticipated, extraordinary circumstances” regarding eligibility for the championship game, Commissioner Greg Sankey has the power “for taking any appropriate action deemed necessary” in resolving the matter. That includes the ability to form a “determining body or use of any existing groups of institutional representatives,” the tiebreaking document states.

That said, the updated formula appears to work well for Alabama in case it were to need a tiebreaker.

Should it lose one of the final three games scheduled and Texas A&M (5-1) won four straight, the advantage would still be with the Tide (6-0) regardless of winning percentage. Alabama’s 52-24 head to head win over the Aggies would trump a better winning percentage if A&M finished 9-1 compared to Alabama’s potential 8-1.

And to my fellow Crimson Tiders, I say, "you're welcome."

(BTW, there is some history in my histrionics. Back in the 1970s, most SEC teams played six or seven conference games; Coach Bryant started to schedule an additional conference game. In at least one year, there were several teams, including Bama, that had only one conference loss, but Bama ended up in the Sugar Bowl because it had a better winning percentage.)

Add Maryland - Ohio State to the list of cancelled games. This might wind up affecting OSU's chances for making the playoffs if they can't add a few style points by clobbering Maryland.

What are the networks going to air Saturday if they run out of college football games that are actually being played?