mjah

I couldn't care less whether a player sits or stands during the National Anthem before going out on the field to entertain me and risk major injury. He's there to play football for profit, not to flatter my love of home and country. It's a game and a TV show... not a big deal either way. PR kerfuffle. Shrug.

Not necessarily impossible. The video below is a one-off demo and raises obvious questions about infrastructure and cost, but Tesla's vehicles are designed to allow battery swapping as a possibility... someday.

I put down a deposit for one. What the hell, why not. If I change my mind at any time, I'll just take it back. The front end of the Model 3 doesn't really do it for me. The rest is fine. A ton is likely to change between now and production, so time will tell. In terms of early production issues, the current reservation list is in the 6 digits at this point, so it's going to be 2018 or 2019 before I (theoretically) get one anyway. By that time I may be driving a George Jetson car, because the future is always awesome.

I believe Trump would call that "passionate."

Nagging back/leg situation; occasionally flares up; currently getting some treatment to calm it down; may be able to return for the game against Wisconsin but it is not a sure thing.

Really? I thought everyone at UMD knew about "Curly" Byrd. I knew who he was within 5 minutes of starting a campus tour! Loh's take on the renaming issue is interesting. He is recommending a stadium name change, but also a 5-year moratorium on renaming any other campus buildings that feature people's names. I assume the idea is to stop every building on campus (and therefore every major donor and historical figure in the university's history who is so commemorated) from facing gnat's-ass scrutiny and the ignominy of losing their named building. Which is not to say the racial scrutiny of Byrd is "gnat's ass" by any means. Were universities truly profit-driven, this movement -- minus the moratorium -- would be a great way for campuses to dump their boring old-guy building names, and expand their lucrative corporate sponsorship deals from arenas and stadiums to the realm of academic buildings.

Dan Mullen.

Only the passage of time will tell how just exact that comparison turns out to be. In the meantime I think it would be supremely foolish to aim for exactly what that quote says: Maryland trying to "model themselves as the Oregon of the East in a push to further their recruiting efforts." I see Maryland as (e.g.) a basketball program with a national championship that happened during recruits' lifetimes, a program which certainly could win another. Not to diminish what Oregon has done, but what sense does it make to recruit in the "exact" model of a program that has not accomplished that much since the Great Depression? Should Maryland aim for recruits who only grow the program to that level? Or should Maryland aim to do even better? As a fan, I think I know what most fans' answers would be to that question. Telling recruits Maryland is the "Oregon of the East" had better be immediately followed by "...Except with better results once we get there." Which means that isn't what Maryland is aiming for at all -- despite leveraging a similar relationship to Oregon's to get there. Trying to "become" someone else is a fool's game and a very inexact notion. Hopefully, Maryland's goal is to make Oregon wish they were the Maryland of the West.

To me, that kind of quote comes off a bit silly. Great programs don't aim to become some other school. Maryland is reaping a growing list of successes by being Maryland.

I laughed. Enjoyed the joke, hope others did too.

Happy to pile on since my sentiments are well documented. I was thrilled about the rumors of a Big 10 move for a year before it happened, and thrilled when it was announced. As with the old BCS, "tradition" in itself was a dumb reason to maintain an unsatisfying status quo. Jumping to the Big 10 was a great idea, but there are always boo birds who focus on the risks while ignoring the benefits. Just have to push through and let the results speak for themselves.

I'd be happy to see the stadium not only renamed, but completely rebuilt. Going to games at Byrd, I am struck by how much improvement has occurred over the past decade but also dismayed by the formidable amount of work remaining to make that place a truly good venue for football games. My perfect-world preference would be to move all fraternities to the Knox Rd. area (before that area was acquired for other housing), level the then-newly-abandoned Frat Row plus New Leonardtown, build a new football stadium there, and cut-and-cover a tunnel to drop Rt. 1 about 20' so there could be a block-long, at-grade pedestrian mall crossing from Chapel Fields directly to the stadium location. Badass in nearly every way and immediately compatible with the new East Campus development plus the Purple Line. It also would be a return to the location of the original Byrd Stadium. I would like to call the stadium "Big Byrd," particularly in light of Jim Henson's connection to the University. But given the connotations anymore, a different name would be required. Funding would be the issue... unless the campus were to become a cornerstone location for a successful DC Olympic bid, in which case the money structures might be there. Too bad it will never happen. Maybe instead we could get Sergey Brin to fund massive renovations to the existing location, and rename it "Nyrd Stadium."

I've heard the academic angle many times, almost entirely from Wisconsin fans. ...Who apparently either underappreciate Maryland's academic standards, or overestimate Wisconsin's. Or both.

You sure about that?

I was referring to the chant, obviously. I have yet to meet a Penn State basketball fan, much less one who thinks the team is particularly good. Is this the same Brian Stewart who was at the helm of Maryland's defense during the second half of that Rutgers game? Not to be ungrateful, but smell ya later.