Thursday Musings

For those that don’t follow me on Twitter (@d3vbwest), just know to check the Podcast Page at times. I did drop another one this week that has more commentary than usually. Not sure that’s a good thing or not.

My life is about to interfere with the website for about a week or so. Actually, it’s already started as my son is doing a performance at SMU this week. He was cast in “The Diary of Anne Frank” for those in the area that want to see a really good play about a really tough subject. I know I’m probably biased but it’s the best thing SMU has done in the 5-years I’ve been seeing plays there. We had some friends go last night and they said that the young people behind them were a tad confused over the events surrounding the play. They had to look up “Holocaust” during the intermission. I guess it’s good that the play made that happened but holy cow.

I’m probably last one to the party but I was genuinely surprised to see that the ASC, the NWC and the SCIAC have smart TV apps where you can watch sporting events from their conferences. Not all teams participate and I haven’t gotten the NWC to work but I’m loving the late SCIAC matches on my TV. A number of other DIII conferences outside the West Region also have apps. I use Roku devices for the most part.

I mentioned this on the last podcast but California passed SB-206 this past week. The NCAA came out with this response.

I’m really surprised the Pre-Championship Manual hasn’t come out, yet.

“Ned” updated his QWI numbers on Volleytalk, which you can find here. He’s assuming 19 at-large bids until we know for sure it’s changed to 20. The Central has 6 at-large bids based on his number, which might be fair but will never happen. Great Lakes have 4, which again is fair and may have a better chance at happening. That’s 2 regions with over half of the at-large bids! Midwest comes in with 2, which seems light but when I did my mock selection I only had two from that region, as well. He had zero from New England (never happen) and New York (could happen but Ithaca probably will get one just because). Both the South and West only had one at-large bid. With respect to the West, I can certainly see the logic behind it. I took two teams but that was a little strange because it meant that Chapman jumped a number of teams they realistically couldn’t (due to the selection criteria). Bottom line, losing the West Regional seems in the cards. This dynamic can change if UMHB takes down Ohio Northern who is on their schedule. Also helps if Southwestern takes down Carnegie Mellon later in the year. Frankly, all out-of-region matches are important regardless of who we send out on that hill.

I ran a poll on Twitter that asked which DIII school held the mineral rights to a large portion of what would become Disney World when Walt was trying to find a location. The answer was Tufts University. They sold their rights for $15,000 (this was back in the 60s). The issue at the time was that Tufts had the right to tear down surface dwellings to get to their mineral rights if they wanted. Obviously, that was a deal breaker to Walt. On the flip side, since the land rights and the mineral rights were separated, Walt was able to get what he needed cheaper because the parts were less valuable than if one owner had them both. Secrecy was a big part of buying the land as once his plans were known the surrounding land would become more expensive. Disney created dummy corporations to buy the land like “M. T. Lott”. Get it, Empty Lot. He purchased his first acre of land in Florida for $80. Once the secret was out it was part of the reason that his last acre of land cost $80,000.

Some interesting items from the NCAA Statistics. Colorado College leads the nation in Kills/Set. Austin College is third in the nation in Attacks/Set. Redlands Ally Busch is second in the nation with 6.78 Digs/Set. We have three of the top 5 players in Triple-Doubles. Chapman’s Sophie Srivastava leads the nation with 5 followed by Phoebe Madsen (CMS) with 4. Sul Ross State Annika Canaba is fifth with 3.

I’ll end with even more personal news. Back in August I had jury duty, which for me usually involves sitting around for half a day before being dismissed. Well, this time I was selected for what would turn out to be a capital murder case. This involved a full day of sitting around and a 28 page questionnaire. It involved getting my thoughts around the death penalty and how my life changes if I’m placed on this jury. I ended up being #44 on the list, which meant a personal interview with the prosecutors and defense team. Based on a court case I was involved in against an officer back when I was 10-years old, I was pretty sure I would be dropped. (Whoa, that sounds like I did something to the officer and I did not. I was a witness for the defense in a case where the officer unfortunately lied to make an arrest.) Anyway, that kind of life experience has always gotten me removed by the prosecution in the past. This time around, after about 30 minutes of questioning they finally determined that with my daughter’s wedding coming up, no guarantee that the trial would be over by that time and that we may be sequestered, that maybe I wouldn’t be able to concentrate 100% on the trial.