• How big is this Causeway Classic?
    I recall that in the 1988 game the Band-Uh's pregame show included a bit where every band member who was not yet born the last time Slack beat Davis sat down. That would have been October of 1969 and the streak had reached 18 years. A LOT of Band-Uh members were sitting down.

    Ah, good times.
  • New Covid Protocol - Vax or Neg Test required
    In ths day and age there are LOTS of statistics, and it is possible to find statistics to support many views, including seemingly contrary ones....but the following items would suggest that if you have to contact COVID, you're more likely to die in Florida than in California:

    States ranked by COVID-19 death rates: Nov. 12
    Mackenzie Bean - Updated Friday, November 12th, 2021
    As of November 12, more than 759,000 people in the U.S. had died after contracting COVID-19, according to The New York Times.
    The Times used data from reports of coronavirus cases and deaths by U.S. states and counties. The database includes cases and deaths that have been identified by public health officials as probable coronavirus patients, which means they did not have confirmed tests for coronavirus infection but were evaluated using criteria developed by national and local governments. Read more about the data here. 
    Here is a breakdown of average daily COVID-19 deaths and COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people over the last seven days in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The data was last updated Nov. 12.
    Note: States are ranked by deaths per 100,000. The list includes ties. 
    (#14) Florida 

    Deaths per 100,000: 0.5

    Daily average deaths: 106.9
    (# 40) California
    
Deaths per 100,000: 0.21

    Daily average deaths: 81.7
    https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/us-coronavirus-deaths-by-state-july-1.html


    Or this chart:
    Death rates from coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States as of November 11, 2021, by state
    (per 100,000 people)
    (#9) Death rate for Florida: 282 per 100,000
    (# 36) Death rate for California: 181 per 100,000https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/

    As someone named Andrew Lang once said, “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination.”
  • Big Sky Games Week 11 & Other Top 10 Games
    Idaho State, who defeated the Ags, lost to Cal Poly.
  • Final report on baseball team released
    Is reducing the non-conference schedule a flat out punishment? Or is it as much a fact of life in mid-November when most schools have already filled their non-conference schedule?

    Are there new or transitioning teams looking for a game who will schedule anyone until they find a place to land? Maybe the Lincoln University Oaklanders have a baseball team, too.
  • Causeway Cup, 2021-22
    UCD women placed 9th and host CSUS placed 20th in the NCAA Cross-Country West Regionals today. On the men's side, UCD was 20th and CSUS only entered two runners and did not compete as a team. The current score for the Causeway Cup is now UCD 20, CSUS 5.

    Next up is football on the 20th.
  • Cal postpones USC game due to number of positive COVID tests.
    I was born during the Truman administration. I don't have that much time left on this earth.

    (We could go on, but we're already drifting too far from talking about Aggie sports.....and afterall that is why we come here.)
  • Cal vs City of Berkeley
    I posted this on the football page....but Cal just postponed this weekend's game against USC due to number of postive COVID tests.
    https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32593272/usc-cal-football-game-postponed-due-covid-19-cases-golden-bears

    Game to be played Dec. 4, the day after the Pac12 championship game. That won't present any scheduling conflict for either of these teams this year.
  • 2021 FCS Playoff Bracketology
    D-I March Madness works on a much larger budget (ticket sales, broadcast rights, souvenir sales....) than BCS football. All the games are in neutral arenas. Transporting a basketball team with 12 players and uniforms is cheaper than transporting a football team with its larger roster and equipment. Look at women's basketball which generates less revenue and runs the first couple of rounds at campus sites and you get less travel like UCD to Stanford. Same with lower division basketball...more concern about travel costs, campus sites, more regional games.

    I do recall that in the D-II days we had some teams come to Davis from a distance. Lehigh? Bethune-Cookman? Northern Michigan? My memory makes a fool of me more and more these days, but I think they all traveled here for play-off games. As I mentioned in another post, D-II football now breaks the playoffs into four geographical regions, or it did the last time I looked.

    Austin Peay traveled to Sac in their lone playoff game in the BCS era...(and gave them a lesson.)
  • 2021 FCS Playoff Bracketology
    1988 a terrible year. Ags had defeated Slack 18 consecutive years. Regular season game was in Davis. Looked like it was going to get down to whoever had the last possession. Slack had a phenom named Mark (?) Young. He killed us. They won 31-28. Come playoff time we hosted them in a first round game. Conventional wisdom was that through experience we made a better bid to the NCAA committee for hosting. Slack won that 35-14 in a game "that was not as close as the score would indicate."

    The last time I checked the D-II playoffs were strictly regional with the field divided into four geographical regions.
  • 2021 FCS Playoff Bracketology
    And they have South Dakota State playing a first round game and North Dakota State with a bye…
  • Week 10: UC Davis @ Northern Arizona
    Arizona over Cal, Arizona State over USC, Cardinals over 49ers. Somebody had to uphold California’s honor against Arizona.
  • 2021 FCS Playoff Bracketology
    Does any other team have both of its remaining games against other teams also on the predicted bracket?
  • On the right side of another upset...sort of
    Had a family member working in that area of campus up until a month ago. Regularly sent me photos of cows, especially calves.
  • Big Sky Games Week 10 & Other Games of Interest
    Final: South Dakota State 27, North Dakota State 19.
  • Big Sky Games Week 10 & Other Games of Interest
    Arizona snaps 20 game losing streak with victory over Cal. To be fair Cal’s lineup has been depleted by COVID protocols.
  • Week 10: UC Davis @ Northern Arizona
    Final: Portland State 30, Weber State 18.
  • Water polo - Fall 2021
    Saturday final: UCSD 11, UCD 10.

    In past years this game decided the regular season champion, but the Tritons tripped up a couple of times earlier this season. Should be quite a tournament with the NCAA bid on the line.
  • On the right side of another upset...sort of

    Article on renovated Rec Pool. https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/preview-new-rec-pool-next-week
    The Schall Aquatics facility (water polo, swimming & diving) is somewhat south of the renovated Rec Pool and the football field. The field hockey arena is east of that, towards Tercero. Been a long time for me, I had to pull up a map and satellite view of the campus.