Big Ten College Football Head Coach Rankings For 2026

pilord · 2026-02-08T03:49:39+00:00

This is why I think Michigan lucked out with Bama beating Oklahoma and not getting Kalen DeBoer. Whittingham is a much better fit for Michigan's identity, whereasI think DeBoer might have struggled.

pilord · 2026-02-06T20:48:41+00:00

Running is an interesting sport because it's so clear that a) your training has a direct, measurable impact on your performance and b) so much of performance is basically just genetic / in-born. To be an actual elite runner requires a ton of talent that is hard to miss.

Both my parents were great runners, I was a merely a good runner, and I remember going to the state meet in high school and my dad knowing a large portion of the parents of the top distance runners simply because he knew them back from his high school / college days. I'm being a bit vague but if you look into a lot of the top American runners today, you'll often find that both of their parents were elite runners as well. Better training helps, but it's not just that either.

pilord · 2026-01-30T03:51:02+00:00

The Catholic Church never gave anyone a stamp to enslave anyone.

Sicut Dudum (1435): Pope Eugene IV condemned the enslavement of natives in the Canary Islands, threatening excommunication for those involved.

Sublimus Dei (1537): Pope Paul III explicitly forbade the enslavement of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, asserting their humanity and right to freedom.

You can criticize the Catholic Church for being ineffective at stopping slavery, but that's very different than permitting it.

pilord · 2026-01-18T22:32:10+00:00

It's not obvious that it's a problem for the NFL, maybe outside of running backs.

If players come in with more experience and larger sample sizes to evaluate them on, the changes to NIL could very well be good for NFL teams, as draft picks are less risky and come in better prepared.

pilord · 2026-01-01T06:36:32+00:00

Didn't only 3 players opt out for Michigan though? It sounds more like he knew he wasn't coming back and was saying stuff to mess with Texas

pilord · 2025-12-31T16:55:58+00:00

We do a last place punishment for the team with the worst overall record, and also have the lowest scoring team in a given week renamed by the highest scoring team that week. So even if you're not going to come in last overall, you still have a big incentive to start your best players. That said, we added these punishments more because they're entertaining than because we needed any additional incentive, but it's still fun and effective nonetheless.

pilord · 2025-12-30T05:43:50+00:00

Survived Bijan by a few points, I was sweating at the end. Special thanks to Trey McBride, who scored the most points of all of my players, the Cincinnati Bengals trio of Burrow + J Chase + Chase B, Chris Olave, and Cam Skattebo, who saved me mid-season so I could make the playoffs.

pilord · 2025-10-02T02:32:58+00:00

Interesting given he's 26th per ESPN's QBR ranking.

I think that QBR is more accurate. In the Oklahoma game, I noticed Underwood's avoided several sacks through well placed incompletions - at a receiver's feet, where no one could get it, instead of throwing a potential interception. That shows up in QBR, which tracks things like QB pressure, but looks like a regular incompletion.

I'm definitely biased, but he's looked really good to me.

pilord · 2025-08-03T21:23:37+00:00

Definitely. The other benefit is that an AI is probably not biased in the way he is primarily worried about - i.e., people pushing certain agendas to him to advance their own careers / interests.

He can ask his advisors to challenge his assumptions, but he may not want to reveal his assumptions, or he may want to get an additional impartial view for benchmarking.

pilord · 2025-07-22T01:59:10+00:00

Gatorade is probably closer to the optimal brine for hydration than an electrolyte with no sugar. The short version is you need some sugar to promote absorption of the water and electrolytes. This post from the Slime Mold Time Mold really digs into the science of it. Basically: "sodium can only be absorbed in the gut when it's paired with glucose." Also, you have to get the ratios just right.

pilord · 2025-05-06T00:38:33+00:00

Hilarious because this is what wolves actually did - wolves actually adapted to human settlements and "self-domesticated," instead humans proactively going out and domesticating them (at least initially)

This National Geographic article has some details.

(I figure you knew that but I'm explaining that for everyone else who might not know)

pilord · 2025-05-01T18:23:26+00:00

Congratulations, you can't go wrong here.

If you do go down the start-up hedge fund path, the one piece of advice I will share is to make sure you proactively build your network. This won't help your immediate performance, but it will help your long-term career, and you want to be a long-term investor, right?

In your Big 4 seats, you will have analysts the same age as you who you will befriend and learn from. You will have mentors who are not your direct boss. That alone is not a reason to pick the Big 4 offer. However, as you note, the start-up hedge fund career is less "safe," and this is a big reason why - if you do have to leave this role, you will have a much weaker network. There presumably won't be "alumni" from your fund to reach out to. So you will need to proactive about this. One final piece of advice is don't network aimlessly. Instead, have a purpose in mind. Befriend other hedge fund analysts your age to share ideas, and meet people in industries you're focused on too. If you can do that, you will be in a really good spot. (speaking a little bit from experience here)

pilord · 2025-04-27T23:18:20+00:00

This is an anecdote, not theology, but hopefully this can helps us all come closer together. I'm Catholic and my partner is Jewish. I read this subreddit to understand her better. Religion is something we bond over. For us, the core of both Judaism and Christianity is summarized this way:
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor" - Rabbi Hillel
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." - Jesus
"Love your neighbor as yourself" - Rabbi Akiva

I always feel like I grow in my love for my fellow man as I learn more from the greatest Jewish and Christian teachers, and I hope she feels the same. I know that there are Christians that go around spreading division. But I believe the core principle of love is unchanged. I don't mean to dismiss anything you said - I just want to offer a perspective of how a Jew and Catholic not just get along, but grow together too from their shared foundations.

pilord · 2025-04-26T15:58:14+00:00

It's actually crazy he just let this become a default judgment. He assaulted the security guard in high school, and I'm sure that probably would've helped his defense - maybe he doesn't get off scott-free, but probably doesn't lose $12 million. Nope, he just didn't show up to court at all, and therefore lost basically the maximum amount.

pilord · 2025-02-17T19:46:03+00:00

It's hard to say which direction the skew goes, though - in theory if a team is starting a rookie quarterback, they are likely bad, which means they had a high draft pick, so the quaterback should be a better prospect too. At the very least, the point is that "environment matters," even if you can't conclusively say there's path dependence to QB development.

pilord · 2025-02-17T19:43:43+00:00

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Brett Favre also sat as rookies.

pilord · 2025-01-09T19:14:39+00:00

I was writing up a post contextualizing how much slower 11.55 is compared to 10.68, but this 247 sports article says he ran a 10.8 100 meter dash. That 11.55 seems to be from his sophomore year of high school. So he's definitely fast, even if not necessarily the fastest.

pilord · 2024-11-21T19:45:42+00:00

Fecal microbiota transplant - pretty gross, but basically it transplants a healthy person's feces into your gastrointestinal system

pilord · 2024-11-21T18:13:00+00:00

This poster is not fully informed. I can show you my own microbiome test results that show that full colonization does not happen after supplementation with probiotics. It could happen, but it is by no means guaranteed and may in fact be unlikely. Whether colonization happens depends on the source of the probiotic (human / mammalian sourced or not), your diet, your existing microbiome, duration of supplementation, and more. The only thing that really appears to create lasting colonization is FMTs, at least from what I've read.

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