Where Do We Stand - January 21st

Here's the thing. I know that it's "for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction" but I don't know what "it" is. I know it's not the Theory Of Relativity but I think it might be Einstein? If you ever had to wonder if my "I was on academic probation twice and barely escaped with my degree from Illinois" is true, I have to have proven it to you by now. It's probably not Einstein but I'm going with Einstein.

It's Newton. Newton's Third Law of Motion. If you ever want to feel dumb, instead of googling "what is Newton's Third Law?", google "who said that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction?" Look, I was trying to figure out if Jamie Brandon was going to end up at Illinois or LSU back then, I wasn't studying.

The 2024-25 school year so far, for me, has been Newton's Third Law. The football team did one thing and now the basketball team is doing the other thing. Both are successful. The AP Poll on Monday said that Illinois Basketball is the 17th-best team and the AP Poll on Tuesday said that Illinois Football is the 16th-best team. But they have arrived at this rankings in a different way. Namely, Illini basketball has been "should" successful and Illini football was "did" successful.

I have to be careful here. I don't want to suggest that Illinois football didn't end up with solid NERDstat numbers or that Illini basketball doesn't have a solid resume. I'm just saying that this fall's "the NERDstats are still rough but the resume is fantastic" has become this winter's "the NERDstats are incredible but the resume is lagging." Let's me give you the latest I-N-I and then we can go through all of that.