Funny thing, there is a very easy and absolutely fair way to do a 36-team qualifying tournament. Six hexagonal groups, top 2 advance. So, every team play at least 10 “meaningful” games vs all opposition levels. And 2nd phase, two hexagonal groups, winners qualify, 2nd places do a play-off. At 20 games it is slightly…

One elegant way to achieve that “one year contracts” is signing “dual options” multi year contracts. After guaranteed first year, the player has an option to extend for, lets say $5 M next year, the team for $8M. So, the player keeps his safety net, the team can get a bargain later (or at leas, not as much damage if…

Make it a Whites vs Blacks pro bowl, it sure would bring interest from fans. Play it in Atlanta or New Orleans, success guaranteed.

Maybe add a “cheapskate tax”, working exactly as the luxury tax but teams not spending enough. Your payroll is below $103 million (half luxury threshold), pay 20% of the difference the first time, 30% second time, and 50% third time repeat offenders.

tl;dr A team without huge money resources often have depth problems. This year there was more money to spend, so problemas are mostly solved. Depth is important on grueling league + European tournaments schedule. Duh. 

“with Carlsen playing 1.e4 and taking on Fabiano Caruana’s Petroff Defense after 1…e5 2.Nf3 Nc6.” Duh, Petroff defense is 2...Nf6 

They are not simple board and pieces. It is an electronic board with sensors on every square. The pieces have a chip identified by the board, and then the position in the board is updated on real time. A program converts the position changes into chess moves, and then uploads them to a server. This is how chess games…

I remember many years ago, at Baseball Think Factory we made fun of the flannel shirt he wore on his ESPN photo.

Math does not work that way. Imagine Dodgers have a perfect model and are able to know the winning odds on any possible combination. Boston is better than LA, and optimizing to the max Dodgers get a 40% winning probability. Then, I do not find understandable to walk in with a galaxy brained plan that gives only 35%…

Not much different than the Rays use of Sergio Romo (or Stanek) as starter for 1 inning, before a lefty long reliever. Even the A’s used the “opener” this season.

The problem is MLB schedule too loaded. Thinking out of the box, the most sensible schedule is one 5-game weekly series (some teams Wed-Sun, some Thu-Mon) with up to 2 days to replace any suspended game in-week. Only interleague would play two 3-game series in a week. Big savings in travel costs, lots of time to play…

Are cooperatives even better than unionized workers in an enterprise? If so, how to help them?

Break even point is about 88%. Winning probability with runner in 2nd and 2 outs is 13.4%, with runner in 3rd is 15.2%. It may be attainable for a good baserunner on a deep enough fly.

Why not use expected goals difference? The amount of goals that a team should have scored, given the shots and position.

The problem is the rest time. Groups A&B have 3 more rest days than G&H, so it is not fair to match them.

Panama has had many boxing world champions. I suppose Roberto Duran beating Sugar Ray Leonard is their happiest sports moment, way ahead of scoring one goal on a 1-6 drubbing.

Wrong. If both games end 1-0, in the games between the three teams tied, Sweden and Germany would have 2 goals scored, while Mexico only one, so Mexico is out. Your scenario would happen if Sweden beats Mexico 2-1, while Germany win 1-0.

I mostly agree with the article. However, it sets the cashback category too low at 1%. Many cards do better than that. Easiest is City Double Cash, awarding 2% (1% at buy, 1% at pay). If you want to pursue categories, DiscoverIt and Chase freedom offer 5% in quarterly categories up to $1500 spent, 1% on everything…

I mostly agree with the article. However, it sets the cashback category too low at 1%. Many cards do better than…

It is feasible, but it implies using 8 first round byes on the knockout stage. The “worst” 4 group 1st places plus the 12 2nd places would play in the round of 32. It also means no one knows where will play the knockout stage, and could pair a team with short rest vs a team with 3 extra days. I think FIFA deems it is…

The Korean guy slide was even worse...