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Ghost of LL

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. It's actually Mrs.LL's World Elite card; I'm just an additional cardholder. She uses it to keep her status up; I get club access. But you're right--it's not a great card. I would ditch it altogether if AmEx would ever open the Centurion Lounge at AUS. But I think that has fallen completely by the wayside.
  2. I don't think the media deal is that big a challenge. This is for football only; basketball and other sports are separate. And in football, the Big12 gets its media deal; the AAC gets its. So if you get relegated, you lose out on the Big12 money the next year. So that is to say you lose out on about $25M. Which gets to the ADs' objection. And you're right about that. It would take some truly urgent circumstances to get the schools to agree to that. But right now, the PAC2 and MWC are facing exactly those urgent circumstances. So it might work.
  3. I argued for years that the Big12 ought to do something similar with the AAC. As we see this week, the Big12 has tons of inventory that absolutely nobody cares about. Oklahoma State @ Iowa State? Texas Tech @ West Virginia? Who the fuck cares? Those are shitty games between programs that have limited followings. But that Iowa State-Baylor game in November if the loser is getting relegated to the AAC? Are you watching that? Fuck yeah, you are.
  4. Mrs.LL was at the airport bar with a bunch of y'all. She was flying AA through CLT, and her flight got a rolling delay. She did have a funny story of one guy on y'all's flight who was drunkenly hitting on her. Same. I'm pretty AA loyal because (1) status and (2) my credit card gets me into the AAdmirals Club. The Club isn't great (especially at AUS), but if there's a flight cancelation, you can go up there and the very pleasant attendants will take care of rebooking you. JFK is a 10-minute helicopter ride from the 30th Street Heliport.
  5. Well, a lot of us have killed about 5/6ths of our brain cells since then, so that checks out.
  6. And one thing I didn't count on with the NIL and Portal environment is the rise of the mid-majors. Now we see plenty of teams like Wyoming and Tulane and Miami (Ohio) getting players that are plenty good through the transfer portal. And it makes sense for those players. So they can't start at Alabama--go play at Ohio (not State) for a year and see if you can't then transfer to USC or Ohio (yes State) and get the big NIL money. That doesn't mean Wyoming is going to challenge for a national championship. But it does mean that Wyoming is going to be plenty good enough to beat a mid-level Big12 team. And that's where the Big12 is, and where it's going to be. There are no more cupcakes for any Big12 team after the departures of Texas and OU. They're going to have 12 real games every year, because none of them are good enough to beat teams that used to be considered "cupcakes," but now are actually pretty decent. If you're a fan of a Big12 team going forward, that's probably kind of dispiriting. I mean, you could easily enter conference play with no team being undefeated. But as a college-football fan with no real interest in the Big12, it's really kind of entertaining. The Big12 offers a scenario in which a mid-tier program can "upset" a "power conference" program in any given week. And that's pretty fun.
  7. Not only that, but it's Dr. Pepper products only. And Dr. Pepper makes a shitty mixer.
  8. Strong agree. The Stars probably have the best in-game presentation in the business.
  9. I did that a couple years ago when we were in Africa. The pool itself doesn't have just a whole lot of flow over it. It's kind of like an infinity pool with just about a half-foot of water going over the rock that separates the pool from the Falls. So to go over, you'd probably have to purposefully slide yourself over. Even so, there's a reason the camera doesn't show her feet. That's because there are two guides with her, one holding each ankle. And then there's a third guy back there just as an extra hand. Getting that photo isn't the dangerous part. The dangerous part is getting out to Devil's Pool. That's where you're walking out on very slippery rocks that have about a foot of flow going over them. One misstep there, and you can go for a tumble and be swept just a little bit downstream over the Falls. That's where you really rely on your three guides. They've been doing this since they were kids, and they know exactly where to step (and, more importantly, where not to step). They lead the way. You have one guy holding each hand while you take a step. And then between steps you grab the hand of the next guy. So anytime you're taking a step, you have two guys holding you. But anyway, you get out there and look down, and the view is amazing. This video doesn't even really do it justice. I went at a somewhat higher flow time (early July), so the flow was such that you couldn't see anywhere close to the bottom. All you see is the mist, which is actually coming back up towards you. It's just staring into a wild maelstrom with a background roar that is almost deafening.
  10. And my point is that Gen Z doesn't care about college football. It certainly doesn't care what makes college football "special." It's here for the gimmicks. And that "bloat" is needed to attract them.
  11. But here's the thing: there are a lot of things that aren't working at other schools. Take a look a college football attendance around the country. It's down markedly over the last ten years. And that reduction is led by the student sections. There's a big reason why Texas and a whole lot of other schools are experimenting with "filler." There are a lot of reasons to opt for the couch rather than going to the game. Texas, and every other athletic department in the country, is looking at that "filler" to provide a reason to get off the couch and come to the game. But for a lot of our students and younger alumni, the game isn't a draw at all. For them, there are a lot of reasons to go do anything else on a Saturday. The "filler" is intended to provide a reason to go to a game that they otherwise have no interest in.
  12. I have really bad news for you and the rest of us old guys out there--the Athletics Department is not going to cater to "fans of college football" to the exclusion of "a broader audience." Because the students today are broadly not fans of college football. I don't know if you've been paying attention to the interests and viewing habits of Gen Z, but they're not into watching sports (college or professional). And if all you have on offer is 1) football and 2) a band playing Wabash Cannonball (fucking seriously?), you're not going to attract a whole lot of students. And that means in ten years, you're not going to have a whole lot of people making donations to the LHF and sitting in those expensive west side stands. So yeah, Milo--
  13. But therein lies the problem for the GQP. That means they're primarying almost all of the GQP members of the House. And that's a real problem for them because that means they're going to end up with a lot of unelectable general-election candidates. The House districts are tiny. There are 150 house districts. That means that each House district only represents about 200,000 people. With districts that small, it is hard to put into place a very effective gerrymander. That's reflected in the partisan makeup of the chamber: there are 83 Republicans, which at 55% pretty closely matches Abbott's share of the vote. That also means that you have a lot of districts that are close-ish. And in those close-ish districts, you have moderate Republicans, who are the only kinds of Republicans who are going to win that district. I mean, you can primary Morgan Meyer if you want. You can replace Morgan on the general-election ballot with the biggest MAGA crazy you can find. That'll show Morgan--that RINO cuck. Oh, but then a Democrat is going to win that seat in November. Because that district isn't voting for a MAGA crazy. So yeah--this GQP civil war is going to be fun.
  14. And now Patrick says he wants to audit the House's expenditures on the impeachment trial. The GQP civil war is here, friends. It's going to get ugly.
  15. Two observations here: 1) LIU may have the best look in college football. First, you got the "Sharks." That's just a great mascot. Who the fuck isn't scared of sharks? And it's a mascot that works for Long Island--right, Chief Brody? But beyond that, those uniforms are fucking great. Yellow is an underutilized color in sports uniforms. But when it's used--see generally, the Oakland A's, Los Angeles Lakers--it works. But see Nashville Predators. And matching yellow with that light blue works well. 2) That LIU running back is just painfully slow.
  16. Army. Baylor lost to Texas State in Week 1. Then Texas State lost to UTSA in Week 2. And the Roadrunners then lost to Army on Saturday.
  17. This next special is going to be fire. Abbott and Patrick want vouchers. I don’t think the House is in much of a mood to do deals.
  18. Georgia is just getting their asses kicked.
  19. Georgia looks like ass.
  20. So that is to say that as things currently stand, there are the votes to convict?
  21. If Russia were a society of free people, this would cause popular sentiment to swing against continuing the war. But since Russia is a society of slaves, . . . .
  22. How in the literal fuck? I mean, seriously--he must be one charming motherfucker.
  23. I've come around to really liking the 11:00 kick. I just remember being absolutely exhausted after a 2:30 kick and unable to do anything that evening. But with an 11:00 kick, you can run that day-drinking marathon a lot easier. I still would like to see a 7:00 PM kick one day. I just think that'd be a blast. I mean, we might all die. But it'd still be fun.
  24. I don't think they're really worried about getting the goat off.
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