Skipper

This was what they did for the Winter Classic. Of course, the difference was there wasn't a fair going on. I love it in theory but don't know how it could work.

There are pretty simple solutions in my opinion: 1. Fix entrances/exits. Hopefully the renovations help from an infrastructure perspective. But with the current set up a lot of problems can be fixed with more staff. Pay Cowboys stadium employees whatever is needed to come work for the day. There was simply no excuse to not have more people scanning tix to alleviate the pregame bottlenecks. 2. Fix bathrooms/concessions. Again, hopefully the renovation helps but they simple have to figure out a way to get more staff. You shouldn't have to risk miss a quarter of football to run to restroom and grab a beer or whatever. Texas has certainly improved this significantly over the past several years at home games. 3. Cap non-game attendees or increase pricing to reduce from that perspective. This is the one that will be hard to accomplish because I have no doubt the vendors make an absolute killing on this day. But it's a real problem that seems to have gotten worse post-Covid. As others have said, I can't fathom having a family 'fair day' during Texas OU but every year clearly a ton of people there that don't care about the game.

Gate B was an absolute shit show pregame. We got there by probably 1:45, waited 15 minutes and barely moved. I think the gate was smaller than normal due to construction but I swear those fucking morons only had 2 people scanning tix and there were thousands trying to get in. I realized the situation and fought back through the crowd around the food court then went in gate C without much delay at all. From the concourse up above, I was trying to direct Texas fans to ditch gate B and pivot to C. It seemed like few realized what I was doing and left but most just rode it out. There is no way most made kickoff despite trying to get in 40 minutes before game. That is just flat out unacceptable. Absolute incompetence by the Cotton Bowl staff. They should have had 4X more ticket takers there + crowd control directing people to gates with smaller lines.

Yep. I've never seen anything like the momentum swings that can take place inside the Cotton Bowl. It's what makes the game great.

For sure. But it is just indicative of their mindset. I think Sark is a lot closer to that mindset than his predecessors.

This stat is indicative of how differently OU approaches this game than Texas does at least since the start of the Stoops era (and has clearly continued under BV). They had shit for a backup (an even more raw JA) and an injury riddled QB with significant concussion history. They knowingly risked their season running DG time and time last year because beating Texas is all that matters. That approach is a big reason why we are 9-16 in this game since Stoops took over.

Yeah, that game kind of started our long national nightmare of shit OL play that lasted until the Sark era. We just didn't quite know it yet as Colt was able to mask it that season outside of that game and the Neb Big 12 Championship game where Suh just toyed with our interior line.

Maybe 2009 (Colt's senior year). Don't recall spread but we were a much better team on paper that year I think and barely won.

9-16-1 here. Time to get a streak going the other direction. We're due. Forecast looks brutal for Saturday. Glad I made the decision to go west side with shittier seats than east side where I usually sit once I saw the 2:30 kick.

This is the same to some extent every single year. They are poor.

Wow. played in 2 early games where he didn't attempt a pass? Great management of a FR QB OU.

2nd time I've seen this mentioned. I guess he didn't redshirt last year? I assumed he did as little as he played but guess not

Sports "inequality" is a hot topic no matter the level. Starting at Kindergarten redshirts, to high school "transfers" or Allen refusing to split up their high schools, all the way to Tampa Rays fans bitching about the Yankees payroll and lack of a real salary cap in MLB. Or 90% of CFB teams bitching about Texas NIL. That's my point. It's a successful argument because everyone already has hot sports opinions (literally) about inequity in sports. So throw transgender and the mere thought of a "male" dropping 30 and 15 in a girls high school playoff game (regardless of whether it is actually happening or not, as it isn't) and it's a winner to fire people up that aren't going to research whether or not there is an actual issue.

This 100%. The reason this is an effective strategy is because the concept of inequity as it comes to sports is absolutely a winner at a base level without gender issues layered on top. Are some of people against this super transphobic? I'm sure. But we had a little league game earlier this week where our 2nd grade boys team played a team with a bunch of known 3rd graders on it that were mashing and a bunch of the moms got all pissy about it. Kind of like Highland Park parents (among others) are purportedly notorious for kindergarten "redshirting" their boys for sports purposes and enjoying that advantage in youth sports (which similarly gets people outside of highland park all pissy as I've heard this get brought up/bitched about in 3 or 4 different settings). So you take a concept like sports inequity that draws people offsides anyways, slap transgender on top of it, and of course it accomplishes exactly what they want.

I think it's as simple as being one of the few 'MAGA' positions where there is likely pretty clear majority support to the extent there was actually an issue. If, in reality, you had biological males playing against biological females across all sports for 2 or 3 teams in every district with many of those biological males being really good players and dominating games, it would be an actual issue that would be unpopular as the majority (even non-MAGA) would take the position that seems inherently unfair. Of course, that's not happening in the real world. But trying to pretend it is an issue is a political winner and we live in the year 2024 where online outrage about shit like this gets people fired up. It is what it is.

This. Keep the fucking negative press on this douchebag leader and their ridiculous demands and you aren't going to risk many votes with the government intervening. It's hard for anyone looking at this objectively to think that the ILA are the 'good guys' given these demands and demeanor.

I was in my late 20's at that game. That game doesn't seem like that long ago but damn if it wasn't.

As late as 2008? You realize that was 16 years ago right

I remember for this particular storm the weather nerds were all over it for more than 2 weeks before. They may not have predicted the extent of the event but expecting a likely cold snap 3-4 weeks out seems plausible.

Pretty shitty slate of games overall which is disappointing for a bye week.

I've only been following it high level the past couple of weeks. The "demands" of the dockworkers are pie in the sky. To what extent that is BS posturing who knows. The proposal yesterday seemed reasonable but I'm not near enough in the weeds to have an informed opinion. I do know based on a 2 minute clip posted in the DT thread the rep for the union is a douchebag that is not going to garner any sympathy for their cause if he takes that attitude to the press in the coming days.

Dockworkers strike is not great for Harris. Assuming this doesn't get resolved in the near term, the current administration (and by extension Kamala) will take the hit regardless of fault. The Trump campaign is desperate for new talking points and I'll be pretty surprised if this isn't a big part of their messaging soon if not already.

I saw a stat that Mizzou has hardly any explosive plays in the passing game this season against shit competition. Like in the 100's nationally. I haven't watched MIzzou but that is pretty surprising given their personnel.

This. Couldn't be a worse representative. That 2 minute interview tells me all I need to know about these negotiations.

Yep. Had a conversation with CDC about this years ago when Big Noon Kickoff was first announced and we were locked into the Fox contract. I asked if he had any ability to try avoid that window for early season games. He actually had a long and detailed answer including history on this topic with interesting anecdotes from early in his career, but it basically boiled down to Power 5 schools decided a long time ago to give up all scheduling rights in exchange for a big pile of cash and there is no putting the genie back in that bottle. Part of why he put such an effort into revamping the gameday experience with Bevo Blvd, LCL, etc. on the basis that he wanted to make it a great fan friendly atmosphere no matter the kickoff time.