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It's already professional ball at the top level, so a 64-team major league with relegation is the answer. Eight regional conferences of eight teams. Conference round-robin plus three out-of-conference (10 games). Top two from each conference qualify for playoffs, plus eight at-large bids. No conference championship games -- just trophies at the end, with lots more co-champions and occasional tri-champions (some who might get left out of the playoffs). Tiebreakers suck, but very few deserving teams would be left out of the running. Straight seeding at the end, with top eight getting a bye in the first round. Five playoff rounds with a max of 15 games for the eventual champ and runner-up. Eighth-place finisher in each conference drops down and the top regional finisher from the next level moves up for the next year. Rinse and repeat with playoffs at lower levels. Bowls should fold themselves into the top-level playoff structure or die. They're relics anyway, with only a few historic or geographically sensible ones worth saving. Fights and playoff unfairness to some teams in the 15-30 range, but that's better than controversy in the 8-15 range. And relegation allows the James Madisons to move up if devoted to it. The TCUs and Rices of the world have faced de facto relegation for more than a couple of decades, so let's just get on with it. This way, folks in relegation territory have more control over their own destiny and some clarity on how things happen. Moving upward from the second level would get pretty interesting and controversial, but playoffs there should help clarify who's most deserving. This would work for a few years, until society utterly breaks down or until technological Utopia arrives, the AI bots decide the playoff participants, and we're all too mellow to really take it seriously anyway.
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Also, Eric Hall from Clarksville, TN. Seems like he was supposed to be a great punter and tight end if I recall correctly. Think he was mostly a career backup at LB who had almost the same kind of expectations because of his athleticism as did Jason Burleson (hadn't thought of that guy in a long while).
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This is a fascinating topic and I would love to wrack my brain trying to remember all the flameouts from a mostly trying period of Longhorn football. But I just got back from work -- a place where I have filed a whistleblower complaint -- and am in too good of a mood to to let schadenfreude drive my memory. Instead, I'm going to go stand barefoot in the two-foot snow until tonight's low of -11 arrives, occupying my mind with thoughts of every bat-shit crazy date I ever had, which makes 25 years of marriage that much more tolerable. Then I'll come inside to drink warm castor oil and probably write @TreatyOak a thank-you note for coming up with what would otherwise have been an excellent distraction. Oh, and thanks to the rest of y'all, too. I've got plenty of castor oil to go around if you want to join me in the yard.
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Didn't see this posted after a quick review of a couple of boards. But even if it is already posted, worth doing again: https://twitter.com/i/status/1891578363019469264 Apologies for the linkage, but I couldn't find any quick way to directly link the video of KD's emotional response to a question about the impact of basketball and the Olympics on his life.
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Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
That is true. But beer is among the main food groups. Just like cheese curds. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
From today's neighborhood happy hour: started with an Old Rasputin Russian imperial stout, which I chose over a local imperial because, y'know, charismatic/lunatic guy (depending on where you stand) affecting history and all. Also hadn't had it in a while. Maybe my congestion kept me from enjoying it as much, but I found it less flavorful than I recalled. Still, an imperial stout seemed like a good fortification against the temps that were supposed to arrive tonight -- reported to be -18, although now they're saying only about -6. Also had a few ounces of each of the IPAs in the second picture, as we'll tend to split beers among ourselves. I've had them all before and liked them OK, but with the exception of Welcome to the End, they struck me today as a little too thin. Again, probably some congestion, but the Drekker held up best. The other two are from Young Blood (Madison) and a collaboration between Black Stack (St. Paul) and Second Harvest Heartland (a St. Paul food bank). -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
I thought the thumbprint was only on their limited releases, but we've already established that my perceptions can be off. Moon Man is good stuff. Just read today that their beer garden and hilltop facility in New Glarus is closed until fall of '26 while they do an extensive brewery renovation/addition. Glad I got there this past spring. Sounds good for next weekend. Not sure my wife, who has had flu all week and will want to go out next week, would be thrilled about me going off to drink beer with someone I'm sure she'd see as a random sports fan from Iowa, but that's probably for one of the "Wives" threads ... New Glarus beer garden on a slow day and the NG Belgian Red, which was a very fine cherry beer and great after a day of hiking: -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
First time I ever had a bourbon-barrel stout was from Central Waters about 15 years ago. Thought it was crap and swore I'd never have one again. My taste has since evolved and this is one of my favorites -- today's post-shoveling reward. Took a couple over to my neighbor after he brought out the snowblower and I used the heavy steel-bladed shovel to scrape off the icy stuff left by the blower. I generally find shoveling kind of therapeutic after a week at the office, so the beer was really a double reward. Cassian Sunset. Coffee, vanilla bean, cinnamon. Today I thought it was more chocolate than those flavors, but Central Waters doesn't overdo their BBS and the flavors stay subtle enough, but still distinct, to make them seem a little different each time. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
That is one great picture. Sums up the unfairness of youth. But I guess there are probably advantages to it as well ... if I could just remember them. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
Makes sense. I recall it was a regional beer, but Titonka does seem a little small and far away to be in a Sioux Falls-area restaurant. That's why I like Untappd -- it helps the old memory mechanism, although I haven't mastered searching it beyond the name of beers. Might do that next. Send a message next weekend if your plans get firmed up enough and you want to shoot the breeze about Big XII ball over an O'So. I enjoy reading your takes and probably have similar views about the direction of collegiate sports. Would have to see if I can get away but would definitely make the effort. I'll post my after-shoveling beer later. Snow still coming down and have a little more to go. Which New Glarus is that? Couple of buddies and I went to the beer garden there last May. That's a fine setting there, too, and hard to beat the beer. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
Yep, @Al_4_ISU. Nordic ought to be in really good shape next weekend. Powdery stuff right now and earlier this week. Here's the view off the back deck this morning. Have you been to O'So in Plover? They've got a nice space there. But there might be one or two other places to choose from in Wisconsin. I was looking at your Titonka pictures and trying to remember if that's what I had at a BBQ place over in Tea, SD -- near Sioux Falls -- in late 2023. I may be getting it confused with the Tatonka stout from BJ's, though. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
I'm impressed that you can find a beer picture from 2014. That's dedication to good beer. Why "kind of depressing?" Seems like there's more story there worth telling. I don't have enough coffee in me yet to remember an anecdote worth posting, but I'll probably be thinking about beer while out shoveling snow later on today. Still trying to remember why our Sunday beer happy hour was talking about both Pliny the beer and Pliny the Roman not too long ago; it may have been while looking up something else on UnTappd. Not sure any of us had tried the beer but we were talking about Russian River and Lagunitas as potential pilgrimage destinations. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
I'm still an IPA guy above all, so I'd line up for it. Not sure I could line up very often with that ABV. Thanks to @mdleast for posting those pics. I was drinking the beer below when I realized Surly most surely would have an ongoing beer thread. Nice maltiness and a little roasty, but still light. Can't beat an inexpensive but tasty new offering from one of our regional stalwarts. Thanks to @HenryJames for kicking off this thread, @sith_horn for leading the charge, @Al_4_ISU and everybody else who's posting all these good-looking beers. I'll be a regular. -
To be fair to Johntay, when I get around the Oklahoma border, I am also a little unclear as to which country I am in.
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Guys, are we talking about a vile, sickness-inducing abomination here, or are we gonna talk about aggy? Oh, wait.
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