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Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
Hayduke replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
It's hard for them. They camembert a time when our cheddar meant more in recruiting. -
Have read one or two things about this recently but saw a piece from Gear Junkie last week that said this trail is opening in spring 2026. I'd imagine that means it's only an inaugural stretch of the Cross Texas Trail. Would run from Orange to El Paso and through some iconic places -- Concan, Utopia, Big Bend, Fort Davis, Guadalupe Mountains. It's a fine idea, but I'm not sure of the practicality of it, especially once it gets to the further reaches of the Hill Country and westward. It will be a hell of a challenge, both to put it together and to hike/bike it. Thought about adding this to the thread on thru-hiking from a few years back or the active backpacking thread, but given that this also involves biking and is also a very specifically Texan thing, it would be interesting to track it here. I can't find any Surly references to the trail. And apparently the guy spearheading the effort, Charlie Gandy, is a UT alumnus. Thoughts? Anybody involved in this? Can it work? Would you do it?
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Thanks for that info, @Biff Tannen. I'm not deep into that world at all. Big Ed Abbey fan, but I'm more philosophically aligned with the Hayduke character than in lifestyle. Have been mainly a car camper and section hiker; I'm more than halfway into the Ice Age Trail, but have never been in the right juncture of mental space, finance, marriage/family and opportunity to really dedicate myself to consistent, serious backpacking or thru-hiking. As a for-instance, this would be my first trip where I'd need a water filter. Bro-in-law recently retired and he's been wanting to do part of the JMT, so we're planning to do southbound, departing from near Bishop. Ending at the Whitney Portal, probably over eight days. He's former military and recently recruited a church buddy who's also ex-military to come along. For me, it will be a test of my two new knees, so I'll probably do one or two shorter backpacking trips up here between now and next summer. My son is also planning to join us, and he's a reservist/ROTC senior next year who just finished his advanced training at Fort Knox and will run his third Bataan Memorial Death March next spring. Don't know BIL's buddy, but confident that both BIL and son will be mentally and psychologically ready for the challenges of the JMT. We old guys are all fully aware of the challenges of that area and understand the need for training and prep. Glad my son is coming, though. He'll be the guy we put in charge of running down the escape route if we need him to! I'll keep you posted, so if any of your time coincides we could be on the lookout for you. We're shooting for July, and BIL and sis are actually on the road as I write, headed to King's Canyon and Sequoia, where he'll do some scouting. I'm also pretty sure the others would say you're welcome to join us for any of it.
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What are you using for that? I use FarOut to keep from getting off track in the North Woods on the Ice Age Trail, especially when there's logging. But it never occurred to me that I should have my wife track me when I'm hiking (generally with hiking buddies; actually, not being tracked is half the fun). Not even sure FarOut has the function of allowing others to track and haven't looked into different means. Planning to do about half of the John Muir Trail next summer and we'll need a resupply at Kearsarge, so we could use some kind of tracker to coordinate. I guess he's off the trail now? How was it? Or are they taking their time?
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Every school can spend up to $20.5 million of its athletic revenue this year ... assuming they have said revenue ... on the athletes. NIL is separate. I haven't seen anything definitive on whether the Canady and Ojo contracts (if they are contracts) are Tech athletic revenue, NIL, or both. Regardless, there will be a lot of accounting tricks going on. Schools don't have to spend $20.5 million from revenue, especially if they don't have enough excess revenue. A lot of them won't. And they don't have to spend it equally among programs, which would seem to have some implications for Title IX. At the same time, Congress (having implemented Title IX and, now, revenue sharing) has set up itself, and the rest of us, for interesting times. They've admitted revenue is a huge part of what's driving all of this, when Title IX generally ignored the realities of which sports generated excess revenue (football and men's basketball -- and virtually nothing else, with very rare exceptions). Haven't seen some of this info before and it was AI generated, so take it for what it's worth: "The initial cap for this compensation is set at $20.5 million per institution for the 2025-26 academic year, based on 22% of the average revenue from Power 5 conference schools [emphasis mine]. This cap is projected to increase by roughly 4% annually, potentially reaching $33 million by 2035." Because it's average revenue from P5s, we know that below-average schools are going to have to be more creative. Those are just some of the reasons why this is so confusing. And interesting. As you noted, it's hell breaking loose.
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It appears that the CSC has taken it upon itself to define collectives as not providing a "real," profit-driven product or service; therefore, the collectives paying athletes to appear/post/etc. on behalf of the collective -- rather than on behalf of a business providing any other products/services to the public -- is not a valid business purpose. That's a point made over and over (and over and over) in that Reddit discussion and people still keep asking the question and giving that answer. While there's a certain logic behind that CSC definition, it ignores the fact that collectives ultimately do promote an underlying product/service (entertainment -- i.e., collegiate sporting events that depend on public interest and attendance). Streamers, rappers, etc., usually hawk products and services for outside entities. But the question becomes whether the middlemen (agencies, representatives -- the equivalent of NIL collectives) who employ endorsers to hawk stuff are, in general, providers of product/service themselves. Clearly, as middlemen in the marketing business, they are. It's a fine distinction that may not hold up, and the House attorneys now going after the CSC are doing what legal middlemen everywhere do: making money out of the business of law by arguing about definitions of stuff. And the money keeps flowing upward to the attorneys, the marketers, the elite athletes, elite programs (including the athletic directors and all those employed under them), yada yada yada. Maybe the CSC is just trying to prop up the disappearing belief that college sports are not a business, but an important educational activity driven by other purposes and values.
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Me too. Me too. I'm a thousand miles away and was so disconnected yesterday that I never heard of any of this until just before bed. My sister's down there at an HEB Foundation camp but thankfully well off the river. She missed the family 4th because she couldn't get out of Kerrville, but that's nothing. I've avoided this thread and board for the most part, but finally decided to check in because I realized the Surly community would probably be fairly well plugged in. I'm stunned by the extent, though. Annabelle, whoever and wherever you are, you're a hero. Thank you and everyone else for what you're doing for all our loved ones.
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Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
Hayduke replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Yep ... Tech came damn close to taking it in two games. If Canady didn't screw up that intentional walk, Tech may very well have done it, and basically with one purchased player. We may never see a more clear indication of how to buy a championship, and that's saying a lot after decades of watching OU and SEC football. My biggest question in all of this is not so much how things shake out athletically over the next couple of years, but how colleges and the public react to the realization that we've torn down the last big walls between higher education and complete professionalization of sport. Not many folks talking about that right now, but it's a sea change. I wonder how it's impacting things at Tech, where Campbell, as chair of the board of regents (who's also got a business to run) seems to put most of his concern and time into athletics. When the enrollment numbers really start dropping in the next couple of years, a lot of schools will be reassessing. The SEC and BIG won't suffer as much -- they'll just siphon off folks from the other schools. Tech and other second-tier schools will face interesting scenarios, as will all those lower-tier institutions. -
Beer 2025: sith_horn drinking more than the rest of us combined
Hayduke replied to HenryJames's topic in Food and Travel
Riverfront Rendezvous in Stevens Point, WI. Bluegrass with Armchair Boogie, one of many great free bands to go with local beer over three days of festival. Happy Fourth to all. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
Hayduke replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I'm torn between seeing this question as a serious one or trolling. Because of your post numbers, I'm leaning toward the idea that you're poking the bear here, but it's not a strong lean (and apologies in advance whether you're serious or if I've just let the joke fly over my head). Regardless, here's a link showing NCAA athletic revenue and expense data from 2024. Using $50 million in revenue as a cut-off figure, there were only 69 US universities who had at least that amount in 2024. Regardless, virtually every school listed the same expenditures as income. I suspect that once a school is anywhere below $100 million in revenue, sharing $20 million of that with the athletes directly is going to take some serious and painful shifting. That part won't be painful for Texas or Ohio State. Probably a lot more painful for Tech, Arizona, Arizona State and Kansas, all ranked in the 35-40ish range in revenue (likely BYU in here, too, but as a private, it wasn't listed). And once a school gets down to around $50 million total revenue, I'd guess they start taking a much harder look in the coming years at what intercollegiate competition means to them. -
Hayduke started following "Bring it" songs
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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 a great read ... thanks, @Firemans4Horn. Having moved north well before it opened, I've not heard of Peticolas, but now it's on my list. Definitely need a Velvet Hammer run when I pass through Dallas again. Liked this quote from the founder: Michael is visibly mentally back in El Paso as he says this, sitting on his mother Jaque’s porch, drinking her homebrew. “And that was my first realisation of the experience being what it's all about when it comes to beer. It's not just the taste. It's the experience, everything that's going on. Good settings, good friends, family. That's why a terrible beer in Manaus tastes fantastic. ‘Cause you're there for the World Cup.” -
Seriously not looking for anything in particular -- just whatever is meaningful to Surly folks. But it's not my thread -- I just thought it would be a good one to start, so I'm trying to be sure it gets on a good solid footing. If someone wants to make a case for "Baby Shark" or "Let It Go," more power to 'em. I mean, the last lyric of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" is pretty subversive: "As for me and Grandpa, we believe." Even jazz, and certainly the blues, have a lot of that "bring it" to them, but often more scalpel than machete. Here are a couple of songs that some of the discussion has brought to mind -- especially your suggestion above, @dcar00. The first is a lot more subtle. Some will see it as mostly spiritual, but for me there's a lot in there about who's in charge (and here's a nice review for anyone who cares enough to read it). This one is a little more direct. Classic protest song.
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I had a solid meal and some decent beer at HOMES Brewery there this spring. It's about two and a half miles northwest of the stadium. Other than that, I got nothin' and know nothin' about Ann Arbor, but from the map below, it's clear you can also find a Salvation Army Store and some laser hair removal.
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Great album. My take is that pretty much any genre of modern/popular music will have strong elements of resistance, anger, outrage, defiance and other traits that count as "bring it." Or at least the potential for that. A lot of it's going to be louder, in-your-face messages. A lot of my favorites have that, but sometimes quieter, sustained resistance is better for survival and sanity. In the situation I referenced in the original post, we have to write a lot of stuff -- reports, complaints, requests. We draft stuff and then most often work at toning it down and being more subtle but thorough. There's some pretty heavy-duty accusations and implications involved in much of what we do. Lots of scalpel use, but occasionally bringing the machete. More machete music in here, but I bet folks have some fine scalpel songs as well. Again, that's the fun of seeing what everyone else has as their "bring it" music.
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Interesting to read the history of that song and how "coarse" the lyrics were considered, as well as the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit. Seems pretty tame for what would come a decade or two later, and what you see on X every day before you even finish your coffee.
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