106 Comments

Streaming Future?

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/24/nx-s1-5050991/nba-tv-deal-disney-nbc-amazon-tnt

Can Cal/ACC augment their TV deal via streaming? I know it is a bed sore topic for many but it will take dollars to survive and I would like to see Cal's entire scope of athletics thrive.

Also if teams leave ACC, does Cal's piece of shared revenue normalize or does it remain a fraction of what other teams take in?

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ESPN basically owns their streaming rights too. That's what ACC Network Extra (ACCNx) is.

I'm pretty sure Cal would continue getting a partial share of the Tier 1 media revenue as they agreed to, though theoretically if some schools left and others joined the ACC could hold a new vote about the revenue sharing arrangement.

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Geyser eruption in Yellowstone makes the news, not so much because of the destruction - but mostly because of the nearby witnesses and their alarmingly delayed sense of danger around flying rocks and boiling acidic water

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/23/nx-s1-5049944/hydrothermal-explosion-yellowstone-national-park

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It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s question of the day.

I constantly hear people say that they couldn’t wrap their head around something. Of course not, it’s physically impossible. Why do people even try?

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Try if you must, but do so at great peril to your life.

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Some folks are closet or aspiring contortionists.

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That must be it.

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LE OLYMPIADE XXXIII

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The Russians (and Belarussians) are actually staying (mostly) home for this Olympics. Only 16 Russians and 16 Belarussians are competing under a neutral flag - partly because Russians are encouraging its athletes to boycott the games.

https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-paris-olympics-where-are-the-russians-085705992.html

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I remember the good old days when the Part told you what to do. No suggestions, tovarishch.

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Salt Lake City named 2034 winter Olympics host. They also successfully hosted in 2002

https://www.ksl.com/article/51077310/its-official-salt-lake-city-to-host-2034-winter-olympics

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Isn't it, "Canada says Soar-ee"

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My brother Doug eh, is training for de olympics, I see he has his Coleman full, a carton of smokes and half a dozen crullers.

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Hoser. ;-)

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Take off, eh?

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Great Britain's most decorated equestrian, who has won multiple Olympics medals, has dropped out of the team after a four year-old video of her using a whip excessively while training a student's horse

https://www.bbc.com/sport/equestrian/articles/cd16ll5z086o

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The opening ceremony is two days away, but competition starts today - including soccer and rugby sevens. USA plays against France today in both sports.

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Question: post or don't post results on the day of competition since Substack doesn't have spoiler text blackout option?

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Post in some obscure language?

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Some really great match-up in Rugby Sevens. Australia vs Samoa, Ireland vs. South Africa, France vs. USA, and England vs.... haha just kidding, the Brits didn't qualify.

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LETS GO EAGLES! The underdog Americans tied France 12-12

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La France affronte facilement les Américains en s'imposant 3-0

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España desempate en la segunda parte ante Uzbekistán para ganar 2-1

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Good try, but French and Spanish are not that obscure! Chinese and Japanese would work for me but probably not many other folks here.

How about Hmong or Tibetan? I think their Olympic representation is small.

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Oh Stewardess. I speak Jive.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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First poll out since Biden announcement: Harris is behind Trump by 3 points, which is a three point improvement as to how Biden was doing - which is pretty much as expected with Harris does far better with the African-American community. Weirdly, Harris does not do better than Biden with women.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/24/politics/cnn-poll-kamala-harris-donald-trump/index.html

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Similar to sycasey, I take this poll with a huge grain of salt. I want to know how they're determining their sample size in the age/race/gender splits. I posit that engagement and enthusiasm, especially on the Democratic side is significantly different since Biden's announcement on Sunday. I base this on the report that $250 million in contributions flowed to the Harris campaign and the Future Forward PAC (aligned with the Democrats) in less than 36 hours since Biden dropped out. Hence, the polls may be undersampling segments of the electorate that are not white male and white female, especially in the younger splits (18-39). The polls may also be undersampling college educated white males and white females in the younger splits.

But that's okay. That may change as we get closer to November 5.

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I believe this poll had Biden down 6 in their last survey of the same voter group, so it still shows movement towards the Dem. This seems consistent with the other limited polling we've seen since Biden dropped out and Harris was widely endorsed.

The racial/age splits have seemed very wonky in the polls this election season, so I really don't know what to make of them. Many of them seemed to suggest some massive realignment of young voters to Republicans, which seems virtually impossible in such a short time frame. I think there's a sampling problem going on.

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At least it seems to be heading in the right direction.

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Well, there is that. This could be the reverse of 2016, in that the polls weren't catching the folks who were voting for Trump in the critical swing states - Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Had those states gone for Clinton, we'd have had a woman as POTUS on January 20, 2017.

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I take the specific racial/gender/age splits with a grain of salt in any individual poll, just because the samples can be wonky. Need to see how it replicates against multiple polls.

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I'm sure they'll land on something eventually, but the conservative media apparatus seems really discombobulated in trying to levy attacks against Kamala Harris vs. what they were doing to Biden. They really didn't expect this.

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Hugh Hewitt has resorted to the old canard about reaching into the past to show what the American Left is really like.

He's one of the worst liars with a media bullhorn today.

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It should be second nature for them to use canned attacks against women and immigrants.

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Yeah, but they have to do it without looking misogynist or racist and that's been hard.

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Four of the last five Democratic Party nominees for president have either been a person of color, a woman or both. No Republican nominee has ever been anything but a white man.

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I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but yeah. That's dead on.

You'd think at some point, the punditocracy would take notice and start to rethink the label "conservative". I argue that Inigo Montoya's injunction, "I do not think that word means what you think it means" applies.

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Here's a crowd shot of RNC 2024. It's about 80% men and there are so few POC that they really stick out. Apropos to this is the poll I previously posted where 23% of African Americans supported Trump rather than Biden. The whole Blacks-for-Trump group actually worked.

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/fact-checking-trumps-claims-on-immigration-the-economy-and-afghanistan-at-the-2024-republican-national-convention/

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@I'm shocked@

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Several media channels are now reporting that DJT regrets picking Vance as his running mate because a) he was a custom-pick as a young/handsome/social-injustice troll to fight against Biden and b) he is the first VP in a long time that was a net negative favorable rating in the polls. Vance polls favorable amongst undereducated white voters, but generally gets trounced everywhere else.

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Earlier reports criticized the Vance nomination for playing to Trump's base in the context of Biden's continued candidacy. The criticism is that Trump would have done better to pick someone more likely to attract votes from independents. Now, Trump is saddled with an uncharismatic, inexperienced sycophant with no convictions. Of course, the top of the ticket has 34.

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From an opinion column by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post (7/22/2024)

“Can you think of any laws,” she asked the nominee, “that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”

That was then-Senator Kamala Harris to SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. This quote gets straight to the point, doesn't it? This is an example why Kamala Harris has flipped the script on the presidential race. This is why GOP has resorted to tactics in the race unbecoming a serious political party. Or hadn't you noticed?

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TIME OF BIRTH

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I never looked at the clock.

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I looked at the clock but didn’t know how to tell time yet.

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I was born at 8:55 PM.

CJ was born at 10:55 PM. CJ also shares his birthday with his maternal great-grandfather and 2x great uncle (they were twins).

Double D was born at 10:45 AM.

I don't know Mrs Slug's time of birth. She isn't telling.

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Amazing but true. My older daughter was born on 5/5 at 5:05 and younger daughter was born on 12/27 at 12:27.

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I don't know mine. I used to know my kids' TOB but have since forgotten. And I don't think we kept any of their little birth things like the little armband and stuff like that. No 1 and 2 were around 4:28 and 5:30 PM and No 3 was early morning, like 6:30ish AM.

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I used to know mine, but that detail was lost to history when my mom passed away.

I do recall my daughter was born at 1 minute after midnight (00:01), which makes her probably the oldest person with her birthdate.

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Not on your birth certificate?

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I don't believe it is. The carbon copy of a small typed document that was all there was back in the day I don't think included that, and the "official, replacement" birth certificate doesn't contain data not on file because it doesn't exist.

Fun (or not so fun!) fact, I had to order an "official one" a few years ago, because some agency wouldn't accept a copy of the yellow carbon copy of the only document that existed because some modern day bureaucrat insisted that that couldn't be an official birth certificate, and couldn't wrap their mind (not their head) around the fact that documentation practices and standards, among other things, were different over 50 years ago. (DMV & SSA had no problem with a copy of a copy in the early 70's and late 60's.)

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I know that California DMV with regards to Real ID can be stinky about this stuff. Federal ID standards and all that jazz.

DMV accepted the birth certificate I had because it had the embossed seal. in the proper location. It showed signatures of the physician and maybe the county registrar. I'm reasonably certain my mother was the informant.

Interestingly, the format as it was when I was born is nothing like it is now. The certificate was 1/4 sheet of a standard 8.5"x11" sheet of paper with black letters on a white background. Currently, the format is an etched pattern on multi-colored sheet 8.5"x11" in size and a designated spot for the embossed seal to be affixed. Or, at least it was when I ordered copies of birth certificates for my sons when they were playing in Little League tournaments in the mid- to late-00s.

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I think mine was the same. Maybe a small one but maybe white letters on a black background? I guess it was good enough to get my passport back in the mid-80s. When I got my real-id, I assume my passport was good enough. I'm not even sure I know where my original birth certificate is.

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But what time zone was she in?

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If the planet commonly used Coordinated Universal Time (sometimes referred to by the initialism UTC) as a matter of course, then being born at 00:01 on whatever date would have meaning. It would mean that the entire planet recognized the same start and end to each day because there are no time zones in such an instance.

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That would mess with activities related to sunrise and sunset cycles, not to mention Daylight Savings Time! Imagine the confusion that would arise. We do have GMT with a + or - to adjust by.

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It might give West Coast football teams more exposure with earlier start times.

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With regards to messing with sunrise and sunset cycles, you can't be serious. Are you being sarcastic?

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Pacific. So good point, the day was already almost over in Japan at that time.

At least I can always remember 00:01, vs some random time like 13:47.

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PRO

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Five homers lifts A’s over Astros

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/7/23/24204835/five-homers-lifts-as-over-astros

Oakland used the long ball in a big way tonight, with five separate players hitting home runs for the Green & Gold as the Athletics topped the Astros 8-2 in the second game of three, securing the series win and getting a chance at a sweep of the AL West Lead Astros.

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Thanks for keeping us sane, Fitz* (Giants lose to Dodgers 5-2)

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2024/7/24/24205164/mlb-final-score-giants-dodgers-7-23-2024-recap-tyler-fitzgerald-jordan-hicks-shohei-ohtani

Teoscar Hernández’s 2-out RBIs continued to haunt the San Francisco Giants in the second game of their four game series in Los Angeles.

In the Dodgers’ final offensive frame on Monday, Hernández lined a 2-strike fastball up the middle to drive in the decisive run, and in the 1st inning of Tuesday’s game, Gavin Lux hooked a 2-out, 2-2 sweeper from Jordan Hicks into the right field corner for a 2-run double.

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When do pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training?

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Dodgers double their pleasure in second straight win over Giants

https://www.truebluela.com/2024/7/23/24204182/gavin-lux-shohei-ohtani-dodgers-doubles-landon-knack-giants

The Dodgers continued their post-All-Star-break run, getting strong pitching and key two-out hits to beat the Giants 5-2 on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, the fifth straight win for Los Angeles.

The Dodgers only got three hits off Giants starter Jordan Hicks, who struck out seven. But that doesn’t tell the full story of his outing. The longtime reliever has already surpassed his career high in innings by over 20 this year as a starter, but is just about at the end of his rope in that role.

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That was a frustrating game to watch as a Giants fan. Probably the most frustrating since tracking Gamecast the night before.

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The season is pretty much over. Another disappointment.

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The season never got off the ground. And as long as Farhan is running the front office, it won't.

#FireFarhan

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I'll note two things - 1) 1976 was 48 years ago and 2) 1976 was the Bucs' inaugural season.

#2 leads to a third thing - they Bucs were horrible.

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Raiders new WR signee Michael Gallup retires. He was supposed to compete for the #3 WR spot

https://www.raiders.com/news/raiders-place-5-players-on-pup-list-michael-gallup-on-reserve-retired-list

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49ers Shanahan said that he offered a position to Bill Belichick because you never know

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40630351/kyle-shanahan-says-bill-belichick-declined-offer-join-49ers

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He's too busy getting rushed to the grave keeping up with his cradel-snatcked honey.

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That thing that he did like the former president did after after the assassination attempt was not meant to be a thing like the thing it totally looked like.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40627258/rays-taylor-walls-says-gesture-not-intended-trump-endorsement

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Sounds to me like he made an endorsement but doesn't want you to think he made an endorsement.

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CAL

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Go Bears!!!

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Nando gave a shoutout to all the Cal football burner accounts during his time during ACC Media Days. Bravo, you magnificent bastards.

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He is such a good public speaker. His interviews are so great. Gives the impression that he cares to give thoughtful answers.

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DBD AV CLUB

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Need advice.

Is EA College Football worth buying a PS5 for?

Here's an Amazon review for the PS5:

"Very disappointing experience:

- Most games require always online connection, regardless if you buy the disk version of these games and/or you intend to only play single player. This means that developer can shut down the game at any time and you never truly own anything. It also means that if developer's servers are down, you can't play even the single player portion of the game you have just paid for.

- EA Games require you agreeing to give away ALL your privacy and let EA monitor everything you do on the PS5. If you decline this, you can no longer play the games you bought and thought you were owning. I chose to decline this.

- Ubisoft Games require you creating an account, even for playing demos! This is so ridiculous that we decided not to play any Ubisoft games. Again, once you create an account with them, they can track anything you do on the PS5. Would not be surprised if they require a credit card too.

- Other PS5 games have only the first chapter of the game on the disk, then require huge downloads to actually continue the game past the first chapter. This impacts the resale values of the games and also means developer can take that functionality away anytime they want to.

- Yes, graphics are better, but games that truly take advantage of what the PS5 can do are still very few.

- Deleting games or demos from the menu is not possible, which is another ridiculous change. You have to go under your account and through multiple menus for this simple function.

- Compared to PS3 where we owned 100+ games, we have around 5 games on the PS5 and most of these are PS4 games that don't require an internet connection. The PS5 has been a waste of money. Wish we would have known the scam being run with regard to owning the games.

Overall, this console is junk and I wish we would have kept our PS3 and the games we owned for it. These PS3 games had more fun gameplay and you truly owned the games you bought. We will not buy any further consoles from Sony."

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Uh yes. Don’t buy the PS5 new, get it off Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for ~$100 off.

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Is it worth $350+?

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I'm trying to decide if i want it or not. My kids say wait and they'll see if it's worth buying after a little bit of time. I talked to quite a few WFCers this last weekend and they said at least wait for the first update and see if things get much better.

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I'm kind of turned away by the terms of use agreements. Sounds like data farming.

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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Did you guys see DeShaun Foster bomb his first Big10 address as UCLA Coach? Yikes

https://x.com/bmarcello/status/1816256032517070895?s=46&t=vrON1veNi19kCzZDyyzwTg

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Trivia time: Guess which three P5 universities were ranked lowest in the 2024 US News & Report National University ranking? Hint: tied for 216th

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Had to look at wiki to remember which were Big-12 and SEC schools. Going to guess West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Arkansas.

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Correct: West Virginia

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Mississippi State?

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Correct: Mississippi State

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I looked up the third one, which is not what I would have guessed.

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I doubt it's Big-1X or any of the old Pac-12 schools. No R1 schools would be so low. Maybe ASU? Then probably a midwest school. Houston or Kansas State?

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Geeeeeetttttiiiiiiiing waaaaaaarrrrmer!

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A state with 3 public university systems, so probably a Texas school. Probably either aTm or Texas Tech.

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Wait . . . why say it's not any of the old Pac-12 schools and then guess ASU?

It's not them. They got into the AAU recently.

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Went through my head and they were the 1 Pac-12 team that may have fit. I don't think Wazzu or Oregon State are that low.

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A fan made a replica Lego Beaver Stadium for the Penn State All-Sports museum. That's great and all, but can you play putt-putt golf around it?

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/penn-state-all-sports-museum-to-unveil-lego-beaver-stadium-replica-this-week/

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