madbad2000

I splurged on a RocBoxx a few years ago and we eat far more homemade pizza. It's pretty awesome to have a "portable" device that can crank it up to 900 degrees for that authentic pizza experience. It also works great for entertaining since everyone can make their own and it only takes a minute to cook each one once at temperature. I also do steaks in there on high heat and those are always amazing too.

I fully agree that they changed something and it doesn't taste the same. Pizza Hut was my favorite growing up and I have had it probably 4 or 5 times in the past decade. Dominos seems to be better than I remember as kid, but not enough to become a staple in my family rotation. I'll also say that I think Little Caesars changed for the better. They make a much more respectable pie and haven't increased prices much. Even my picky, German wife likes them, probably more for the crazy bread. At the end of the day, if I'm getting pizza its usually something local or Costco if doing a larger gathering. Hard to beat the value and quality of a Costco pizza

Not sacrilegious at all, especially since I don't think Empire is the pinnacle. I definitely put Return or the Jedi above it. Season 2 of Mando was fantastic. You nailed it with your description, but I'll add how awesome it setup the spin offs into a greater universe. Filoni and Favreau have killed it and not just because it came after 7-9. I cant wait to see every piece of content pushed out.

I agree with this. The heavyweights are able to hoarde all the top talent and gives them a massive advantage year in and year out. There is also a lot of shady stuff going on in terms of pulling scholarships or forcing people off the team. You could reduce scholarship numbers and that should help spread out some talent. I wonder how many 3 and 4 stars would take walk on deals at Alabama or Clemson for the chance to bet on themselves. But I think the idea of pulling scholarships will only exacerbate the talk of paying players and/or schools making money off these players. Less scholarships means they are paying less/making more money. You could put a quota on 4 and 5 star players each year, but that also hurts players who may see talent stacking as better way to improve/reach the NFL. There is not really a nice, clean way to do this. I would probably lean towards reduced scholarships and locking in players once signed. If a team signs a 4 star that doesn't pan out in first two years, they can't force them out or pull scholarships. Force teams to identify and develop talent without having the ability to just go "buy" replacements.

I'm fine with that argument because schedules are known well in advance. You play who you play. I am also fine with playing cross-over games with the other division. I think it could be fun to setup a football version of the ACC-Big Ten (or other conference) challenge every year. With subjectivity out the door, it makes it more feasible to play without the worry of your big dogs losing early. There are a lot of potential ways to take this and make a better product. Living in the heart of SEC country, I would LOVE to remove the bias in rankings and improve the product across the board. "There is no need for the super-conference thing. Just expand the playoffs to 6 or 8 teams. The 5 P5 champions and then either 1 or 3 at-larges. Either the top 2 teams get a bye or nobody gets a bye. There is no reason the season can't start a week earlier in August or a week later in January, nobody is in school at either time anyway. With an 8 team field you could even guarantee a spot for a G5 team (Cinci, UCF, BYU, etc.)" If the goal is to move to an 8 team playoff, I would prefer to see it limited to conference champions only. This opens it up for non-Power 5 teams to get a shot. Pick 3 conferences who you want to "elevate" and setup rotations every year without seeding. Independents move into a conference if you want to play for a title.

I am a bit surprised that the 4 Super Conferences hasn't come back around. If you care about having an undisputed champion and making money, this is the best route. With 4 SCs, you have a natural playoff setup every year with conference champions. The matchups for conferences rotate every year and are known years in advance. No seeding needed. IE Year 1 the Semi Finals are Big Ten vs SEC and ACC vs Pac/Big 12 (or whatever the 4th SC becomes)...Year 2 the Semis are ACC vs Big Ten and Pac/Big 12 vs SEC, etc. One of the best aspects of this scenario is that losses in non-conference don't hurt your chances. You only have to win your conference to make the playoffs. This means that every team can schedule marquee games early in the season. With the bigger matchups, you could essentially schedule bowl games during the non-conference slate. Grab big sponsors at neutral locations. Look at what North Carolina and Auburn tried to do this year with a Chick Fil A sponsored game in Atlanta. I believe Auburn was looking at a $5M payday for that game before the Covid cancellation. Instead of paying 7 figures to teams to come lose at your stadium, you could actually flip that to big money makers. With better matchups, you should have better ratings and fan involvement. For a local example, Alabama has an issue with fans leaving the stadium early (or not showing up) for the non-conference patsy games. This is bad for business all around when you're trying to make money on concessions, merchandise and TV deals. As for setup, the initial talk of SCs involved 4 conferences of 16 teams each. 8 teams per division which would give you 7 divisional games and 5 others. You could probably expand that to 20 teams, 10 each per division and 9 divisional games for 3 non-conference to preserve tradition games and marquee matchups. This wouldn't solve the issue of Clemson, Alabama and OSU perennially being good. The only way to attack that, if you really care about parity, is to limit scholarships or the amount of "stars" you can recruit each cycle. That is a sticky subject for another time. This would eliminate extra chances for those teams that have that initial ranking boost. If Alabama can't win the SEC West, they don't have a back door for a second chance at a title.

Here's hoping the Badgers get a big lead so WF has to play ketchup all game. I don't think be able to mustard a win. A bowl victory, no matter how insignificant is one to relish in in this strange year. Better? You didn't have to be so saucy with your response.

What the Hell-man? All these mayo jokes.

I'm ready for 4 super conferences. Let's get the human and biased elements out or this and setup a proper championship path.

Nashville is a great town to visit. Great food, activities and night life that goes beyond country music. I'm 2 hours away right now and looking forward to heading up there for a game or two (hopefully). I still wish Rocket City could have been sniped for AA. Selfish reasons mostly.

So if Fresno declines, the move is Lancaster back into affiliated ball?

Also interesting: No Fresno and Colorado Low A is TBD.

Interesting to see Marlins in Beloit and paired with Pensacola at AA.

Im a bit surprised at this as the Keys provide a great experience and have good community support. Also helps they are an hour from Baltimore and would receive more rehab appearances than AA Bowie, which was closer to Baltimore.

I thought Bauer was going to keep signing year-to-year contracts. So that should put him below $50m if that happens.

The thing that is frustrating about all of this is the purpose. Are you trying to limit travel within each league? Between levels within each teams farm system? Who are making the choices? So for some affiliates the team gets their desires even if it doesn't fit with goals above? Are you letting minor league cities negotiate ala Fresno when so many others were told yea or nay? If MLB is really running this show, it should not take this long. Put on your iron first and tell each team and affiliate what is what and move on. I agree with others about how affiliates need time to prep for schedule and their business for 2021. You don't just turn a switch and get an entire seasons worth of sponsors, promotions, staff, logistics, etc overnight.

Rocket city, rocket city, rocket city...c'mon!

I laughed at Missouri. I noticed West Virginia and chuckled a bit since that is probably driven by actual Browns fans there hating their own team.

Most hated team in the NFL is?!?! https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/this-is-the-most-hated-team-in-the-nfl-according-to-a-recent-twitter-study/ I like one in the middle of the map.

Well there is the obvious in that you're a part of a winning team and have top notch facilities, training and treatment. Throw in the idea of competition raises all boats. Also take into account that you only really need one year to play and likely set yourself up for a draft day windfall based on your school and conference. If you sit for a year or two, you can soak up two years and transfer as an instant starter nearly anywhere else. So take the big ticket gamble and still fall back on a great situation if you don't make it to legendary status with the blue bloods. You can also probably follow the trails of rumors and some conjecture in that you make more money playing at these schools. I'm living in the heart of SEC country right now and I think that is pretty much understood by most people following the game closely. Whether that is in the rumored payments categories or through other avenues on the back end, it seems to be prevalent. If you struggle at academics, there are always ways to help that along too. That is not to say that it only happens at these named schools, but the true 4 and 5 star factories definitely deliver for their athletes on all levels and HS kids understand that. I would love to see some more parity in college football, but I don't think those influencing the money really want that.

It also doesn't help how long it takes to find out you have it and the number of people you can expose during that gap. I had a 5 day gap and no symptoms when I got tested. I was "lucky" in that I knew the danger I was going into when I caught it and prepared my family ahead of time to isolate myself for at least 2 weeks. While I'm on my second week of quarantine, it's really hard to be away from them. I can empathize slightly with those people who have serious cases and are in the hospital alone dealing with this thing. It's also hard reading the discussion of COVID statistics knowing the personal toll and tragedy that goes into each positive case and death. Its so much more than just a number to be tallied and debated.

So Wisconsin's spread is actually a thing. My cousin, great-aunt, grandfather and mother all tested positive. Last week my grandfather died from it and I was able to make it from Alabama to his deathbed within 30 mins of his passing. I was extremely cautious and wore an N95 and distanced constantly with sanitizers and cleaning. After all of that, I tested positive on Sunday. Thankfully, I planned ahead with isolating my family at her parents house prior to my return. So now I'm in quarantine and thankfully have mild symptoms. Even saying that, its not a pleasant feeling at all and I feel for those people who have been hit hard.

I agree that we missed his high water mark, but I think we are now looking at his peak realistic value. Teams were not willing to pay his actual value since he had so much control, reasonably priced and dominance. No one paid the ransom, but now we're at the point where what we would get back is still a ridiculous haul and a team is likelier to pay it. Exciting to think about what we could get back for sure since we are closer to actual fruition now.

I love the Pensacola stadium. The location right on the water and full 360 accessibility is amazing. Highly recommend to anyone to catch a game there. Maybe even make it a destination as the beaches are nice and lots to do.

I am very glad that I ripped the bandaid off and got rid of cable and didn't pick up a dedicated streaming service. I cut my screen time back immensely without any regrets. I have netflix free with my cell phone plan, im a prime member so get video included and watch some free YouTube videos when i want some time killer. My wife and I were talking last week and our TV hasn't been turned on since the beginning of June and used sparingly prior to that. Lots more time with my young children, more physical activities outside and more work done around the house. Gives me time to do other things too like learn a language and piano. I think I always had this feeling like I was going to miss something if I didn't watch all the shows and talk about it at work around the water cooler. Very glad to be trying some new things.