Sounds like there are still 84,000 Nissans out there than haven't been fixed. If you own one or are looking at buying one make sure it gets fixed!

With this bit of schedule news, let's get a 24-25 thread going.

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share the latest episode of the CF Summer Series pod.

I sat down with Blum to talk about his role at the Collective and how its evolved since he took over and just a bunch of fun stories and insight into his role. I really wanted to dive into it from a different perspective given how much we've been discussing from a really broad lens. I hope you all enjoy it!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share the latest episode of the CF Summer Series pod. I shared this in the football thread since it was a bit football heavy but I wanted to make sure to share it in other channels too since it is relevant to all sports!

I sat down with Blum to talk about his role at the Collective and how its evolved since he took over and just a bunch of fun stories and insight into his role. I really wanted to dive into it from a different perspective given how much we've been discussing from a really broad lens. I hope you all enjoy it!


If you hadn't seen we started this new pod. I'll be hosting and it's focused on the sports business side of things and just continuing to give insight into CF and Iowa State Athletics. This is episode 2. If you missed it, episode 1 was with talking about how CF came to life with CW.

I live on an acreage and have a well. I built a new house in '95 and although we didn't have access to rural water at the time we knew it was imminent and plumbed for ease of hookup and a couple years later it arrived. All outside use remained on the well. The vein of water tapped by our well (140' deep) is arguably one of hardest around. In the "old house" we had Culligan do a hardness test as we shopped for a new water softener and the hardness exceeded their charts. Besides the cost of salt for treatment the water was over time very hard on dishwashers, toilets, showers, washing machines and the like, so the thought of buying water when we already had availability was easily offset. I don't think the cost for a minimum use of water has increased more than a couple bucks a month in the last 25 years. I just received a letter from Iowa Regional Utilities Assoc. that they found themselves in a dispute with their suppliers on the interpretation of a 40 year old agreement that would increase their water cost from between 172 and 793 percent of what they have been currently paying and that cost passed on to us would cause our bill to double. If this comes to fruition I guess we will bite the bullet and remain a customer but I didn't plan for this in my retirement budget.

I am part of a group putting together a golf outing at Beaver Creek Golf Course to raise money for Wings of Refuge. Is it allowed for me to post a link to the outing here or would that be against forum rules?

I've been bad about keeping my inbox cleared, but last check, we still haven't gotten the "you will pick parking on..." email. I'd bet that the ongoing Cy-Town construction has thrown a wrench in the usual flow of things? Anyone else getting nervous about the reduction of spaces in one of the last "the way tailgating used to be" seasons???

I was watching Two Guys and they were discussing how we got the new I State logo. A comment mentioned that there was a fan vote and that's how we ended up with our current logo. I had no idea that this had occurred until today! This made me think, if we were to hold a vote today. Which would you vote for?

Link to designs:

I don’t fly often. How do I get flights out of NE Iowa for the cheapest price and not something super inconvenient?

Anyone else still waiting on State of Iowa Tax refunds? I filed on April 14th or 15th with the direct deposit option and not sign of money yet?

Wife and I are headed up there this weekend to do some mountain biking. Have only been through briefly, never really spent any time there, and was wondering if anyone here had some must-stops, restaurant/bar recs, etc. It seems to me that whole area is full of middle of nowhere dives that are fun to drink at and have really good food. Figured there would be some posters who are familiar with the area and could give some more complete info/thoughts.

Does TV light in the dark bug anyone else? I can’t stand it. It gives me a headache. I’m always at war with my wife’s family because they love sitting in the dark with nothing but the TV on and it drives me insane. I need some ambient lighting in the room to break up the extreme contrast from digital light to darkness.

This is probably related to my light sensitivity in some way. I am unable to sleep in or nap during the day once I can sense daylight.

Am I alone? Can someone smarter than me explain what’s going on here?

A very visible, nice man. Had a huge network of friends.
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I could be wrong but I feel this may have been the last time he called an Iowa State game. Either way it's nice to go down memory road and godspeed my friend...

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Just breaking

Gifting you this article from the Washington Post.

Excerpt:

AI-powered algorithms and machine learning can instantly analyze huge amounts of historical data and statistics in real time. How has a certain baseball player fared batting against left-handed pitchers on overcast days in a specific stadium on Wednesdays? The technology can give bettors predictive modeling instantaneously. That in turn might prompt online gamblers to make what they think are surefire bets. Existing AI tools can now predict certain events with 80-to-90 percent accuracy, according to the tech site TMCnet. “A 90% accuracy means guaranteed profits,” TMCnet said. No more gut instinct bets, just AI-driven statistical probabilities. Those tools are not yet widely available, but they are coming.

https://wapo.st/4bTnPSn

Regional hosts were released last night.

Brackets out today.

REGIONAL SITES:

• Athens, Georgia – Georgia (39-15)
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina – North Carolina (42-13)
• Charlottesville, Virginia – Virginia (41-15)
• Clemson, South Carolina – Clemson (41-14)
• Bryan-College Station, Texas – Texas A&M (44-13)
• Corvallis, Oregon – Oregon State (42-14)
• Fayetteville, Arkansas – Arkansas (43-14)
• Greenville, North Carolina – East Carolina (43-15)
• Knoxville, Tennessee – Tennessee (50-11)
• Lexington, Kentucky – Kentucky (40-14)
• Norman, Oklahoma – Oklahoma (37-19)
• Raleigh, North Carolina – NC State (33-20)
• Santa Barbara, California – UC Santa Barbara (42-12)
• Stillwater, Oklahoma – Oklahoma State (40-17)
• Tallahassee, Florida – Florida State (42-15)
• Tucson, Arizona – Arizona (36-21)

In World War II alone, some 16 million Americans donned U.S. military uniforms. From 1775-2024, more than 1,300,000 Americans have died in war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

For me, a civilian who never served, this 'holiday' is not a time to wildly party hearty (although I did when I was young).

It is a time of special remembrance. From Revolutionary War patriot graves until today, with American forces deployed around the globe, we are - for all our missteps and sins - the great power that holds the worst human authoritarians at bay. We do not have as our national goal to ravage and conquer territories near us (rest easy, Canada). At times in the past we were that nation; we are not that nation today.

I'm rambling, I do apologize. My thought in creating this thread was to hope friends here might post their favorite stories about veterans, from whatever time and moment. I'll start with Earnest E. Evans, October 1944, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, what was the largest naval engagement of WWII and possibly in world history.

The key to this story is Adm. Halsey taking the feint of IJN carriers spotted to the north, and the main U.S. fleet was on it's way with the big Essex Class carriers, battleships (Iowa and New Jersey included) and a slew of other combatants. This left Gen. MacArthur's landing force on Leyte island (Philippines) guarded only by a handful of small ships, including escort carriers.

By the gods, what a story, we Americans can do Cdr. Evans honor by knowing it.

I look forward, with anticipation, to stories others might post in this thread.

Evans
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Evans story in a more folkstyle telling
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For all they do that leaves plenty to be desired, can we take a moment to appreciate this absolute beauty?

Well time for my 1st tune in the Indy car series the other will if they come to Iowa this yr (don't even know)
Looks like a weather delay for the start.

"After David decided to trim his bush completely back, he was left with a bare spot in his yard. While speaking with a neighbor, he even expressed the sentiment, “Well, when you trim your bush, you see more of what’s underneath it…"

No man needs more than one rooster....
Rock-a-dude'll do

Took me a while to get back to this... I posted the Defensive breakdown here:


Next, I took a look at the Offense.

Wide Receiver:
Like most of the team, the majority of the production is returning here and we also have a couple of new guys from the transfer portal (Isaiah Alston, Eli Green).

About 75% of the snaps, and roughly 85%-90% of the Yards, Targets, Receptions all return. It will be interesting to see how much guys other than Higgins/Noel get involved. Jackson played in every game and had over 300 total snaps, but was only targeted on 15% of routes (vs. 24% for Higgins, 29% Noel). Stanley/Bitter/Gaines combined for 26 targets and 230 yds and were targeted on 10% of routes run (combined, about the same as Jackson's production).





Tight End:
At Tight End we actually have a starter to replace. Easton Dean had almost 350 snaps last year. Lots of young guys will compete with the returners here for those Snaps (346), Targets (22), and Yds (171). Overall, TEs were targeted on 19% of their routes run, similar to WRs who were targeted on 21% of their routes run. Brahmer was 2nd only to Noel in target% with a rate of 27% (targets/route run, min 10 routes).



Offensive Line:
At Offensive Line, the top 5 starters at the end of the season all return. A couple of the depth pieces are lost, but lots of young guys plus two transfers will add competition for the starting snaps (including Jalen Travis, Princeton, and Dylan Barrett, Wisconsin). Overall though, over 90% of the snaps are returning. Hopefully, the line takes a step forward this year.



Running Back:
The Running Back position has about 50% of the production to replace. Less than half the Snaps, Yds, and Carries return. However, it is also a position where we could see significant improvement with Sama becoming the primary back at the end of last season. Overall, Sama averaged over 7 yds per carry (more than any other back on the roster). But, much of that was from the BYU and KSU games when he averaged 13.8 and 17.3 yds/att respectively. In the memphis and texas games, he averaged 0.8 with 15 yds on 19 carries. I don't put those performances on him (I blame them on the OL primarily). But we will see how effective the run game is next season. Hoping for improvement on the OL and at RB.




(I don't think we need a chart for QB.... Rocco is back and so is J.J., the end)

My wife and I just purchased a 5th wheel camper and need to put a 5th wheel hitch. I'm really drawn to the Andersen hitch as it weighs less than 40 lbs and is easy to get in and out Anyoned have and experiencappreciated. Truck has nothing today but is equipped with holes for ball hitch and 4 spots for rails.

BTW the camper has a dry weight of 12,000 lbs and tongue wt of 2000#. 2500 Silverado with camper/snow plow package.

Yes, I realized not having a slider increases risk of campers hitting truck but I'm not sure how often that will come I to play. It's a 35 foot camper and so we probably won't be going into a lot of tight spaces.

Any thoughts and experiences shared are apreciated.

We will be in the RV Village Spot #534. Poker on Friday night. Food, drink, and games on Saturday afternoon. Feel free to stop by. Just bought another case of Ames Lager.

P.S. We also will have a stack of the new football posters for anyone who doesn't want to go all the way to the stadium/Jacobsen for them.