• Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    minus the cocky crotch grabbing dances. Hopefully stays that way.
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    I mean I want a bunch more PATs than FG lol
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    the other games I saw today had oddly missed FG too.
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    A safety? Anybody have that on their bingo card?
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    21-3 at half and receiving in the 3rd. Will take it!
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    Compared to the the Word/Nicholls game and PSU/Tarleton, the focus, preparation, commitment to second and third effort looking really good.
  • Mercer - In-Game Play-By-Play Thread
    I know they don’t have the benefit of the yellow tv line in real life but ouch on stick awareness.
  • @ Mercer to Open 2025
    Whatever ranking we were, move it up one because Incarnate Word is number four no more, falling to Nicholls 20-6. Both teams had difficulty completing drives but the Nicholls defense scored more points than The Word’s. The Cardinals lost 8 starters to P4 schools, so probably the story of this year is nobody really knows until the games start being played.
  • @ Mercer to Open 2025
    haha, Disney has always made upgrading price point easy.
  • @ Mercer to Open 2025
    The new ESPN app dropped today. Reminder to update your smartphone and smart TV apps and sign back in if necessary so you’re not jammed up as the game is starting. The new apps have some nice features like putting on up to 4 games on split screen and syncing live stats and tv control to your phone.

    The Mercer game is on the ESPN main cable channel. You will need a cable subscription, or if you don’t have cable, you can buy the “ESPN Unlimited” package which includes the cable channels and the ESPN+ streaming content for $29.99.

    Most of the future games are ESPN+ streaming games, which is now rebranded as “ESPN Select” for $11.99. Same as past seasons, if you already have cable or don’t care about the main channel, this is the package for you to add the streaming-only games.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    I’d venture 2026 FCS independent is the likely outcome based on what we know now. Court cases can take a long time. They have 2 games on the books - Fresno and Lamar. Aside from that they just have uncertainty because they don’t exactly have friends or money. But yes, when you remove all guardrails, you end up with bad fries at Taco Bell and worse tacos at Burger King. Categories exist for a reason.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    some have suggested we buy out the Stetson (home) game to have the pleasure of traveling to Sacramento, which makes no sense. If Sac is FCS independent for the foreseeable future, maybe an OOC series makes sense, though it’ll be curious to see if they get the cold shoulder from Big Sky schools. If they actually become FBS independent, where’s the money? There’s more fans at a WNBA game than there are dollars in that KMAX 31 tv deal.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    I asked AI to simulate a monopoly game between Wood and Gary May. It predicts May as a steely poker-faced player who starts out boring, acquiring all the railroads and utilities, but who is ultimately strategizing moves in advance, calculating ROI of each property and wins most matchups. It predicts Wood enters the game with a splash, buying as many properties on the first half of the board as he can and mortgaging all of them to stay in the game without a solid strategy other talking nonstop to distract other players. Occasionally he hits it big but in most simulations he is bust by turn 20, landing on May’s Park Place Hotel. At which point he is likely to propose desperate non-traditional deals or demand a rule change such as (AI’s choice of words) parking reparations. I think we must be around turn 16 or 17. Time running out for the luck hit.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    Cal Expo certainly needs investment. It used to be a really nice fairground and was allowed to fall into disrepair. As the crow flies, not that far from Sac State but not exactly walking distance from the dorms either. From a taxpayer perspective, may be a good thing because with Cal Expo involved, it means Luke Wood is not solely in charge, so it has some chance of not being screwed up. But goes on to show that his “shovel ready” plans for an “on campus” facility were always a lie… this guy’s relationship with the untruth is next level. From a construction perspective this might or might not be less expensive. That grandstand was built in 1967. Depending on what has already been done, there could be plenty of lead paint, asbestos, seismic, life safety and ADA work. My experience with this type of construction project is you don’t know what you don’t know so you have to budget for the unknown.
  • @ Mercer to Open 2025
    I’ve lived down here for 15 years. It’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity.
  • @ Mercer to Open 2025
    As best I understand, Big Sky rules allow us to take 58 players to an air travel out of conference game. If Mercer buses it without a hotel stay, no limit to travel squad but with a hotel stay would follow the NCAA limit of 60. With the heat and humidity, depth is a factor. Was hoping to find a fan or alumni site to see if there was a mention of a team hotel or something but their internet footprint seems sparse. I would have thought Mercer would be promoting this as a bonus sort-of-home game with fan buses and an alumni association tailgate. But idk their official media accounts are running countdown to first home game… seems like the pregame concert series is a big draw in Macon. So idk if this will be a Mercer-heavy crowd or mostly Montgomery locals.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    If you look over the last 30 years of Causeway, Davis fans boost attendance when it’s in Sac, and in some years outnumbered the home fans. But Sac fans are much less likely to come to games in Davis, even in years when tickets remained. As to why Sac fans don’t travel, I’d always assumed it was because they couldn’t get an out-of-county trip approved by their probation officer in time.
  • New ESPN Streaming Platform
    ESPN is updating to offer two streaming plans. You have your choice of using the ESPN app or the Disney+ app to access any Hulu or ESPN content you pay for (that’s their end goal btw is to get everything centralized on the D+ app)

    1. What we are familiar with as ESPN+ is going to be “ESPN Select” at the $11.99/mo price point for all the stuff not on mainline cable channels.

    2a. If you have an existing pay cable plan like Spectrum or Comcast or a virtual cable plan like Hulu Live TV that includes ESPN “linear networks” (the industry word for cable channels), you can watch on your cable connected TV like you always have, or just like now, you can put your cable account credentials into the ESPN app to view that “linear” content on your phone or other streaming device. No need to purchase ESPN linear content twice.

    2b. NEW - If you don’t have a cable subscription, you will now be able to purchase the “ESPN Unlimited” plan (including ESPN+ and linear channels) for $29.99/mo. There will be various packages if so inclined to bundle with Disney+ and Hulu. This is actually good news for cord cutters who don’t have or want a cable bundle.

    Most games are scheduled for ESPN+. Mercer on ESPN and Montana State on ESPN2. Unknown if those will be simulcast on ESPN+. Washington is on Big 10 Network, which is in the Fox Sports portfolio so I doubt it will be simulcast on ESPN+. You will either need a legacy cable subscription or Fox Sports One is their new streaming app dropping Aug 21 at $19.99/mo that I believe will include BTN.

    It looks like the home games are also being broadcast over the air locally on CW 58, so maybe the camerawork will be better.
  • Sac State's bid for the Pac 12 Thread
    it seems despite the not so impassioned speeches from these two legislators, the SCORE bill moved procedurally closer to the House floor, though the path is less clear in the Senate. The bill provides some ground rules for NIL, some protections to athletes from bad deals, some litigation cover for the NCAA, and clarifies athletes as non-employees. Various agendas have created some odd bedfellows in congress and statehouses for sure, though I think the argument that arbitrary NCAA rules are denying the Sacramento valley a major economic boom is weak.