We no longer have polling places with lines waiting to vote on election day up here in Washington. We already have our ballots and can only vote by mail or dropbox. We can vote any time we want between now and the official election day. So that should not impact attendance. I'm hoping to attend the game and check the early election results during timeouts.

UW basketball has a new coach and a lot of new players this year. A friend who is a Husky fan said they have low expectations for the team this year. So there may be low attendance, but probably not because of the election.

I have not seen any official reason for the Hawaii games starting at 8:59, but have always assumed that it was because if the game started at 9:00 PM, it would be Midnight in the Eastern time zone, which would be the following day. By starting at 8:59 PM, the games can be listed as starting on the same day in all US time zones, avoiding possible confusion as to which day the game is scheduled.

The Milwaukee site has links to YouTube addresses for watching the other two games that are not on ESPN+.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRIPtcm9S1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItrRuGjErHE

Last year Big Sky TV was definitely better. Pluto TV kept freezing. Pluto TV is much improved this year, but still occasionally freezes. I keep both running so that if one freezes I can switch to the other, but tend to just stick with the more reliable Big Sky TV.

What's odd is that Big Sky TV is just showing the Pluto TV feed.

Watching on Big Sky. It comes up with some other game, but you can select UC Davis football on the right.

Both Big Sky and Pluto streams are working for me now.

Last year I had better luck watching the stream on Big Sky TV instead of Pluto TV. It's the same stream but Pluto TV had a tendency to freeze while on Big Sky TV the stream continued. Here is the link for Big Sky TV, https://bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx The game will be listed on the right.

I have a very fast Internet link, so I bring up both streams and watch whichever one is working.

It looks like I won't be going. The forecast is for heavy snow this weekend over Snoqualmie Pass. I have a good vehicle for snow, but I really don't want to deal with it. Hopefully it won't be long before the Aggies are back up at Eastern Washington, Idaho, or Portland State again. I seem to remember the Aggies have Washington coming up on the schedule in a couple of years. My situation has changed such that I should be able start attending the games up this way again. I can take the new light rail system to go directly from my house to Husky Stadium. So I definitely plan to attend the Washington game.

It looks like I was mistaken. They are requiring tickets to be bought in sets of four, but the price for four is $32. The site doesn't explain it, but I'm guessing this is their way of selling every fourth seat to enforce social distancing. I had read earlier that they planned to allow a reduced number of fans. So now I'm seriously considering going.

They will be allowing fans at the Idaho game, so I looked into getting tickets and making the trip over from Seattle. I've had both doses of the Covid-19 vaccination and feel relatively safe attending the game. I haven't physically attended an Aggies game in several years. However, the ticket site said they were only selling tickets in sets of four. At $32 each, that's $128. I'll pass.

ESPN doesn't show that the game has started. Their score feed must be dead too.

I don't think this one is on ESPN+. Their game on Sunday will be on ESPN+. As far as I know, Facebook was it for this game.

and the delay is due to a volleyball game prior to this game. What a way to run a classic.

I believe the last time the band was missing was during World War II when the campus was shut down and taken over by the Army Signal Corps. However, as far as I can tell, there were no football games during the same period either. So the last time they were not at a home game was likely in 1930. A pep band was formed that played in the stands in 1929, then no band in 1930 due to a lack of interest, and then reformed and active from 1931 on except during World War II. There was an Aggie Band prior to 1929, but it's history seems to be sketchy.

Here is an interesting quote from a history of the band:

The frustration with not having a band of their own can be seen in a 1926 editorial in the California Aggie entitled "Why Can't the Cal Aggies Have a Band?" If the Cal Aggies had a band, then they would be viewed as more than just a "cow college," but a respectable, modern school.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070816080641/http://camb.ucdavis.edu/camb/history/chapter1.php

I guess we're back to just being a "cow college" now.

Concerning NDSU moving to FBS; I remember reading somewhere on some forum last year, Bison fans responding to this saying that NDSU would love to move up to FBS, but because there is no FBS conference with enough schools close enough to Fargo, no FBS conference would want them. No FBS conference has enough schools that would want to have to make the trip to Fargo. There are also concerns that having games in Fargo does nothing for recruiting for the other schools because it's not a big metropolitan area. I don't remember for sure, but I think they said the Fargo Dome itself was not an issue.

With no band and no steam engine, what happens after a touchdown?

Last year there were often problems with the Pluto TV feed and I found the Big Sky TV feed to be more reliable.

https://bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx

Click on the blue "Sport" button, select "Football" and today's games should be there.

Don't let the video entice anyone into considering moving up here. Too many people are coming here already.

I'm looking forward to the Aggies coming here in a few years though!

In the video it appears that he was coming from the general direction of Bill Gates' mansion.

Sorry for going a little off track here. Banning the steam engine because of complaints from other schools reminded me of an effort to ban the Aggie Band. Back in the early 70s, the SF State basketball coach tried to get the conference to ban the Aggie band because of the hex that we did during free throws. He claimed that his players believed the hex; causing them to miss baskets.