I’m making a cocktail for each Iowa State game. Today's game is against the West Virignia Mountaineers. The state of West Virginia is closely associated with the business of coal mining. They even did a “coal rush” theme when my wife and I went to Morgantown as visitors (28-16, Iowa State). So when I came across this recipe I knew I had to make it for this game.

This is not an original. I’ve found it in a few places online, but none of them say who the original creator is. If you happen to know, please credit them in a comment for me.

Coal Miner

• 1½ oz Laphroaig 10 (Islay Scotch)
• ¾ oz Campari
• ½ oz Amaro Averna
• ¼ oz Honey Syrup (3:1 honey to water)
• 2 dash Peychaud’s Bitters

Shake it all up and strain over fresh ice.

But wait there’s more. I knew a drink with scotch and Campari would not go over well at a tailgate, but the name was too perfect so I had to make one for myself. For everyone else, I made this:

Pumpkin Spice Margarita

• 1 oz Tapatio Añejo (Añejo Tequila)
• 1 oz Tres Agaves Reposado (Reposado Tequila)
• ½ oz Callieres (Triple Sec)
• ½ oz Licor 43 (Vanilla Liqueur)
• ¾ oz Lime Juice
• ½ oz Pie Spice Syrup (2:1 demerara syrup with pie spice)
• 1 dash The Empress Bitters (from Wynnwood Farms)
• ¾ oz Pumpkin Puree

Shake it all up and fine strain over fresh ice.

⚠️ ALL BALLOTS MUST HAVE FLAIRS ⚠️

By popular request, I'm modifying my script starting this week to only accept ballots submitted by users with flairs. If you haven't already, please flair up.

Cast your ballot by commenting anywhere on this post. You can put whatever you want in your comment, but your ballot must begin with {{start}} and end with {{end}}. In between, list off the schools from #1 (best) to #16 (worst). Each school must be on its own line and that line cannot include any additional text. Bulleted and numbered lists are fine. Please use school names, since there are some schools with matching team names. You must include all 16 schools and multiple schools cannot share the same rank.

Every user's ballot will be given equal weight. Please give your honest opinion.

>This is an example of what a ballot might look like. For this example, I'm just listing the teams in alphabetical order.

>{{start}}
Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas Tech
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
{{end}}

>You can put whatever you want before and after the ballot.

Comments without ballots are also fine. Feel free to share your opinions on other people's ballots. Remember to be respectful and understand that power rankings are subjective.

I will run a script on Wednesday morning to collect all the ballots and generate the rankings. I'll make a separate post with the results and a distribution table.

Cast your ballot by commenting anywhere on this post. You can put whatever you want in your comment, but your ballot must begin with {{start}} and end with {{end}}. In between, list off the schools from #1 (best) to #16 (worst). Each school must be on its own line and that line cannot include any additional text. Bulleted and numbered lists are fine. Please use school names, since there are some schools with matching team names. You must include all 16 schools and multiple schools cannot share the same rank.

Every user's ballot will be given equal weight. Please give your honest opinion.

>This is an example of what a ballot might look like. For this example, I'm just listing the teams in alphabetical order.

>{{start}}
Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas Tech
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
{{end}}

>You can put whatever you want before and after the ballot.

Comments without ballots are also fine. Feel free to share your opinions on other people's ballots. Remember to be respectful and understand that power rankings are subjective.

I will run a script on Wednesday morning to collect all the ballots and generate the rankings. I'll make a separate post with the results and a distribution table.

I’m making a cocktail for each Iowa State game. Today's game is the CyHawk rivalry against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa State lost most of its roster from last year, but one of the few players who stayed was Kyle Konrardy. Hawk fans ought to be familiar with that name since Kyle kicked game-winning field goals against Iowa in each of their last two matchups.

Some of you may recognize today’s drink as the Art of Choke by Kyle Davidson at The Violet Hour in Chicago. That’s already an excellent name for a gameday cocktail. Indeed the Iowa Hawkeyes are well practiced in the art of choking. But today’s drink is dedicated to Konrardy for his outstanding performances and his loyalty to the Iowa State Cyclones. Cheers!

Art of Choke (a.k.a. One Hell of a Kick)

• 1 oz Probitas (White Rum)
• 1 oz Cynar (Artichoke Liqueur)
• ¼ oz Green Chartreuse
• ⅛ oz Lime Juice
• ⅛ oz Demerara Syrup

Shake it all up and strain over fresh ice.

Starting late this week because of the weird week 1 schedule.

Cast your ballot by commenting anywhere on this post. You can put whatever you want in your comment, but your ballot must begin with {{start}} and end with {{end}}. In between, list off the schools from #1 (best) to #16 (worst). Each school must be on its own line and that line cannot include any additional text. Bulleted and numbered lists are fine. Please use school names, since there are some schools with matching team names. You must include all 16 schools and multiple schools cannot share the same rank.

Every user's ballot will be given equal weight. Please give your honest opinion.

>This is an example of what a ballot might look like. For this example, I'm just listing the teams in alphabetical order.

>{{start}}
Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas Tech
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
{{end}}

>You can put whatever you want before and after the ballot.

Comments without ballots are also fine. Feel free to share your opinions on other people's ballots. Remember to be respectful and understand that power rankings are subjective.

I will run a script on Thursday evening to collect all the ballots and generate the rankings. I'll make a separate post with the results and a distribution table.

I’m making a cocktail for each Iowa State game. Today's game is against the SEMO Redhawks. This is the debut game for Jimmy Roger and the all new Cyclones. At the end of last season Iowa State lost almost its entire coaching staff and roster. Despite them earning an invitation to a bowl game, there weren’t enough players left to even field a team. Expectations have been set low for Rogers as he has been tasked with rebuilding the football program from the ground up.

But enough about that. Media talking heads have covered that story to death in the offseason. Instead I want to focus on the branding around Rogers. Quickly after he was announced as the new HC I saw fans adopting a “Mr. Rogers” branding for Jimmy. That won’t do. Jimmy isn’t some meek old man who teaches kids about friendship. He’s Jimmy Fucking Rogers. He yells “Fuck the Hawks!” at basketball halftimes to the abject horror of the children and elderly. He teaches kids how to beat down their opponents and win football games.

The Mr. Rogers branding was dead on arrival. In its place, I propose Cyclone fans adopt the Jolly Roger - an icon meant to put fear in the hearts of all who witness it. That’s why I’m starting this year with a tiki drink. Cheers to the start of Iowa State’s pirate era!

Jolly Roger

• 1 oz Bacardi Reserva Ocho (Gold Rum)
• 1 oz Wray & Nephew (Jamaican Rum)
• ½ oz Giffard Banane du Brésil (Banana Liqueur)
• ¼ oz St. Elizabeth (Allspice Dram)
• 1 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• ½ oz Orgeat
• ¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup
• 2 dash Chai Bitters

Shake it all up and strain over fresh ice.

At the last minute I added a rim of coconut flakes and chocolate sprinkles and a banana coin garnish. I think it worked alright, but one of those ridiculous lime boats would be perfect for this.

Here's the football power rankings for week 0, voted for by r/BigXII.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BigXII/comments/1vzdl9f/vote_for_preseason_big_xii_football_power_rankings/

It's the preseason so there isn't much consensus. As the season goes on my script will start to filter out extreme outliers, but it's very forgiving early on. There were a couple notable outlier ballots this time, but they didn't end up having that much of an effect on the end results thanks to the high turnout.

Biggest Movers

A lot has changed in the off season. Since last year...

North Texas Oklahoma State jumped up 7 spots (7.64) from an almost unanimous last place. Expectations are high for Eric Morris's Mean Green Cowboys in year one.

Washington State Iowa State dropped 7 spots (6.98), barely escaping last place. Expectations are low for Jimmy Rogers's Cougars Cyclones in year one.

Cincinnati dropped 5 spots (4.4). I've seen a lot of Cincy fans saying this will be the year that gets Scott Satterfield fired. Anyone taking bets?

Coming Up

SATURDAY (week 0)

• ❗ #6 TCU vs North Carolina in Dublin, Ireland

THURSDAY (week 1)

• #12 UCF vs Bethune-Cookman
• ❗#16 Colorado at Georgia Tech
• #4 Utah vs Idaho

FRIDAY (week 1)

• #13 Kansas vs Long Island University

SATURDAY (week 1)

• #15 Iowa State vs Southeast Missouri State
• #3 Houston vs Oregon State
• #11 West Virginia vs Coastal Carolina
• ❗#10 Baylor vs Auburn in Atlanta, GA
• ❗#14 Cincinnati vs Boston College
• # 9 Oklahoma State at Tulsa
• #1 Texas Tech vs Abilene Christian
• #8 Kansas State vs Nicholls
• #2 BYU vs Utah Tech
• #5 Arizona vs Northern Arizona
• #7 Arizona State vs Morgan State

Voting for Week 2 starts on Sunday (the 6th)!

I should have done this a week ago. TCU kicks off the college football season on Saturday, so I'm going to close this poll on Friday evening.

The metrics graphic is new for football so let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see on it. The "CM" column is Colley Matrix, which starts the season with everyone tied at #1.

Cast your ballot by commenting anywhere on this post. You can put whatever you want in your comment, but your ballot must begin with {{start}} and end with {{end}}. In between, list off the schools from #1 (best) to #16 (worst). Each school must be on its own line and that line cannot include any additional text. Bulleted and numbered lists are fine. Please use school names, since there are some schools with matching team names. You must include all 16 schools and multiple schools cannot share the same rank.

Every user's ballot will be given equal weight. Please give your honest opinion.

>This is an example of what a ballot might look like. For this example, I'm just listing the teams in alphabetical order.

>{{start}}
Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas Tech
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
{{end}}

>You can put whatever you want before and after the ballot.

Comments without ballots are also fine. Feel free to share your opinions on other people's ballots. Remember to be respectful and understand that power rankings are subjective.

I will run a script on Friday evening to collect all the ballots and generate the rankings. I'll make a separate post with the results and a distribution table.