
How to win a $500 gift card to Pearl's Pullman Market
The big picture: The Taste of Texas Bracket competition pits 32 in-house items from the market against each other. Customers will vote for their favorite.
How it works: Now through Sunday, guests can pick up a free bracket form in store or download it.
Bracket predictions must be completed and submitted, either in store or emailed to [email protected], by 8pm Sunday.
Starting Monday, customers will cast their votes in person or via polls on Pullman Market's Instagram story.
The owner of the top-performing bracket wins the $500 gift card.
Zoom in: Some of the contenders include bakery goods like the forbidden rice sourdough and blue corn macadamia nut cookie. Pullman's fresh campanelle pasta is also competing.

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USA Today
19 hours ago
- USA Today
Here's how to improve college football season with plan from Alabama
Alabama's athletic director offered one of the offseason's best ideas for how to improve the college football season – and its playoff selection process. I initially thought Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne's idea for how to tweak the College Football Playoff selection process must be self-serving. After all, most playoff ideas that originate from a university or conference administrator are rooted in self-interest. But, the more I considered Byrne's idea to more greatly reward non-conference strength of schedule during the at-large selection process, the more I liked it. My lasting thought: Byrne suggested a worthwhile idea for how to improve the college football season. This came after I asked Byrne, one of the nation's most prominent athletic directors, last spring how he'd address the playoff. He shared a few thoughts, but he emphasized he felt most passionately about the selection process needing to place additional merit on non-conference strength of schedule. 'I am 100% convinced that (would be) good for the game and everybody around it,' Byrne told me. He's right. Weighting non-conference strength of schedule would encourage Power Four teams to schedule more games fans want to see and media partners want to televise. That's good for the game. The playoff is not broken. Neither is the selection process, subjective and controversial though it is. But, playoff ideas that would boost the season interest me. This idea would do that, by incentivizing schools to schedule better non-conference games. I'd add an addendum to Byrne's suggestion. Don't just value non-conference schedule strength. Value teams that win key interleague games. The March Madness selection process has figured this out better than college football. Consider last basketball season, when the SEC dominated non-conference play, including a 14-2 record in the ACC-SEC challenge. The SEC's NET ranking topped all conferences, and it appropriately qualified 14 of its 16 teams for the tournament. Throughout the postseason, the SEC lived up to the reputation it built during the season. ON CAMPUS: What is the best college football stadium? Our top 25 ranking BAD IDEA: Big Ten's playoff plan a recipe to make season worse, not better Byrne, who serves on the NCAA men's tournament selection committee, says he pays particular attention to non-conference metrics as he partakes in the selection process. 'One of the first things I look at is non-conference strength of schedule in men's basketball,' Byrne said, 'because I think that's good for men's basketball to have it not be just a January to March sport.' Again, he's right. Likewise, wouldn't it be better if college football's September docket featured more non-conference blockbusters like Texas-Ohio State or LSU-Clemson, while reducing the number of games like Houstin Christian-Nebraska and Austin Peay-Georgia? The abundance of lopsided, lackluster non-conference games creates a drag on the regular season. Too many coaches and their bosses gravitate toward the path of least resistance, after seeing that strategy rewarded. The past two national champions, Ohio State and Michigan, finished on top after neither played a Power Four non-conference opponent. Penn State crafted a similar road map for this year. The Nittany Lions will begin the season by chowing down on Nevada, Florida International and Villanova. Indiana wriggled into the playoff last season after rolling through a non-conference feast of Florida International, Western Illinois and Charlotte. The Hoosiers recently doubled down on this strategy, adjusting their future non-conference schedules to make them as easy as possible. Washington coach Jedd Fisch called Indiana's strategy of playing three non-conference nobodies 'dead-on right.' It's doggone pathetic, too, and it doesn't stop with Indiana. Big Ten, SEC teams among those seeking out cupcakes Big Ten teams will play four times as many MAC foes as they will SEC opponents. SEC teams will square off against the Ohio Valley as often as they'll face the Big 12. Six Big Ten teams won't play a single non-conference game against either a Power Four opponent or Notre Dame. Alabama, Florida and South Carolina are the only SEC teams that will play two Power Four non-conference games, for a total of 10 games against Power Four competition. The rest of the conference opted for additional patsies. Teams might lose their appetite for cupcakes if the playoff committee more heavily weighted non-conference metrics. And, if teams stiffened their non-league schedules, that would assist the committee's task of evaluating at-large playoff contenders. How might this idea affect playoff selection? If non-conference metrics had been more heavily weighted last season, that might have exposed Indiana, one of the last at-large teams admitted into the field. The Hoosiers didn't bother to play a Power Four non-conference opponent. The committee admitted Indiana thanks to its 11-1 record and its avoidance of a bad loss. If non-conference results had been more greatly valued, a 10-2 BYU team that beat SMU, a playoff qualifier, might have appealed more to the committee. Two-loss Miami, which beat Florida at The Swamp, also would have merited a stronger look. Three-loss South Carolina could have gained more of a boost from winning at Clemson, the ACC's champion. Now, let's revisit my original thought: Would adding weight to non-conference schedule strength be self-serving for Alabama? Perhaps. Starting this year, through 2034, Alabama has two games scheduled per season against either Power Four non-conference opponents or Notre Dame. Adding playoff selection value specific to non-conference metrics might therefore accelerate Alabama in bubble situations. But, shouldn't we want teams to follow Alabama's lead of seeking out challenging non-conference opponents, rather than ducking Power Four opponents in favor of Austin Peay? To Byrne, the answer seems obvious. 'Good non-conference games are really good for college football,' Byrne said. Rewarding teams that play good non-conference games would help ensure those games remain part of college football's future. Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.


USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
2024-2025 UNC basketball starter signs first professional contract
Where will this former Tar Heel play his first season of professional basketball? The North Carolina Tar Heels barely crept into March Madness this year, much to the anger of college basketball analysts. After getting blown out at Duke and Clemson to open February, plus a near-loss to Pitt at home, UNC needed to win virtually every game for a shot at the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina then embarked on a 6-game winning streak, nearly extending that by a seventh game in its regular-season finale against the Blue Devils. The Tar Heels then beat Notre Dame and Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, setting up a rematch with Duke, which was enough for a bid in college basketball's most prestigious postseason tournament. A huge factor in UNC making that late-season run was rarely-utilized power forward Jae'Lyn Withers, whose basketball career will now continue overseas. On Wednesday afternoon, Withers signed a 1-year deal with Dutch club Heroes Den Bosch, which plays at the highest tier of professional basketball in the Netherlands. Withers will be joining a championship team in Heroes Den Bosch, which won the past two Dutch Cups as members of the BNXT League. Withers only won one title at North Carolina, which captured the 2024 ACC Regular Season Championship. Withers spent most of his Tar Heels career coming off the bench, starting just 23 of 74 games for Hubert Davis, but proved to be a real difference-maker in February and March. Withers scored a career-high 21 points – on seven made 3-pointers – in UNC's second round ACC Tournament game against Notre Dame, his fifth time in eight days reaching double-digits. On Feb. 22 in an 81-66 win against Virginia, Withers recorded his second double-double of the year, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Seven days later, Withers scored 11 points and grabbed 10 boards in a 92-73 victory against Miami. Now playing overseas, Withers has a great chance to continue his late-season from North Carolina's most recent run to March Madness. Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.


San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay FC players no stranger to gambling-fueled online abuse and insults
Missing a penalty kick or turning the ball over didn't always lead to a barrage of online hate. But as sports betting surges, the two have become inextricable, and Bay FC players say they've dealt with it first-hand. 'There's always a comment here and there. Like, you're on Reddit and you see something like a negative comment towards yourself or your teammate,' said forward Penelope Hocking. The problem is especially prevalent among female athletes — the NCAA released a study after March Madness in 2024 reporting that women received three times the abuse than men experienced. While a subsequent study commissioned by the NCAA for the 2025 tournaments noted a 23% decline from the gambling-related abuse online, players like Hocking still see harmful comments. 'I think it's, like, propaganda against women, because there's always like a clip on Instagram (of) women's soccer, and it's some sort of blunder, and that's the only perception of women's soccer,' Hocking said. 'And it's always men that are like, you know, attacking the women for like just not being as athletically gifted … it's just (about) proving those people are wrong.' The NWSL, in particular, is already wrought with its own concerns, ranging from sexual misconduct to verbal abuse. A recent investigation reviewed at least two formal complaints against Bay FC head coach Albertin Montoya for violating the league's anti-harassment, bullying and discrimination policy. The investigation concluded that he was not in violation of the league's policy, but suggested a need for 'communication improvements.' The negative online environment that has become exponentially cultivated by gamblers dissatisfied with prop bet outcomes seems only to add to the pressures faced by teams. 'But I think part of being a professional is just like tuning that out and being confident in yourself,' Hocking added. 'Just blocking out the haters.' But it can be difficult to block out the haters — especially when threats go as far as telling players across various sports 'kill yourself' or making threatening comments about an athlete's family, as the Washington Post reported in June. The anonymity — both in terms of emotional separation and lacking identity — that social media provides makes it easy for extreme comments to be made. And with a higher-than-ever volume of such messages, the accountability mechanism is more difficult to enforce. Bay FC and the NWSL are aware of the damage dealt by the online abuse, becoming enough of an issue to create supportive infrastructure for athletes. The NWSL and Bay FC have contracted two companies specifically for the online threats and abuse. One monitors the online comments, hiding those that are abusive on the accounts of teams, the league and player accounts. The other company actively investigates threats made. 'I think we're really fortunate. We have great support here,' said goalie Jordan Silkowitz. 'We have each other, we're all kind of going through the same thing. And we play professional sports, so leaning on our teammates, our staff, our support staff. Everyone in this organization is great.'