The Mountain West Joins The Threads App

The brand-new social media platform from Meta debuted yesterday and the Mountain West Conference made its presence known on day one.


The Mountain West Joins The Threads App


The brand-new social media platform from Meta debuted yesterday and the Mountain West made its presence known on day one.


Contact/Follow @MattK_FS and @MWCwire

A new frontier for everyone.

There’s little doubt that Twitter is the number-one social media website for all things sports, but a number of recent highly-publicized missteps by Elon Musk have given competitors like Mastodon and Bluesky an opportunity to challenge for the throne and our attention spans.

The newest platform, Threads, was unveiled to the world yesterday by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and nearly every team in the Mountain West wasted little time making their presence known in unique ways.

Air Force, for instance, took the opportunity to remind everyone which military academic actually runs college football:

 

Post by @af_falcons
View on Threads

Colorado State, New Mexico, and San Jose State decided to keep their introductions simple:

 

Post by @csuathletics
View on Threads

 

Post by @unmloboathletics
View on Threads

 

 

Post by @sjsuspartans
View on Threads

 

Hawaii leaned on tried and true tradition to announce its arrival:

 

Post by @rainbowwarriorsfootball
View on Threads

 

Nevada and UNLV, on the other hand, already found a way to bring their Silver State rivalry to a new stage. The Rebels have already set the bar for other teams in the Mountain West to match:

 

Post by @runninrebels
View on Threads

 

Utah State has embraced the audiovisual aspect of the new platform:

 

Post by @usufootball
View on Threads

 

Last but not least, the Mountain West Conference itself found its way onto Threads, as well:

 

Post by @mountainwestconference
View on Threads

 

Not every Mountain West program is represented on Threads yet — Fresno State and Boise State are only nominally present at the moment while San Diego State and Wyoming are absent — but it appears that a lot of people across the Mountain West are interested in finding out whether this new venture has staying power.

Threads is available now through the Google Play Store and Apple Apps.

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What is Threads? Explaining the new Twitter competitor coming from Meta

Meet the new app trying to compete with Twitter.

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Are you wondering what Threads is and what it has to do with Twitter? We’re here to help.

Twitter was already getting to be a mess under Elon Musk, and while there are some alternative social media sites to use, users are still on there and rightfully complaining about “rate limits” and such.

Meta — the company that owns Facebook — is hoping to capture that frustrated audience, reportedly this week.

Meet Threads, the rival social media app. What’s it all about? Let’s dive in:

Broncos are NFL’s 8th-most popular team on social media

The #Broncos have the eighth-most social media followers among NFL teams, more than any other team in the AFC West.

The Denver Broncos are one of the most popular teams in the NFL — according to social media numbers, anyway.

On social media networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the Broncos have 8,467,020 combined followers, the eighth-highest total in the NFL, according to a press release from Betway.

Elsewhere in the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs are ranked 10th (8,245,252 followers), followed by the 14th-ranked Las Vegas Raiders (7,216,811 followers). The Los Angeles Chargers (4,185,890 followers) rank near the bottom of the NFL, 28th out of 32 teams.

The most-followed teams on social media are the Dallas Cowboys (17,918,484 followers), New England Patriots (16,858,395 followers) and Green Bay Packers (10,567,548 followers).

The least-followed teams are the Tennessee Titans (3,521,400 followers), Jacksonville Jaguars (2,371,136) and Minnesota Vikings (2,371,136 followers).

Ranking in the top 10 is not a surprise for the Broncos given that they’ve reached eight Super Bowls and won three titles in their history. Denver will aim to get back to those winning ways this season.

Follow the Broncos Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

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LIV Golf Invitational Series event in London to be streamed on YouTube and Facebook

The list of global networks covering the inaugural event “will be made available later this week.”

American fans of both golf and soccer will hear some familiar voices if they decide to tune in to the LIV Golf Invitational Series this week.

The Saudi Arabia-backed entity led by Greg Norman that plans to rival the PGA Tour finally announced on Monday that Thursday’s first round at Centurion Club outside London can be streamed on the company’s website, as well as YouTube and Facebook. The list of global networks covering the inaugural event “will be made available later this week,” according to a release.

The announcement also stated that NBC Sports’ former voice of the Premier League, Arlo White, would be the play-by-play announcer, with Jerry Foltz and Dom Boulet joining in the booth. Su-Ann Heng, a former No. 1 in Singapore, will lead on-course commentating. Troy Mullins, “will serve as an on-course reporter and social influencer.”

Lynch: Dustin Johnson unsurprisingly fails character test with LIV Golf
More: Field list for London event released

The format features a 12-team, 48-player field with a shotgun start. More than 50 cameras, player and caddie mics will be used, with more production value to come as the season goes on.

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A company called Meta that isn’t Facebook is willing to sell the name for a hefty price

Sorry, Zuckerberg, there’s already a company called Meta.

Mark Zuckerberg may want us to delve into his metaverse, but a PC building company called Meta isn’t all that interested.

Meta PC is a gaming manufacture based in Phoenix, Ariz. that sells custom desktops, laptops, and other hardware peripherals. Joe Darger and Zack Shutt, the company’s founders, have been operating as Meta PC for over a year now and applied for the Meta trademark back in August, TMZ  reported Monday. The duo doesn’t own the name yet, but they’re still ahead of Zuckerberg. 

However, Darger and Shutt are willing to part with the name if Zuckerberg forks over 20 million in cash. That might sound like a steep asking price, but Meta PC will have to rebrand everything if a name change happens, which is quite an expensive process.

Meta PC took to social media to meme about the whole situation, which you can check out below.

Funnily enough, because of Facebook’s rebranding, Meta PC has seen a 5000 percent increase in followers across social media. Darger and Shutt are undoubtedly the underdogs in this story, so hopefully, everything works out for them!

Facebook, er, Meta has made significant strides within gaming recently as Resident Evil 4 VR  is receiving rave reviews, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR  is coming too.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Facebook is rebranding as Meta and everyone made the same, obvious sports joke

Meta … World Peace?

Facebook is Facebook no more.

Meta is the new name, as announced by chief exec Mark Zukerberg on Thursday, a rebrand that comes at time with the company is under fire after, as USA TODAY reported, “Facebook is embroiled in crisis over a cache of documents leaked by former product manager Frances Haugen and provided to Congress.”

But that led to so many Twitter jokes on Thursday, and the one that I saw SO much of had to do with a certain ex-NBA star formerly known as Ron Artest.

That’s right: Here’s a roundup of Meta — er Metta World Peace jokes:

Facebook is down, along with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus Quest 2

Oculus Quest owners claim they can’t play while Facebook is down.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus Quest devices are currently down.

All of the companies are owned by Facebook and are experiencing a major outage of their shared online infrastructure. The services have been down since 12 p.m. EST. 

WhatsApp users are getting trapped in an endless “connecting” loop, while Facebook is refusing to load completely. The Oculus Store and online games such as Rec Room are also out of service. Many users over on r/OculusQuest claim that they can’t even use their Oculus Quest VR headsets.

“I can’t use mine,” user Lending_ear said in a thread about the outage. “was using it perfectly fine and then my area suffered a power outage so Wi-Fi dropped. Turned headset off because I couldn’t play multiplayer.”

Later in the same Reddit thread, user welshman1971 claims the games work fine, though they did not test whether the outage affected multiplayer games. 

While it seems to be a case-by-case basis as to whether or not Oculus Quest owners can actually use their devices, most are saying none of it is working right now.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF

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The best responses to viral ‘Hakeem Olajuwon challenge’ by Rockets

Kevin Porter Jr. and Robert Horry are among those wanting to accept the viral Hakeem Olajuwon challenge from the Rockets.

Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon is one of the most decorated players in basketball history, with 12 All-Star berths, an MVP award, and two Defensive Player of the Year awards among his many accolades. To this day, he’s the NBA’s all-time leader in blocked shots.

Most importantly, “The Dream” was also a two-time champion with the Houston Rockets, earning NBA Finals MVP in 1994 and 1995.

With that dominance in mind, the Rockets’ social media team posed this fascinating hypothetical scenario to their followers:

Could you score in the paint against Olajuwon (in his prime) in 10 tries? Do it, and you earn $10 million. Fail, and you lose your phone for life. Would you take the challenge?

With this being the slowest period of the NBA’s 2021 offseason, the challenge meme quickly went viral across social media.

The vast majority of fans declined, given the extraordinarily long odds that most normal people would face in creating enough separation versus an athletic 6-foot-10 beast to even get a shot near the rim.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTkXx5HNgT5/

But those with actual NBA experience and bodies had a different assessment of the odds. Here’s what current Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. and former Houston forward Robert Horry had to say:

Porter Jr. (Instagram): Ez 💰

Horry (Instagram): Yes I will take that challenge, if I’m in my prime, too

Others among fans and media knew their limitations, but at least they had funny jokes about it.

Adi Joseph (CBS Sports): Since the Rockets were only paying “prime Dream” $3.2 million per year, I’d offer to let him split the money.

Ahmir Khalib Thompson (musician): May I have a taser in my possession?

Bryan Horowitz (media): Yes, because it would be a great way to break my phone addiction.

David Hinojosa (San Antonio Express-News): Sure. I would offer him half to tank.

Joseph Flynn (SB Nation): Most of the bums on here — myself included — couldn’t score on prime Chris Dudley

Scroll through the comments (and quote tweets on Twitter) from the team’s post on each social media account for more laughs.

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https://www.facebook.com/houstonrockets/posts/10159548649872320

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How to stream the USA TODAY Sports Network NFL mock draft

The USA TODAY Sports Network is working together on a company-wide live stream to submit their picks in a live streamed 2021 NFL mock draft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pZhKS6KjO8

The 2021 NFL draft is just days away, so it’s time for all hands to gather on deck and get to work. Experts from around USA TODAY’s sports coverage teams will be working together in a cooperative first round NFL mock draft, which you can stream live at this YouTube link (as well as on Twitter and Facebook). We’ll kick off at 9 a.m. CT on Monday, April 26. Who will the Saints pick? Stay tuned to find out.

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