05:12Listen, the season hasn't gone according to plan for Arch, Manning, and Texas.
05:16And Longhorn fans would admit that.
05:18They started number one in the nation, but two losses have dropped them out of the AP poll entirely.
05:24Oklahoma, on the other hand, undefeated, ranked number six.
05:27Their star quarterback, John Mateer, is a Heisman candidate, and he could return from a hand injury to play in this game.
05:35That's how much it means.
05:36There have been Heisman Trophy winners on both sides of this rivalry, but no matter who's suiting up,
05:41the game played for over 100 years at the Cotton Bowl is an event that transcends football.
05:46Dallas is the midway point between the two schools, and some 200,000 fans will pack the fairgrounds Saturday.
05:53Close to 92,000 will attend the game, and the historic stadium is split in half right down the 50-yard line.
06:00You've got fans in burnt orange on one side and crimson red on the other.
06:05Now, Texas has won more games in the rivalry overall, but Boomer Sooner has won seven of the last ten.
06:12The Golden Gophers technically do play their first game of the season during the fair,
06:17but their stadium is not on the fairgrounds, and they play Buffalo.
06:21That's where I'm from.
06:21Anyways, back to the script.
06:23It did not need to be a football game for it to be a draw.
06:26Its biggest day, the state fair, that is, in 2024, had over 256,000 visitors in Minnesota.
06:33Texas has another advantage.
06:35Its 24-day run is the longest in the nation.
06:39Meanwhile, its Minnesotan counterpart is known for 12 days of fun.
06:43I mean, they go crazy there.
06:44And this is where soda starts shucking the husk off the corn.
06:48All right, let's do a little math.
06:49Since Minnesota's fair is shorter, it turns out the average daily attendance of 160,000 at the Minnesota State Fair easily eclipses the 99,000 in Texas.
07:00So who wins in a head-to-head attendance battle?
07:04It appears to depend on which number you think matters the most.
07:07Makes sense, right?
07:08But there's more to measuring a state fair than attendance.
07:12There's also the size of the space.
07:14Everything's bigger in Texas.
07:16Just ask W, right?
07:17Don't mess with Texas.
07:18Don't mess with our state fair.
07:20Except the fairgrounds.
07:21Minnesota boasts a 322-acre fairgrounds, while the State Fair of Texas is seated on a paltry 277 acres.
07:30That's a lot of space to imagine.
07:32All right, so let's bring it back to football.
07:34Minnesota's grounds are about the size of 244 football fields.
07:39Texas, everything's bigger in Texas, they say, except here.
07:42Texas only equates to 210 football fields.
07:44While we're on to the way these fairs fill their space, the aptly named Top of Texas Tower is 500 feet tall and features sweeping vistas of the Metroplex.
07:56That even sounds big, right?
07:58In Minnesota, you can pretty much do the same thing at the Space Tower, but it only goes up 300 feet.
08:04Are either of these really rides?
08:06As for history, the State Fair of Texas first opened its gates in the fall of 1886, this 50 years after the founding of the Republic of Texas.
08:16In the very same fall, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated 1,000 or so miles north.
08:22The fair will celebrate its 140th anniversary next year.
08:26Minnesota, however, celebrated its 166th fair this year, and those are just official years.
08:33A couple of fun facts for you.
08:34The Minnesota State Fair started as a territorial fair in 1855.
08:40What is that?
08:41Does anybody know what a territorial fair is?
08:42I guess it's a fair in your territory.
08:44Kind of like reflexive.
08:45All right.
08:45Anyways, it was this territorial fair thing before it was even a state.
08:49It officially became known as the Minnesota State Fair in 1859.
08:53Remember that year?
08:54That was a year after statehood.
08:56And Teddy Roosevelt, by the way, this is cool.
08:57He gave the speak softly and carry a big stick speech at, wait for it, the Minnesota State Fair in 1901.
09:06All right.
09:07We mentioned fried food earlier.
09:08So let's get into meat on a stick, right?
09:11Everybody goes to the fair hungry and then overeats.
09:14Last year, Fletcher's original corny dogs sold 550,000 dogs, slathered in 1,800 gallons of mustard and 850 gallons of ketchup at the state fair in Texas.
09:25Remember, everything's bigger in Texas, right?
09:27So that makes sense.
09:28In Minnesota, fairgoers are pronto pup people, meaning they prefer their hot dogs on a stick covered in pancake batter rather than traditional cornmeal batter.
09:39Pronto pups sold more than 2.3 million bucks in their dogs.
09:44At about $7 a pop, you need a calculator for this, that's roughly 330,000 pups.
09:50It's big business, right?
09:52All right.
09:52So what's the fair without agriculture?
09:55Texas had 76 animal births, including 43 piglets and 12 kids.
10:01You know, baby goats throughout the 2024 fair.
10:04Minnesota, on the other hand, had 159 animals.
10:09Also at the Minnesota State Fair in 2024, there was a pumpkin weighing.
10:14And get this, one of the pumpkins weighed in excess of 1,800 pounds.
10:18It's almost like 2,000 pounds.
10:20I mean, I think that's huge.
10:21Can you imagine all the seeds, right?
10:23It could, like, fill a whole city for all of Halloween.
10:25Texas, we're told, does not do produce.
10:28I thought everything was bigger and better in Texas.
10:31I guess not when it comes to produce.
10:32At least not for this story.
10:33Anyways, it's impossible to quantifiably rank which state fair is the best.
10:38But these are two of the biggest with the richest history of tradition
10:41and are important to millions of people in the regions they support.
10:46Hope you enjoyed this story.
10:47For Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli.
10:49For more in-depth reporting, head to san.com and download the Straight Arrow News app.
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