Welcome to Staking The Plains, a new and independent blog that focuses on Texas Tech athletics.  My name is Seth Jungman and I was previously the site administrator for the site, Viva The Matadors, a site that is owned by SB Nation.  You might have some questions as to why the change and why now and I’ll try to answer some of those questions here.

Why Staking The Plains?  Well, I started with a handful of ideas for a new site name and the name “Llano Estacado” struck me as something that was interesting, especially given the history of the area.  Just to catch everyone up, “llano estacado,” means “staked plains” and the story goes that when the Spanish Conquistadors were traveling through the vast Llano Estacado they drove stakes into the ground in order to find their way back.  I thought that the idea of tying the name to the site to the area would be interesting and it seemed to fit in that the hope here is that this blog is forging ahead into uncharted territory, at least for me, and we’re figuring it out as we go.

Thankfully, Travis has written a terrific “About” page that I hope you read.

Why leave SB Nation?  I’ve been with SB Nation for 8 years and I didn’t think I had enough challenges in my life, so here I am.  SB Nation has been incredibly good for me, but it’s my hope with Staking The Plains that we can advertise with local advertisers and individuals who own businesses that want to advertise to other Red Raiders.  It’s probably foolish of me to think that this is possible, but you never know unless you try.  It is my hope and thought that that loyalty that drives Texas Tech and their fans will translate to Staking The Plains being a successful blog about Texas Tech athletics (although not affiliated with Texas Tech in any way).

Is anything going to change?  For me, I’m still ridiculously passionate about writing about Texas Tech.  I still love doing it and I don’t intend on stopping any time soon.

What about everyone who is a part of Viva The Matadors?  Well, pretty much the entire staff of Viva The Matadors has followed me to Staking The Plains.  Travis, Dan, Dorothy, LSRR, TMacRaider, Spencer and Brian have all decided to follow me to this new site.  We’ve got a fancy Masthead for you to read as well.

This is ridiculous, I’ve got to sign up for a new blog and commenting system?  Yeah, unfortunately, you do, but it’s painless and free.  We will be using Disqus commenting and you can sign in a handful of different ways.  The best thing about Disqus is that there is real-time commenting and there is also the reply button.  I think having threaded conversations is great.

This is great, we get this new blog and I’m assuming that now we get to talk about religion, politics and other really sensitive hot-button topics?  Nope. The rules are staying the same.  Please read them. Be nice. Don’t call each other names. Don’t talk religion or politics and have fun.

Well, this sounds just like Viva The Matadors but with a new name?  Yeah, pretty much. I’m simply trying to find out if it is possible for a person do be an independent blogger and sell to advertisers and try to pay the contributors of Staking The Plains.

Thanks to Brian for the Logo.  This isn’t a question, I get that.  I do want to give a special shout-out to Brian for designing the logo to the right and the one that you see on Travis’ post. Also thanks to Travis for emailing back and forth as we all worked through the design process.

How can I connect with Staking The Plains?  You can like the Staking The Plains Facebook page and you can also follow Staking The Plains on Twitter.

Let’s do this.