Why is Texas so Butt Hurt over losing Texas A&M & Mizzou to the SEC?

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LonghornLawyer says:
December 28, 2009 at 5:51 pm
As a native Texan and alumnus of The University of Texas, I instinctively feel the need to dispute Mike Runk’s allegations point-by-point, but I’m sure nobody here is interested. So I’ll refrain from pointing out
* That Texas’ population is not above 30M (it’s a mere 24,326,974 according to the latest Census projection),

* That it has more than two good universities (Rice would probably characterize itself as far better than “good”),

* That it has a multitude of quality museums (e.g., the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kimball Art Museum, the Nasher Sculpture Garden, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Blanton Museum of Art, and three presidential libraries),

* That there are top-tier symphonies in Dallas and Houston, or

* That the word “cesspool” is spelled with a “c” and not an “s.”

I’ll simply leave that to the next Texan to come along with less self-control.

To the point of the post, I agree with all of Frank’s points. I do, however, think he understates the importance of the Oklahoma and A&M rivalries. Oklahoma can be continued as a non-conference game, just as it was played for the first 85 years of its existence. Conceivably, A&M can be played the same way. Each presents its different concerns, and both are serious.

The Oklahoma game in Dallas is an absolute cash cow for the Texas athletic department. The game is played in the Cotton Bowl, which holds 92,000 (i.e., about 10,000 less than Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium). Texas and Oklahoma are each alotted half the seats, with the stadium split along the 50-yard line.

About half of Texas’ season ticket holders therefore do not get tickets to the Oklahoma game. That creates upward pressure for season ticket holders to donate to the Longhorn Foundation (i.e., the fundraising arm of the athletic department). Because tickets to the OU game are distributed on the basis of the year’s contribution to the Longhorn Foundation, season ticket holders have an incentive to donate more and more each year to the Foundation to ensure they get tickets.

As Frank points out, Texas only gets about $12M from its television contract. Yet despite that, it earns more from football than any other program. That’s entirely because of donations to the LHF, and the athletic department is going to be loathe to do anything that upsets that. And that makes keeping the OU game intact an absolute necessity.

With their game against BYU at JerryWorld this year, OU sent a shot across Texas’ bow indicating that it can always get a game in Dallas (and have the revenue and recruiting benefits that come with that) regardless of whether Texas is involved. I suspect Texas heard the message loud and clear.

The problem with A&M is different. Leaving aside the politics of the issue–and with the Lt. Governor being an A&M grad, it’s impossible to leave politics aside–Texas’ nightmare scenario is having A&M join the SEC. It is no coincidence that during the ten years out of its history when A&M was good at football (primarily due to SMU-level cheating), Texas was terrible. There are only so many top-tier recruits in Texas, and there are just not enough to feed Texas, Oklahoma, and A&M. Somebody’s got to get left out. If A&M were to join the SEC, it would give A&M a real recruiting advantage that it doesn’t presently have. Worse, it would open the Texas recruiting pool to teams like LSU and Alabama and reopen it to Arkansas.

Texas requires Aggie weakness to prosper. A strong A&M in the SEC is a recipe for Longhorn mediocrity. And that wouldn’t benefit either Texas or the Big 10.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that A&M has to come with. But it does mean that we need to find A&M a good home outside the SEC (Pac-10, perhaps?) and secure a very long-term deal with them for non-conference games before we can jump the Big 12 ship.

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and with the Lt. Governor being an A&M grad

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Why is Texas so Butt Hurt over losing Texas A&M & Mizzou to the SEC?

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