Off Season topic: What was the single biggest event for Aggie Football?

Without a modern natty it's hard to say. A lot of people would say moving to the SEC but that's TBD in my mind. I will agree with you on hiring Sherrill (as the positive moment). Took our program to new heights. Negative is definitely hiring Fran

Cliffnotes:

The NCAA's 1973 rule change limiting scholarships was the single biggest positive event for Aggy Football, and it's not even close.




_____________________________________________
Discussion:

If, by "biggest event" you mean most game-changing positive event that helped A&M football, I would say 1973 NCAA scholarship limits.

Most people don't understand how the traditional "blue blood" schools became such. They had the deep pockets to buy up all the talent with scholarships. Probably the worst offender, whose actions had the biggest negative impact on A&M was the fricking longhorns.

I had a professor in grad school who was on a track scholarship for the fricking longhorns back in the late 1960s. (Funny story transpired from that, but it's for another time.) He said it was one of the worst experiences of his life. When he signed with the fricking longhorns, they didn't tell him, and he didn't know, that in the same recruiting class, they signed a bunch of other recruits to run the same events as him. He said that, in his events, he was the 7th fastest signee in his class (there were more than just 7, that just how many were faster). They basically trap-doored him, eventually washing out of the program and ruining his college career, not because they needed him. They just didn't want anyone else to have him, especially any local competition (like A&M).

The Prof went on to explain how the lack of scholarship limits allowed the fricking longhorns to basically buy up all the talent in Texas, and once the less talented had their college careers ruined, they scholarships just sort of...went away.

Every fricking longhorn national championships prior to 2005 was a result of unlimited scholarships. The Professor said fricking longhorn football was really bad about buying and burning Texas talent, but the worst was the baseball program.


Now, the overall record between A&M and the fricking longhorns is The Sacrament of fricking longhorn football pride. You can't go qualifying the overall series because, in this post-scholarship era, anytime we beat the frick out of those insufferable cocksmokes, they always have "76 - 37 - 5" to fall back on. Bring up the flaws in that overall record is like pissing on the Qur'an. Those motherfrickers will scream bloody murder if you show them this. They are likely to get violent, so be cautions when discussion this in front of those assholes.

With the above warning stated, the positive effect on scholarship limits is nearly conclusively proved by an analysis of the overall series record against the fricking longhorns (and all the other SWC programs, for that matter). A&M's football program was seriously damaged by 3 decades of the longhorns' win-buying bullshite.

In 1943, after having played 50 games against the fricking longhorns, we were behind in the overall series 15 - 31 - 4.

3 wins per decade.

From 1939 to 1975 (I used 1975 because that is likely when the full effect of the 1973 limitation manifested itself) we had.....

4

fricking

wins

against the fricking longhorns.

4

32 years --- 4 fricking wins!!!


That's one win per decade from 1943 to 1973.



From 1976 to 2011 (game 83 to game 118), which is what I would consider the "post-unlimited-scholarship" era, the series went from 19 - 58 - 5 to the current 37 - 76 - 5.

HALF OF OUR ALL-TIME WINS against the fricking longhorns occurred in the last 36 meetings.

Over 5 wins per decade or 50% (18-18)



So, pre-scholarship limits we were about .231 against the fricking longhorns. Post-scholarship limits, we are up to .500.

You accountant assholes help me out. That's a 100% increase in winning against the fricking longhorns since scholarship limits, right?

You actuary assholes help too. That is NOT a statistical anomaly, is it? 100% increase is beyond the margin of error, right? (I don't even know what the frick I am talking about, so if you know, please correct my ignorant arse).

Furthermore, A&M began playing a 10-game schedule in 1931. From 1931 to 1974, we had ONE 10-win season. From 1975 to 2015, we have had 10.

43 years -- ONE
40 years -- TEN

Isn't that about a 1000% increase?

I am no expert, but doesn't that surpass the margin of error?





(Cue the ShaggySip Bruised Ego Response:
"Because "aggy was cheating. The only way Aggy could win was by cheating, etc. blah blah blah. Only Aggy cheats to win. Etc. Etc."

frick off, you goddamn ignorant, lying-arse burnt-orange trailer trash. The entire SWC was cheating. The only thing all the cheating did was minimally dampen a small portion of the insurmountable, built-in longhorn advantages. And, Charles Allen Wright, motherfrickers.)


Now, I have to get back to work.

Single biggest was probably moving to the SEC. We've never won anything worth celebrating, so nothing else comes to mind in terms of positive events. Second in terms of magnitude was hiring Fran. Any other time in history would have been better for that disaster; pairing it with Texas winning a natty and dominating for a decade completely fricked us.

Ok now you are making me feel bad for him.

Allowing women admission.

quote:

---

KaiserSoze99

---

I have nothing to add. You covered it all

Cardboardboxer: The Arkansas game you refer to was in 1975. It was lost that spring when ABC went to Emory Bellard and asked him if A&M would be willing to move the game from early November to after Thanksgiving. Emory said we would do it. His reason was simple: Money. There was only one game on tv more or less in those days and we would be it.

A&M qb Mike Jay was injured in the Texas game the day after Thanksgiving. Never mind the emotional energy spent in beating the Sips. So in Little Rock on a sloppy day the Ags fumbled away a crack at a national championship. I wonder how that game might have turned out had Franklin hit an early FG and we had not fumbled deep in their end. A 10-0 lead might have turned out to be insurmountable.