re: Aggies make locker room code 50-7

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So if TexasHorn is right, A&M is not even an independent school. They live off PUF managed and controlled by UT. A&M is basically a satellite campus for UT.

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But he is not . . . .Texas A&M became its own separate system in 1948. It has its own separate trustees, legislative appropriations, etc etc. Ditto for the other systems in the state including Texas Tech and UofH.

The PUF stuff is largely an archaic book-keeping and back-office convention from the late 1800s. The Texas system has no control over how much is given out to other institutions. It is told what to do by the legislature which in turn has to get voter sign off for any changes.

Right now there is a big political discussion of stripping both A&M and Texas's allocation and re-allocating portions to other systems around the state. If the legislator decides that is ok, there is nothing A&M or UT can do about it and that just underscores how blitheringly idiotic any notion of the funds belonging to the Texas system or being "given away". The PUF is a wholly separate endowment that currently pays out to a select group of beneficiaries. The UT system is just a convenient parking place for state assets given its pretty old role as the accounting office.

Interestingly, the endowment was put together before the University of Texas or A&M were even envisioned by Texas citizens. It was put forth by the Republic of Texas prior to Texas becoming part of the United States. A&M didn't start operating until 1871 . . .almost 40 years later. Texas did not start for another decade or almost a half century later.

Both University Systems are lucky that the low-rent West Texas grazing lands gifted to the endowment turned out to be lucrative sources of mineral income. Both systems have been lucky to split the funds just themselves.

I am guessing in the near future the current dialogue regarding public education will at a minimum strip the UT of its extra 1/3rd and it will probably be cut up by the voters to a greater extent over the next 50 years.

But hey, if you want to pretend that blind mineral luck and some far-sighted politicians from a half century before UT even existed mean there is some secret Longhorn brilliance that A&M should pray they never lose access to, go ahead and kid yourself.