re: Flashback- In 1992 Arkansas’ departure for the SEC dropped the axe on the old SWC

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Why did it take A&M so long to wake up?

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It was a political thing. There was a vested interest by state leaders to keep the conference together.

It sort of made sense in the 80s. Football revenue was a fraction of what it is now and all the programs were pretty uncompetitive nationally.

Even during the Big 12 merger, Ann Richards and Bob Bullock intervened to make sure Baylor and Tech were brought along.

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For a long time, the private schools were competitive. The public schools were not so much larger and richer (in terms of athletic resources). The 60's through the 80's were when the public schools pulled away. Imagine if the SEC had been about 50% small private schools like Tulane or the Big 10 had half schools like Northwestern. It worked back when Rice could hang in a bowl game against Alabama. Now that seems impossible.

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Agreed. I came up watching SWC teams in the 80s and early 90s. I can't tell just how bad the scene was for SWC and really all regional teams back then.

Outside of Arky, A&M, and the John Jenkins pirate brigade at Houston, it seemed like no school really cared about football at all.


I remember Houston being ranked 12th to start the season in 1991 and going to Miami and getting completely thrashed 40-10. They would get crushed by Illinois the next week 51-10.

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Not really. Arkansas always shouldve been. Aggies are Texans at heart and not southern

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Actually, yes. Texas culture is a subset of Southern Culture that was uniquely shaped by the pioneers and settlers that came to Texas from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky to settle it. To say otherwise is galactically stupid.

Our politics, our culture, our mannerisms, our values, and our entire belief structure as Texans is uniquely Southen to its core.

Texas A&M had deep early ties to the Confederacy, and has a statue of a man in the center of our campus that served as a General in the Confederacy, later as Governor of Texas, and after that as President of the A&M College of Texas. Our Corps of Cadets is no different than The Citadel, VMI, or North Georgia. And all three being designated as Senior Military Colleges, or SMCs. That is very much a Southern thing.

So every time I hear someone say that Texas isn’t “southern” I laugh my arse off because that poster just revealed their intelligence, or lack thereof.

I offer no apologies that my state, along with Florida, are leading the movement of Southern Conservatism. Perhaps Tennessee just isn’t big enough. I also offer no apologies that Texas is ~ 850 miles wide and tall. Sure, El Paso is decidedly “western” in geography, but Beaumont is part of Acadiana. Texarkana is no different than any other southern town, as are all the areas east of I35.

But bless your heart, if saying Texas isn’t Southern makes you feel good. We belong here, we should have always been here, and we are here to stay.

Yup. As were Tulane and GT.

The story is interesting how we never had any intention of going to the XII, and had just about punched our ticket to the SEC in 1995 when the SWC imploded. UH, was penciled in to be our partner in the SEC. That is, until Lt. Gov Bob Bullock intervened and had the Texas Higher Ed Board approve Reed Arena and the Student Rec Center. Funny how we never had any intention of being in the XII, but political strong arming forced us in. Sucks for UH. All of that has come out now…

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That league was started bc Texas couldnt hack it in the old siaa, they couldn’t ever win a conference championship in football so they grabbed a bunch of in state also rans and formed a conference they could dominate

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Huh? Almost half the founding members were from other states - Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Arkansas.

It didn’t happen so it doesn’t matter, now does it?

Whether the SEC would have really gone through with UH or not, is immaterial. If they needed a 14th member, they probably would have. Ultimately the political landscape in Texas at that time squashed any of us from joining until we did.

When we joined, it was our third opportunity to do so. And that’s a fact.

Your source is a guy on Reddit being quoted by a guy on an internet message board? Lol

I never heard anything about UH being considered by the SEC, and I was following this stuff as an adult in the late 80's/early 90's. As far as A&M telling the SEC no, the only reason that may have happened was coercion by the state politicians to join the pack heading to the Big 12. The SEC was always our first choice when it became clear the SWC was doomed.

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LINK

If you dig the archives, you’ll find other old articles that report such. The internet is your friend.

But pound your chest and be a dumbass.

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That has nothing to do with the founding of the SWC in 1915.

Short version, you’re retarded