re: To: all those who think us Aggies should play Texas

quote:

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all i've seen is A&M saying something to the tune "any time, anywhere." That sounds more like talk than actual discussion. Provide me with a link stating your AD has actually tried to engage in discussion with Texas about scheduling a future game and I'll believe you.

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Q&A with Steve Patterson:

Q: Staying in the state of Texas, I have to ask you a blunt question: What's going on with your program and Texas A&M? Can this rivalry ever been renewed? Why does Florida play Florida State, Alabama plays Auburn, UCLA plays USC, and why does Texas not play Texas A&M?

A: Some of those schools you've mentioned are still in the same conferences they've been in for 90 years.

Q: Florida and Florida State are not in the same conference. Everybody is just used to having the big in-state rivalry game.

A: The reality is I've been talking about this for a year (he jokingly said).

Q: And you're going to get asked about it until it happens.

A: Texas A&M made a decision to leave the conference. They felt that was in their best interest? Fine, God bless them. I've got a lot of friends who are Aggies, and that's fine. People make their own business decisions. For us, at the University of Texas, our football games are precious, precious events. For us, we want to maximize what we can do building a brand. If you're going to schedule the top schools, you want to make sure you schedule the USCs, the Notre Dames, the Ohio States and the Michigans, the kinds of schools we've been scheduling. You want to make sure you can recruit certain parts of the country besides Texas. Everybody knows we're here in Texas. Nobody is overlooking it. You look at the New York Times article from a couple of months ago, it breaks out every single zip code in the country, and what is the number one, two or three school in every zip code. For virtually most of the state, we're in the top three. Most of the state, we're number one. People aren't overlooking us in our own backyard, but you want to have a presence in southern California. You want to have a presence in the Midwest. You want to have a presence in Florida. So, we look at that as a consideration at what our alumni, donors, and fans want to see in this building, and where they want to go on the road. They're excited to see those schools in this facility. They're excited as they can go on the road to The Big House in Michigan, or Ohio State stadium, or out to the Rose Bowl, places like that. That drives interest. That drives revenue. That drives the brand. That drives recruiting.

Q: So even though we have the World's Largest Cocktail Party, an event which promotes a brand, you're saying there are other things you would like to accomplish other than a home-and-home against Texas A&M?

A: If you look at the footprint of Texas A&M, it's a fine university. I have plenty of friends and family that have gone there, work there, played there. You have to weigh the benefit to going to Los Angeles and playing USC, or going to Notre Dame and playing Notre Dame, and hosting those schools here versus using that event in some other fashion. Those are national universities, international universities, that build our brand nationally and internationally, extend who we are across the country, and across great fan bases, and extend the brand in parts of the country you're going to want to recruit that you aren't necessarily as easily able to recruit because you're not there all of the time. They're the kind of places our fans what to go. They're not asking to go 90 miles down the road. You survey them and ask, 'what do you think about Michigan?' They'll say, 'we've never been there.' Our fans view that as a bucket-list item. They're willing to get more emotionally involved. They're willing to spend more time being involved. They're willing to get more involved financially. Along with building a brand, recruiting - all of those are important factors when you look at where you're going to go with your football teams.