Who died and made Texas King of College Football

[Apathy]

Would I be out of order to ask a simple but nagging question: Who died and made the University of Texas king of the college football universe?

 

This is a school with one national championship in the last 40 years. And some of the biggest boys in college football -- yeah, that includes you Oklahoma -- are following the Longhorns like lambs to slaughter as if they don't have an alternative in the world.

 

Thank goodness for Texas A&M. Thank goodness a school in the rough and tumble, hard-scrabbled world of the old Southwest showed some intestinal fortitude. Thank goodness a school did not immediately roll over like a dog at obedience training school for the Longhorns. At least someone in Texas' long and suffocating shadow showed some real Lone-Star-sized innards. At least, until last night.

 

Nebraska had enough of Texas' haughty attitude and arrogance and flew the coup for the Big Ten. But Lincoln is 767 miles away from Austin. It's a little different when you're in the same state and breathe the same air as the Longhorns. Nebraska doesn't care if it ever sees Texas again. But Texas A&M has this little old game every year around Thanksgiving that can make grown men weep.

 

I don't know about you, but the last time I saw 30,000 of my closest Texas Longhorn fans, they were crawling out of the Rose Bowl on their hands and knees late in the evening of Jan. 7, whimpering and whining and sniveling about what might have been. I heard so many fine whines from those in burnt orange, I thought I accidentally landed at the wrong California airport and was headed to the wineries of Ernest and Julio Gallo instead.

 

For the record, Alabama kicked the Longhorns all over the vaunted field of the Rose Bowl. However, all I heard from Longhorn fans were excuses. "If Colt McCoy hadn't been injured ..." Blah, blah, blah. Final score, Alabama 37, Texas 21.

 

With Notre Dame silent, at least for now, Texas has commanded center stage in college athletics' most dizzying summer. When talk of joining the SEC is broached, Texas fans turn their nose to the air and say, "Eww, no, that's below us."

 

They carp about the SEC's lower academic standards (and end up staying with the likes of Texas Tech and Oklahoma State). They look down on some of the locales of the SEC. They talk like Texas is a combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and a touch of Stanford tossed in.

 

I'll admit Austin is a cool city and Texas is an outstanding academic institution. But I hate to break it to the "Harvard of the Southwest" but did you cowboys really think the folks in Berkeley, Palo Alto and Westwood were really going to be wowed when a bunch of Texas fans in those kitschy orange shirts, boots and a ten-gallon showed up in laid-back California? I'm not sure old Bevo, the malodorous mascot of the Texas nation, would have played well in Pacific time, either, amidst the chorus of "Hook'em Horns."

 

What's remarkable is the pathetic con game Texas played with everyone and how in the end they got away with it. That's why for a few days -- at least, until last night when the Big 12 finally announced it was staying together -- the most extraordinary story has been the Aggies. Always in Texas' long shadow in the Lone Star State, A&M dared to be different. In spite of vicious threats from the Texas political machine, A&M seriously weighed the SEC's overture.

 

The Longhorns have won eight of the last 10 and one newspaper in Texas recently described the Aggies as only the fourth most important rival of the Longhorns. Texas has played in three Rose Bowls and four BCS bowl games in the last five years. While the Longhorns were losing to Alabama in the Rose Bowl for the national title to fall to 13-1 on the season, the Aggies were losing to Georgia in the Independence to drop to 6-7 and off the radar screen.

 

So the Aggies' possible move east had as much to do with being a game-changer combined with a desperate Hail Mary than anything else.

 

In the very end, the Aggies blinked in a high stakes game of Texas hold'em. They ended up joining the other lap dogs like OU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The more difficult course would have been the least traveled road to the SEC. However, political pressure in Texas can usually trump common sense. However, for a brief moment, in this dizzying game of conference chess, they stood tall, showing off the biggest heart and soul.

 

And, at least briefly, someone dared to stand up and ask the question: Who died and made Texas the king of college football?

Link

[husker_99]

I was disappointed that Saban let up in the 3rd quarter. He should've kept it on Texas to make a point. Should've atleast hang 63 on them.

[WashingtonRed]

I always thought 63 was a good number.

 

[GMoose]

I was disappointed that Saban let up in the 3rd quarter. He should've kept it on Texas to make a point. Should've atleast hang 63 on them.

61. I wouldn't want anyone to one-up our National Championship record 62 points against FU

[jayhawk]

Question: Who died and made Texas King of College Football?

 

 

 

Answer: Notre Dame

[sd'sker]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

[deedsker15]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

yeah...how did they become so powerful when in all honesty...they aren't that good...they should be playing second fiddle to oklahoma

[husker_99]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

Well the biggest problem was that the Big 8 didn't simply expand they disbanded and formed a new conference called the Big 12. The Big 12 doesn't recognize Big 8 history. Completely separate conference. This pretty much allowed non Big 8 members more power since they weren't newbies. I find it funny that now they say nobody wanted a conference championship but at the time of formation only we were against it. Everything after that pretty much fell into place for Texas at a power grab. Sure we complained but at the time the North was the top dog of the conference but only if we knew what would happen a couple of years later we probably would've negogiated better terms for us or atleast took a hard look at another conference.

[Karawithasmile]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

yeah...how did they become so powerful when in all honesty...they aren't that good...they should be playing second fiddle to oklahoma

 

It's all about the power of the almighty dollar. They throw money at that university down there and in turn it has quite a national following (despite the fact that while they've been good in recent history they don't have the national titles to back up their ridiculous egos).

[REDSTEEL]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

yeah...how did they become so powerful when in all honesty...they aren't that good...they should be playing second fiddle to oklahoma

 

It's all about the power of the almighty dollar. They throw money at that university down there and in turn it has quite a national following (despite the fact that while they've been good in recent history they don't have the national titles to back up their ridiculous egos).

Texas fan hates to hear how even though this is their supposedly Glory years (Start of the Big 12) they have only played in one more CCG then Nebraska and the same amount of NC games 1 win and 1 loss. So even in Nebraska down years, Texas hasn't done much more.

[HuskerTrucker]

Question: Who died and made Texas King of College Football?

 

 

 

Answer: Notre Dame

 

When has Notre Dame ever been king of football? Don't remember that in my lifetime.

[HuskerTrucker]

Texass is great beyond belief, in their own minds. They think the football world rotates around them. Gee, when your in the middle, don't that kind of make you the "pivot man"? Texas is king of nothing, because that is what they will have when the Big 12 flops in the coming year or so. They are doing nothing but making themselves harder to sell to another conference, ala Pac 10, who told them to take a hike.

[sarge87]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

The answer to this is very simple. The rest of the old Big 8 teams -- in their zeal to cut us off at the knees -- sided with the upstarts from the old SWC in voting. It's actually poetic justice they are now at the mercy of the Texas monster they created.

[deedsker15]

it seems odd (i know people debate about whether the big 8 absorbed swc, or if it was a merger) that TU would come into the big 8 from a weak conference and just take over. what would the swc look like today if the big 8 remained the same. did anyone see tu becoming such a superpower in terms of money and political posturing. i'm a little too young to remember the formation of the big 12, but i feel like had i been alive then, i still would not understand or know these things. the big 8 was NU's conference, it is like having a house guest for a week, and then saying, "well, we'll be leaving now, do whatever you want with our former home". (a more apt metaphor would be inviting a roommate, i mean we were supposed to be all equal members)

 

The answer to this is very simple. The rest of the old Big 8 teams -- in their zeal to cut us off at the knees -- sided with the upstarts from the old SWC in voting. It's actually poetic justice they are now at the mercy of the Texas monster they created.

 

now sit there and live with your mistake...hahahahahaha

[MCAT800]

Question: Who died and made Texas King of College Football?

 

 

 

Answer: Notre Dame

 

No that would be the sheep, or what is more commonly known as the Big 12(10)