Heading off the Urban Myth about UT-AM T-Day

H

hoju

< 25 Posts
I saw the announcement that UT-A&M is moving back to Thanksgiving and to ESPN. My first question (and I've been a little out of the loop): when did the Big 12 get a TV deal for football on ESPN? Do they mean "ESPN on ABC," as most of the prime time games are billed?

Anyway, as to the urban myth: Whenever UT-A&M comes up, someone always says that the aggie probabtion caused the game to be moved from Thanksgiving. While the aggies are cheating morons, that is not correct. Here's the scoop:

- 1993: The last time UT-A&M was on Thanksgiving. It was also the 100th matchup between the two schools. It was also the last UT-A&M game that was truly COLD.

- 1994: A&M banned from TV. UT CHOOSES to play Baylor on T-Day to avoid losing TV money. (Note that when Auburn was banned from TV in 93 or 94, they didn't move the Iron Bowl for fear of losing TV money.)

- 1995: The game was moved to the 1st Saturday in December due to an odd clause in the SWC's TV contract: in years where November had an extra weekend, UT-A&M would be moved to the first Saturday in Dec, and the game would be on broadcast TV (I think it was ABC). This also happened for UT's big win at home in 1990 (Shock the nation, baby!).

- 1996-1999: The Big 12 formed for 1 reason: TV MONEY. Part of the TV deal was to gove UT-A&M and CU-NU a guaranteed national TV broadcast on ABC, but it had to be on the Friday after Thanksgiving. As a result, Ole Miss-Miss St took our spot, and we took the early-bird UGa-GaTech spot. When you think about it, at least we got to keep our rivalry game! OU-NU used to be a great Thanksgiving weekend game.

- 2000-2007: After much (justified) whining, our game began to rotate the afternoon slot with CU-NU. As much as we didn't like the morning game, Boulder is an hour earlier than us!

And finally, yes, apparently I have too much free time to keep track of football TV deals.
 
Hmm, so the cheaters did not cost us that game on that day afterall. There we have it. But yes, they are still in the top 3 all time cheating programs, of all time. No honor in that, fake army.
 
I read/ heard this morning that the game was only on Thanksgiving Day in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, I thought it had been on Thanksgiving Day for decades. Which one is correct?
 
I think I remember Bill Little saying that when Houston joined the conference, that was what bumped the calendar to cause some of the games not to be played on T Day. As has already been mentioned, there were several non-T-Day matchups before the game was switched there permanently.
 
The Texas and Texas A&M game has only been shown by ESPN during the 80s and early 90s.

So what you are saying is aggy's 9 - 0 record is the aggy spam in the probation sandwich? After all, weren't they on probation at the start of that period.. and placed on probation at the end of that period?
 
In my opinion, the reason it is going back to Thanksgiving is to compete with the NFL Network. Correct me if I am wrong but did they have a third NFL game Thanksgiving night on the NFL Network? There is some bitterness brewing between ABC/ESPN and the NFL Network. Just my opinion.
 
yes there is a NFL network game on Thursday night (last two years and will continue in the future). There has always been another college game on ESPN on TDay night as well though. Last year it was ASU/USC, year before was Pitt/WVU backyard brawl. Egg Bowl was the game for a few years as well. This does not mean that ESPN thinks this is some huge game that will help them compete with NFL on Tday night. Most of the rest of the country will still be watching NFL game as this regional matchup does not grab the attention of non Big 12 markets at all.
 
ESPN must believe that it will be the best competition against the NFL network. I'm not sure why they would select it for that time slot otherwise. I think you may be over rating the NFL network's clout since they have the cable issues.
 
So I read your post and it sounds to me like aggie probation is what first caused the game to be moved from Thanksgiving.
 
All right, due to the aggy probation, we chose to move the UT-A&M game 1 time: in 1994. The thirteen games since then have been our choice for other ($) reasons.
 
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