Texas the SEC

A chance to join the ranks of college football's elite? Yes, please. The type of pageantry found in the SEC will never be found in the Big XII. If true, it's a damn shame that it didn't happen. Still, it's wonderful just thinking about it; I think I just creamed my pants.
 
I wouldn't argue with the idea that overall, the SEC is the strongest football conference out there right now. However, like all conferences, it has it's share of also-rans. Georgia, Florida, LSU, Auburn are the elite of that league. 'Bama may rejoin them, Tennessee is usually good, and sometimes great. The rest (USC, Arkansas, 'Ol Miss, 'Ol Miss State, Kentucky, Vandy) aren't any better than the mid-level teams in the Big XII, Big 10, ACC, Pac-10, Big East, or any other conference.

I'm on record as not being a Big XII fan, but at the top, I think Texas and blow-u match up well with the best of any other conference in football. If Mizzou and Kansas show staying power, that makes the north more competitive, and something tells me Pelini's gonna do a very good job with Nebraska. Colorado's getting better up north as well.

Down here in the south, Leach has Tech playing at a high level, and okie lite has talent, and with the right coach, can win. aggy, who knows, but they do have the funding, a big fanbase, and the facilities, and Baylor has upgraded facilities and coaching. (Don't pay attention to what happened last night...Wake is a very good team.)

I'm no sunshine pumper, but I just don't get why anyone would get excited about Texas moving southeast. If Dodds grows some cojones, we can schedule an SEC power or two in non-conference. The Big XII doesn't make me get all tingley inside, but it's still worlds better than the old SWC in revenue and exposure.
 
...by the way accurate, you're right about the aggy to SEC scenario. It was all but a done deal, before House Speaker Bob Bullock, I believe, did some industrial-grade arm twisting. Texas Monthly did a story on it a few years ago, basically saying ag officials were told to go ahead and join the SEC, but get used to no more PUF funds. aggy was the last to come aboard with the Big XII idea, but eventually gave in. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
It was interesting to watch the developments in the late '80s and very early '90s when Texas was aching to disentangle itself from the SWC as gracefully as possible. At the time, I heard rumors of the SEC wanting Texas, but that Robert Berdahl who was president of the University (circa 1993) wanted the Horns to join the Pac-10 instead. There was even some talk of Texas joining the Big Ten, but it seemed to be more of a mutual public flirting to provoke other, better offers than any legitimate consideration.

I always wondered what was really happening behind closed-doors, and a couple of years ago as 2006 maked the ten year anniversary of the demise of the SWC, one of the San Antonio Express sportswriters (Mark Wangrin, maybe) wrote a series of excellent articles in which he interviewed the movers and shakers of the time, created a timeline and answered a lot of the mysteries.

If I remember his articles correctly, Texas, Texas A&M and Arkansas were all sick of the SWC. Texas and Texas A&M couldn't get out as gracefully as Arkansas could. With no political obligations to the 6 ugly sisters in the conference, it was easier for the Hogs to leave and they did so with Texas and A&M's blessings, and hopes that the Hogs departure would mark the end of the conference and thus enable the Horns and Ags to leave too.

A&M was eager to join Arkansas in the SEC. Texas, not so much. The SEC didn't fit with the University's self-image and despite its unlikely distance, many of the power brokers thought the Pac-10 would be a better fit for Texas.

I find the whole notion of Texas A&M going to the SEC and Texas going to the Pac-10 very poetic, if nothing else. It seems to illustrate that the great divide between the values of the Old South and the Great West falls somewhere on that stretch of highway between Austin and College Station.

But before Texas and A&M could escape to the destinations of their own choosing, Bob Bullock caught wind of it and forced the brokering of the Big 12, as it is.

Would I rather have Texas in the SEC? No, not really. I like the Big 12 South, but ideally - in a perfect world - I would rather see the Big 12 South paired with the SEC West, instead of the Big 12 North.
 
I was visiting family up in Ohio last summer, and there was a lot of talk still up north about Texas being a viable option for the Big 10. If memory serves, I heard the Big 10 commissioner on a Columbus radio station say that the Horns were being considered, along with Mizzou and possibly Pitt, for inclusion as the 12th team in that league.

Dodds addressed that talk a couple of days later, dismissing the notion that Texas was looking elsewhere, and saying the Horns were satisfied being in the Big XII.

Texas might have more similarities with most of the Big 10 schools, the Pac 10 schools too, but logistics rule against the Horns ever moving to either league. They're just too far away for the kind of rivalries Texas needs to have, and Texas fans would have a much harder time traveling to away games than they do now with the Big XII.

It would be much smarter to perhaps schedule a home and home with Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC teams, perhaps one powerhouse team from one of those leagues each year. I understand that Mack and Dodds think the current Big XII schedule is strenuous enough, without making OOC games more difficult...but I can't get over how much fun it was playing the Ohio State home and home.
 
Actually before the demise of the SWC, SMU during their hayday had serious conversations with the SEC regarding expansion after Arkansas made the jump. Of course you can probably point to Arkansas' departure and the Death Penalty as the two events that destroyed the SWC. God I still miss that conference
frown.gif
 
I think the SEC would be a much better conference for all three major sports:
football
basketball
baseball

Horns fans would travel well to most of the games. I'd much rather have an excuse to travel in the south than in the midwest. And I think tailgating in Austin would rock when the other schools come to town in the fall.

Come on... It's BEVO BLVD... a-n-d... guess who's in town????
FLORIDA!!!
ALABAMA!!!
OLE MISS!!!!!
GEORGIA!!!
LSU!!!!!
You don't think there are any sorority girls from those campuses worth handing a beer to? You don't think there won't be any serious followers in town dressing up the place?...

Then try going THERE!!!! I would go to at least two out of state games a year and make those my vacations.
 
This is my dream conference. So good, in so many sports.

South:
LSU
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech

North:
Colorado
Arkansas
Kansas
Kansas State
Nebraska
Missouri
 
Concerning the "dream" conference, arky might be persuaded to get out of the SEC (natural rivalries with us, aggy, okie, and mizzou), but no amount of hard selling would persuade LSU to bolt. I'm also pretty sure Baylor and Iowa State wouldn't take being voted out sitting down either.
 
I wish Texas was an independent so we could have all of our games televised and get into bcs bowls with nine wins (see notre dame). We could also keep all the bowl money and play whoever we wanted.
 
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