That Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

A couple of weeks ago, the longhorns beat Oklahoma State and got themselves bowl eligible.  They started the season very poorly under first year head coach Charlie Strong but waded through their Big 12 schedule winning four of their last five, which has in turn bubbled their confidence.

Then a longhorn rumor monger, whose "sources" regarding any and everything A&M have always been a iffy, dropped this on twitter: 

Two sources close to the situation told HornsDigest.com SEC officials have indicated to bowls with SEC and Big 12 tie-ins that the SEC won't support a Texas vs Texas A&M postseason matchup. In short, A&M has too much to lose from a potential loss.

Seriously?

Good lord, this is like the crazy girlfriend who is still stalking you on Facebook years later - the one whose girlfriends all sigh and roll their eyes when you get brought up in conversation AGAIN.

This is a complete media spin to once again paint A&M as a.) the bad guys who broke up the rivalry and b.) scared to play the horns.

This doesn't have anything to do with being scared.  We left the Big 12 and moved the SEC, the most difficult conference in the country.  Our division is the most difficult division in the history of college football.  We play LSU every year - we recruit against them regionally just as much, if not more, than we do against t.u.  Last I checked, they're still on our schedule for this coming Thursday night.

Sumlin came in and from day one and said, "I want to be around people who want to play at the highest level, want to compete in THE best conference in America and the best division in America and, if you're scared of that, GET A DOG."

Frankly, as bad as we've been, the horns aren't that good this year.  They have one win against a team with a winning record.  They snuck by Iowa State on a last second FG - at home.  They've scored 30 points four times - against North Texas, ISU, WV and texas tech.  If ever there was a year to be scared of playing the longhorns, this is not it.

I don't want to play them in a bowl for the same reason I didn't want to play OU in the Cotton Bowl and the same reason I hate that we've been stuck with Mizzou on our schedule in each of the first three years of the SEC.  I don't want to play any Big 12 schools.  Branch out.  Everything old is not wonderful and sacred.

I have touched on this twice before....

Once, prior to the '12 bowl announcements, when the horns actually asked the Cotton Bowl to skip them over if they were facing us....

 "Frankly, I really don't have any interest in playing any Big 12 team in a bowl this year - I love bowls because you get a chance to match up against big schools from other conferences that you normally wouldn't be able to play.  Playing a Big 12 team doesn't give me that."

and then again after it was announced that we would play OU

"This, to me, is a disappointing match up.  Like I said before, I love bowl games because you get an opportunity to play opponents that you normally don't get to.  This will be the 19th time we've faced OU in the last 20 years."

Even still, if A&M were to play texas again it shouldn't be in a dumpy bowl game.  The AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl?  No thanks.

Of course they want to play us right now.  They are riding high on 4 wins in their last 5 games and we've lost 5 of our last 7 - they don't have anything to lose.  The only result that hurts them is if we beat the dog snot out of them.  A win or a decent loss and they can spin everything in their favor - look how close we are to the big mighty SEC in only our first season with Strong.  Sure, I get that.  They want it on their terms.

Here's what irritates me the most.  When it was announced that A&M was leaving the Big 12, President Loftin had the following to say:

"I would just say this, that if we were to negotiate with other conferences of any kind, SEC or anybody else, a primary criterion would be our ability to continue a non-conference contest each year, hopefully on Thanksgiving Day or thereabouts, with our friends at UT-Austin. That's a historic rivalry. We see no reason why it could not continue under a different conference arrangement. If they chose to do so, we certainly want to make that part of any discussion we have with another conference."

Then Bill Byrne followed up in October 2011....

"After placing calls to Texas, we have been informed their non-conference football schedule is full through 2018. I have asked our coaches in all of our other sports to check with their Texas counterparts to see if they would like to continue to play in non-conference action in years to come. Our men's tennis coach reported they have declined." 

Here is Deloss Dodds' email response:

"'We’re scheduled out with non-conference games through 2018 and our Big 12 schedule is not yet settled.  What we have right now is a full schedule, but if any future options are available, the decision will not be made by just one person.'"

Then a few weeks later they turned around and inked a deal with UCLA for the 2014 season opener.

Within the last 12 months we have filled out THREE different OoC games for 2015 and added marquee OoC games for each of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2024, and 2025.  We still have an OoC game open in each of 2016 and 2017.

If texas wants to play us so badly, pick up the phone and call Eric Hyman.



(They should also call up the Big 12 office and beg off having to play Arkansas in the Texas Bowl - that would be a worse match-up for them than playing us)