I am not discounting the amazing achievements of Dodds, but if your saying that scheduling Arkansas multiple times since they left for the SEC was one of his better decisions, your crazy. There has been zero benefit playing them. They have not been ranked, we don't get any recruiting advantage out it, we aren't given any praise for beating them, but we get pummeled for losing to them, which we have done the majority of these meetings. The hogs are always pathetic, but that doesn't seem to matter when we play them. Their coaches, players and fans live for this game where ours act and prepare like we are playing Rice. Why do we subject ourselves to this? I know that out of conference games are scheduled far in advance, but I find it hard to believe that Saturday's game was scheduled thirty years ago. And if it was, it should have been canceled about thirty seconds after Dodds retired in 2014. I feel that scheduling a continuing series with Tech will lead to similar disadvantages and similar results after our departure to the SEC. - Mike
I believe that Saturday's game may have been the one postponed from 2009, which was a home & home scheduled a decade before. I agree that there is/was no benefit to playing Arkansas since they left other than to do a favor for DKR's old buddy when they were both alive.
This sort of thing should be done as an aspirational goal or an understanding of what both schools would (currently) like to do, not as a firm commitment.
Not sure if I am a fan of this. Guessing we schedule home & away, why on God’s green earth would we want to play in Lubbock at night and at the beginning of the season?
Yeah, really. The only way this could get any better would be if we played them at night late in the season—with a 30 mph cold wind blowing down on the Plains, and a stadium full of rowdy Tech fans who have been drinking all day. Jones Stadium seems to have far more than it’s fair share of weird bounces of the ball, etc.
The "we get no benefit" quip is one of the worst arguments ever made. Primarily because it assumes that we're better than we are. Have you seen the last decade of Texas football? A win over Arkansas would have been a tremendous boon to the program. Defeating a former/future rival on national tv for one. More importantly, it would have served as a shot across the bow to the other SEC schools. "Yes, we went in to Fayettenam and won...you're next." The good news: this beat down made all Texas players aware of Arkansas again. And I expect the rivalry to pick up at a fever pitch whenever we begin league play.
The worst part may be a nine game conference schedule plus TTU means only two games each season for other opponents, who would both likely be cupcakes. When would we ever schedule big names again? Perhaps the SEC will remain an eight game conference schedule, but then it'll continue to take forever to play everyone in the same conference!
Our fanbase has been plagued by a sense of entitlement for the past few decades. Many folks seem to believe that we "deserve" to win simply because we're Texas. The good news is that entitlement will be burned out of the fan base. From this point forward, whatever we get will be earned. Period.
I'm from the school of thought that says schedule non-conference game for recruiting reasons. Teams from Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and California make sense. Now that TCU won't be in our conference (in a few years), it would be good to play another game in the DFW besides just OU. Playing in Houston is also good. Some teams to think about scheduling: Houston Rice TCU SMU UNT Louisiana LSU Louisiana Tech Tulane Florida Florida State USF UCF FIU Miami Georgia Georgia Tech Arizona Arizona State USC NOOOOOOOOOOO to UCLA San Diego State Cal Stanford (if we dare) Fresno State Hawaii - but play them in the Rose Bowl...
Chop, I only see five teams on that list that I would schedule, Rice (to help them financially, we ain't going to Houston) TCU/SMU - I'll go to Fort Worth, bit to Ford USC - home & home Stanford home & home We will already be going to Florida, George, Louisiana with the SEC rotation We don't need to go ANYWHERE for recruiting. When Texas continues to send 350+ HS kids a year off to play football and over 65% go out of state, and Cali-prune-ya and Florida produce over a hundred less each, worry about our backyard. I would be remiss if I did not echo my comment when Strong started recruiting Florida - Florida HS kids are DIFFERENT in mental & emotional makeup than Texas kids. Stay the hell away, they don't mesh.
I don't have time to go through this again after being proven right by Charlie Strong. The statement is a broad brush, and like any broad brush isn't true of every kid, BUT one of those bad apples and your locker room is destroyed. That's another reason that I wouldn't recruit a kid from IMG, not to mention they quit on their HS team.
Are you familiar with his rationale for orchestrating the mass exodus of 6 schools to the PAC in 2009/2010? My understanding is he was disappointed with the TV revenue the Big12 was making compared to other conferences (especially B1G).
So Dodds has a history of back-channel dealing to destroy conferences, duly noted. My point is, if his rationale for the 2009/2010 exodus was dissatisfaction with the Big12 TV deal that (according to you) he himself negotiated... what does that tell us?
Tells us you can spin it anyway you want, but in reality he was the best AD in the country. Deloss' biggest fault was believing in and helping less than competent/honorable people - see also Donnie Duncan and/or visit his tear stains on Deloss' old desk. You shouldn't be bitching because his late 80s model had your Aggies in the SEC before 1990.
Perhaps he was the best AD, or maybe your worship of Dodds is Waylon Smithers-esque. Reading your depiction of him is like listening to a job interviewee claim his biggest fault is that he "works too hard."
Deloss can tell you I don't "worship" him and have been a pain on multiple occasions. Considering your school hasn't had a quality AD since your last football natty (if then), and you sent your's to Europe when y'all announced the move to the SEC, considering the way that paperwork was botched, and now Jumbo's new contract may be the biggest Aggie joke ever (you really should read it), I'll move your thoughts on ADs to the top of my advisory list. Your analogy was worthless as I have no idea who Waylon Smithers is. Now, I shall bid you a F O N D farewell until to overcome your revisionist history and learn how bad you lost your virginity to Jimbo's lawyer.
G&P in case you don't feel like reading the finer points of Jumbo's contract just find the paragraph to contains his buyout calculation. After 5 hours of searching, you will probably come to the conclusion that there isn't a buyout clause. He can walk at any moment and aggy will be on the hook. The phone ringing you here is from Jumbo's phone - LSU on 1 and USC on 2.
This reminds me of a Roy Kramer interview from a few years back. in it, he said Deloss had worked out Texas' move to the SEC circa the time Arky left. Kramer intimated that it was State politics (and a lukewarm A&M) that nixed the deal. Harvey Schiller essentially says the same. At the time, the SEC wish list consisted of: Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Florida State, Miami, and Clemson.
65, the good news is, when things settle into the Big Four Super conferences, all the OOC games will be exhibition games. They won't hurt conference standings or playoff access.
Dude, I'm like 7 hours into looking for the buy-out clause. Next time say "spoiler alert" so you don't ruin it for me.
Thanks for posting this. Hilarious that aggy queered our original move to the SEC. Then whined about Texas joining this year! I also enjoyed the article from the FW Star Telegram. People from the SWC saying a conference with more than 10 teams is impossible. Gold!