It's little brother envy. There are Texas Longhorns and there are Texas a 'n m aggys. Their feeble attempt at positioning themselves as the flagship university of the state of Texas is laughable.
The University of Texas doesn't own the word "Texas". Otherwise, we could/would enforce a similar claim against the Texas Rangers. In fact, we'd probably have to, in order to establish precedent. But I agree with the original point.
They want to be us so bad. I do not know of any other State, A&M or Tech that drops the "State", "A&M" or "Tech" from their name like Texas A&M does.
Quite the opposite, most embrace it. Go places like Penn State or Texas Tech and you'll hear people yelling "Let's go State!" or wearing a shirt that says "TECH" and nothing else.
They couldn't even be like us and win the NIT. Is their arena floor still laid out like this? A big block letter T. They can't accept they are aggy.
Pretty sure it's now a smaller state outline and aTm logo. It's not bad. I remember when they first unveiled the floor you posted. My first thought: "They just had to use a state outline like UT's, only BIGGER!!!"
No one thinks the Virginia Hokies or UC Bruins has a good ring to it? Louisiana Tigers Pennsylvania Nittany Lions Oklahoma Cowboys Dumb
The closest thing I can think of is Ohio State. They don't refer to themselves as Ohio Buckeyes, but their equivalent of the "Texas! Fight!" cheer is "O-H! I-O!", and their band spells "Ohio" (no "State") on the field before every game. From what I can tell, you're also more likely to hear fans yelling "Let's go Ohio!" instead of "Let's go State!"
The second half of that graph looks eerily like the annual aggy football roller coaster. All they needed was the furk!