APOLOGIES ANYONE

[BleedGreen64]

How often on this board have we heard Ann Richards berated for getting Baylor in the Big 12?

Today's DMN has the real story. Very interesting!!

[KingDL1]

How often on this board have we heard Ann Richards berated for getting Baylor in the Big 12?

Today's DMN has the real story.  Very interesting!!

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Do you have the link?

[BleedGreen64]

Here 'tis - enjoy

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...f.4bf22e33.html

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

----Another "what if" is the late 1970's vote that SMU made against us. Baylor wound up being the ONLY private school in the Big-XII. What if we had we we been admitted (we had Fry with a good football program and Blakely with a good Basketball program at the time.). We no doubt would have improved and added to our programs.... so by the time the SWC came apart in the mid 1990's (aabout 15 years later) we would have been a giant in enrollment compared to Baylor and TCU and I don't think there is any doubt that our game attendence would have been good by then since we would have have a lot moe media interest by being a SWC university..

---When the SWC came apart it was mostly about attendence and several schools corruption... Arkansas and UT were disgusted with filling the stands and the tiny privates contributing nothing plus so many of the others were not running clean programs and had a lot of bad press (including TCU)... . SMU was awful in corruption, Clements could not have saved them (despite the DWM articles's comments) in fact he was a big problem. Rice was a midget. Houston had the problems mentioned, TCU was also copnsidered very small in addition to their scandles as well. It would have down to us and Baylor I think and we were double their size asnd a state supported school.........Who knows what would have happened in that deal. That vote changed our athletic history.

---I hate SMU.

[LongJim]

Arkansas and UT were disgusted with filling the stands and the tiny privates contributing nothing...

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The "tiny privates".

Good smack name for TCU/SMU/Rice.

[PlummMeanGreen]

----Another  "what if"  is the late 1970's vote that SMU made against us.  Baylor wound up being the ONLY private school in the Big-XII.  What if we had we we been admitted (we had Fry with a good football program and Blakely with a good Basketball program at the time.).   We no doubt would have improved and added to our programs.... so by the time the SWC came apart  in the mid 1990's (aabout 15 years later) we would have been a giant in enrollment compared to Baylor and TCU and I don't think there is any doubt that our game attendence would have been good by then since we would have have a lot moe media interest by being a SWC university.. 

---When the SWC came apart it was mostly  about attendence and several schools corruption... Arkansas and UT were disgusted with filling the stands and the tiny privates contributing nothing plus so many of the others were not running clean programs and had a lot of  bad press (including TCU)... .   SMU was awful in corruption, Clements could not have saved them (despite the DWM articles's comments)  in fact he was a big problem.  Rice was a midget.  Houston had the problems mentioned,  TCU was also copnsidered very small in addition to their scandles as well.  It would have down to us and Baylor I think and we were double their size asnd a state supported school.........Who knows what would have happened in that deal.  That vote changed our  athletic history.

---I hate SMU.

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I think what the "tiny privates" have missed more than anything are the 10-15,000 traveling fans they could expect in their home stadiums every other year from the SWC schools who are now in the Big 12. Even Baylor back during the Grant Teaff era had a pretty good traveling fan base.

Imagine if NT had had the same traveling fans from those schools coming to Denton every other season? In many ways, don't big crowds begat big crowds which would have helped build the Mean Green fan base? And with NT's enormous constituency, (most likely) we probably would have been able to build the kind of fan base that would not have had to depend on those other schools bringing thousands of their fans to Denton as the tiny privates did.

I think most would agree that TCU has done the best job at their Amon Carter Stadium turnstiles post-SWC split.

Edited August 30, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

[SilverEagle]

My favorite quote from the article.

"I remember her chuckling about it saying, 'I can't imagine they think I would do that,' " Cryer said. "But you know how football fans are. They see want they want to see."

....and so do chauvanist who don't like strong intelligent women.

[bigrobdsp]

if Texas would have gone to the Pac-10 they would not have lost a conference game since. and that includes the macovick (sp?) years.

[Arkstfan]

"She just was not involved to any great degree in working that out," said Richards' former chief of staff, John Fainter. "I'd have to say she was informed, but she wasn't pounding the table or anything like that."

Note he does not deny her involvement.

The story I've been told by some folks who worked at Oklahoma State at the time was that the Big 8 and SWC were reeling when the SEC pulled out of the ABC/CFA TV contract forcing them to cut their own deal.

They approached ABC as a united 16 team alliance and requested a bid based on the group as a unit, independent of each other and with some guaranteed inter-conference games. ABC submitted the same number for each. Then the Big 8 asked ABC to give them a bid for their teams plus Texas and TAMU or a 12 team mix including the 8, UT, TAMU, TT, and TCU or Baylor. Again identical numbers as before.

The presidents initially wanted to just add UT and TAMU because that number divided by 10 was better than that number divided by 12. The presidents supposedly then crunched the numbers for a title game and felt it could generate enough income to make the per team share better than the 10 team alignment and they approved adding Texas Tech immediately.

What happened with Baylor?

All he says is that the AD at OSU was one of the AD's doing analysis for the presidents about scheduling issues and such and that he had finished a memo regarding travel to TCU (charter costs air and ground from Big 8 sites to TCU, hotel costs, typical availablity, meal options, travel party options etc) that had been requested and shortly after he finished they got a call and were told the announcement was coming and it was UT, TAMU, TT, and Baylor. He said he never knew if someone else had done an analysis on Baylor or not before the decision was made.

[VideoEagle]

So all of those Baylor fans who have sworn for years they got in on their own merits did not get in because of Ann are at least partially correct.

It was not Ann Richards, but it wasn’t their merits either. Bob Bullock, as Lt. Governor would have had more “purse string” control the the Governor anyway!

[Arkstfan]

Texas out-witted themself when the SEC expanded.

They were busy trying to cut a deal with the Pac-10 and told Roy Kramer they had to see if moving was politically feasible in order to buy more time to work out a deal with the Pac-10. TAMU was chomping at the bit to go to the SEC.

Arkansas got wind of it and saw they were going to be left out. Sold themself to the SEC as a way to clear the path for UT and TAMU because the politicos would see the handwriting on the wall.

The SEC took the bait, and was rubbing its hands in glee because they were going to add Arkansas, Texas, TAMU, and Florida State and go to 14. The media had already been reporting that the SEC had been talking to six schools (those four plus Miami and South Carolina) once Arkansas was announced there was now fire to go with the smoke. The troops got rallied and they got to stay a few more years in the SWC.

The big mistake the SWC survivors made was right after Arkansas left and the horns and aggies forced to stay. The league looked at expanding and was considering Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP, New Mexico and someone else. They narrowed it to Tulane and Tulsa and Tulane was approved 6-2. Texas announced that they considered that change in membership sufficent to break their agreement to stay and that they were withdrawing. TAMU followed with the same announcement. A motion was made to reconsider the vote and on the re-vote expansion was rejected.

If they hadn't backed down Texas and TAMU had actually left you would would have basically had those six plus Tulane, possibly Tulsa and one or both of UTEP and New Mexico. Wouldn't have worked as well for TT and Baylor but would have worked good for the rest.

[BleedGreen64]

UT came out better IMO. noting history of central time zone schools in western conferences Big West, WAC).

TCU will come back this way in a heartbeat if the conference is viable.

Travel expense, distance for fans to travel, lack of publicity (a day late for west coast games), etc. is not desirable.

[Arkstfan]

UT came out better IMO. noting history of central time zone schools in western conferences Big West, WAC).

TCU will come back this way in a heartbeat if the conference is viable.

Travel expense, distance for fans to travel, lack of publicity (a day late for west coast games), etc. is not desirable.

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UT probably did come out better though they did not get the result their president desired.

[GangGreen]

if Texas would have gone to the Pac-10 they would not have lost a conference game since. and that includes the macovick (sp?) years.

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Remember that during the Mackovic years, UCLA wiped the floor with Texas 2 years in a row.

49-31 & 66-3