tech - aTm in cotton bowl - DMN

[mrowl]

Tech still wants to play A&M in Dallas

School reps to discuss game possibly being played at Cotton Bowl

04:35 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 22, 2006

By KEITH WHITMIRE / The Dallas Morning News

Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said he will resume discussions with Texas A&M counterpart Bill Byrne in the next few days about moving the schools' annual football game to Dallas.

"We're not any closer than we were," Myers said.

Myers said planning would have to begin soon if the game were to move to the Cotton Bowl next season. Tech is interested in playing in the Cotton Bowl, which seats 72,260, or the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, which will have a seating capacity of 75,000 when it opens in 2009.

State Fair president Errol McKoy said a Tech-A&M game at the Cotton Bowl could generate revenue of close to $10 million in 2008. That's when the Cotton Bowl would expand to 92,000 seats if a November bond package passes.

"We're not hearing much out of A&M's side," McKoy said. "Tech really wants to play in Dallas, because they realize it's a significant opportunity."

Myers said a Tech-A&M game in Dallas could earn $16 million for Texas Tech over four years, as opposed to the $2 million he said the school earns when A&M visits Lubbock every other year. He said a move would not be contingent on a sponsor underwriting the game.

There is opposition in Lubbock, especially from local businesses, to moving one of Tech's biggest rivalry games. Myers said the move would have to be supported by Tech's administration before any decision is made.

"This has not been discussed at the regents level yet, as far as I know," Myers said.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/082206dnspotecham.334e97e.html

[Miko]

Wanna money maker?

One weekend, all Big XII teams, six games, one city. Rotate it like the b-ball tourney...

Or split it. Three games for the northern teams in KC, three for the south in Dallas or Houston.

[MRNOTDUCKS]

As an Aggie, I don't like the cotton bowl idea. I don't want to give up the home field advantage for half of the games, at least until we are competitive again.

Plus, the cotton bowl is an OU/t.u. tradition. We have no business playing there in the regular season.

[TexasLidig8r]

I read that aggy is negotiating to have their true "rival" game... The Battle of the Brazos moved.. and that beginning in 2010, their annual war with Baylor will be played in Temple, Texas.... a true neutral site.

The game is tentatively scheduled to be televised on ESPN 8.. the Ocho.

[GDC]

I fail to see how anyone here could possibly care about any of this. You are all aware there are UT, A&M, and Baylor boards, right?

[mrowl]

I fail to see how anyone here could possibly care about any of this. You are all aware there are UT, A&M, and Baylor boards, right?

I thought all of those closed down after bob wheeler went to prison. :rolleyes:

[GDC]

It was a bad idea to form a conference with the Texas schools, they should have been left to rot in the SWC.

[TexasLidig8r]

It was a bad idea to form a conference with the Texas schools, they should have been left to rot in the SWC.

Actually.. Texas would have gone to the Pac 10.

The Big 10 was looking at Missouri and/or Nebraska.

Oklahoma may have ended up in a revamped SEC.

The Big 8 would not have survived in its then current format. Not enough television sets or advertising revenue being pulled in to guarantee a prime television contract.

[GDC]

At one time they were looking at Arkansas and Colorado State or someone similar to round the Big 8 up to ten. Texas may have escaped to join their homo west coast brethren but the rest of the SWC would have rotted.

[TexasLidig8r]

At one time they were looking at Arkansas and Colorado State or someone similar to round the Big 8 up to ten. Texas may have escaped to join theor homo west coast brethren but the rest of the SWC would have rotted.

Purportedly, aggy was being courted by the SEC.

Texas to the Pac 10 (golf in Frisco for Stanford/Cal)... golf in Arizona... golf/beach in LA... sailiing/fishing in Seattle for UDub... yeah.. it would have been mighty tough.

Rest of the old SWC to MAC or Mountain West or Conference USA or wherever....

Even a Big 8 with Arkansas and Colorado State wouldn't have given the Big 8 enough prime corporate exposure. Who would commit to televise? ESPN/ABC has the Big 10 (especially if Mizzou and/or Nebraska had gone.. as was rumored).. CBS has the SEC.. NBC.. (let's not even talk about Neutred Dame).. Pac 10 (ABC/ESPN or if FOX wanted to become a player).

Neither the SWC (which admittedly would have imploded first) nor the old Big 8, had the muscle to thrive on a national scale for very long.

For better or worse... we have each other in an unholy, shotgun type marriage.

[King Crimson]

I hear/read this stuff every off-season on CU boards. CU and UT to the pac-10 and OU and ATM to the SEC. but, i think it's all a lot smoke. CSU is not a desirable gain for any conference....they stink in every sport other than football and don't even sellout their 35,000 seat stadium. lid is right insofar as the Big 8 needed the Dallas/Houston media markets and the Texas schools needed a less incestuous conference to gain national exposure instead of regional sister kissing.

[King Crimson]

i also think a Tech-ATM game in Dallas has "Lame-O" written all over it.

[jwlynn64]

Even a Big 8 with Arkansas and Colorado State wouldn't have given the Big 8 enough prime corporate exposure. Who would commit to televise? ESPN/ABC has the Big 10 (especially if Mizzou and/or Nebraska had gone.. as was rumored).. CBS has the SEC.. NBC.. (let's not even talk about Neutred Dame).. Pac 10 (ABC/ESPN or if FOX wanted to become a player).


It's strange that NBC offered the first lucrative television rights to OU (and was turned down) before offering it to ND.

I hear that television rights are almost always offered to the poor drawing conferences first.;)

Seriously, I think that the Big 8 would have been OK. Having said that, I like the Big 12 now with the exception of Baylor. Too bad we didn't get Arkansas. That would have really been better for us.

[JohnnyMack]

Saxet needed to be in the Big XII. The rest of them collectively suck balls.

[Readyfor8]

Actually.. Texas would have gone to the Pac 10.

The Big 10 was looking at Missouri and/or Nebraska.

Oklahoma may have ended up in a revamped SEC.

The Big 8 would not have survived in its then current format. Not enough television sets or advertising revenue being pulled in to guarantee a prime television contract.

Yea because the Pac10 is such a good fit geographically speaking. When I think Pacific Ocean I think of a school roughly 1500 miles away from it.

Give me a break, Texas had one shot and that was the BigXII. If you honestly think that you would have given up your traditional SWC rivalries in A&M completly you are insane.

GDC is right you would have rotted if we didn't save your ***.

[TexasLidig8r]

Yea because the Pac10 is such a good fit geographically speaking. When I think Pacific Ocean I think of a school roughly 1500 miles away from it.

Give me a break, Texas had one shot and that was the BigXII. If you honestly think that you would have given up your traditional SWC rivalries in A&M completly you are insane.

GDC is right you would have rotted if we didn't save your ***.

So now Oklahoma saved Texas' ***? Yeah right... what color is the sky in your world? It is most unfortunate that Texas had no stroke.. no say so, whatsoever in the formation of the Big XII and how the Big 8 schools were allowed to keep accepting Prop 48 kids and how no conference championship games are EVER played in Texas.. oh wait....

In terms of the Pac 10, Texas found it appealing that seven of the 10 schools in the Pac-10 were members of the American Association of Universities, a group comprised of the nation's top 62 research universities. Robert Berdahl, then president at Texas and later chancellor at Cal-Berkeley was very open in stating that Texas wanted to join the academic patina that the Pac 10 yielded and to be associated with UCLA, Stanford and Cal in academics was very desirable.

The fact of the matter is... Texas has a lot of alums who carry a lot of stroke and brings a lot of television sets to whatever conference they are in.

[Readyfor8]

So now Oklahoma saved Texas' ***? Yeah right... what color is the sky in your world? It is most unfortunate that Texas had no stroke.. no say so, whatsoever in the formation of the Big XII and how the Big 8 schools were allowed to keep accepting Prop 48 kids and how no conference championship games are EVER played in Texas.. oh wait....

In terms of the Pac 10, Texas found it appealing that seven of the 10 schools in the Pac-10 were members of the American Association of Universities, a group comprised of the nation's top 62 research universities. Robert Berdahl, then president at Texas and later chancellor at Cal-Berkeley was very open in stating that Texas wanted to join the academic patina that the Pac 10 yielded and to be associated with UCLA, Stanford and Cal in academics was very desirable.

The fact of the matter is... Texas has a lot of alums who carry a lot of stroke and brings a lot of television sets to whatever conference they are in.

Oh yea I forgot that every saturday you put butts in the seats and have TV sets turned on to watch your players do math problems and diagram sentences. Leave it to a texan to justify joining an ATHLETIC confrence based on academics.

Fact is SEC wouldn't have taken you, SWC was going broke, and Texas needed an out in which they could play area rivals. You joined the BigXII because you needed us not the other way around no matter how you spin it. You needed to play Texans so that you could beat texans on recruits and you needed to play us for the same reason.

Television sets only matter when you are a contender and unless you planned on recruiting California really hard you weren't going to get what you needed out of the Pac10. The SEC wouldn't have you but you would have had the same problem with palying out of your area for 60% of your games.

When I say we I mean the Big8. The Big8 wasn't going broke the SWC was, and thus the best of that craptacular conference joined the Big8. So yes we saved your ***.

[afs]

perhaps they can open up the discussions with Aggie Lite in Stillwater again.

[Desert Sapper]

By 1994, league members realized a break-up was inevitable. The SWC was torn and tarnished by football recruiting scandals and NCAA probations, which hit all Texas members except Baylor and Rice in the '80s and saw SMU's program suspended for two years when hit by the NCAA "Death Penalty." The conference was further weakened in 1992 when Arkansas withdrew. A charter member and the SWC's only non-Texas school, Arkansas jumped to the more prosperous, more diverse and more widely-spread Southeastern Conference.

In an earlier era, the SWC and SEC enjoyed similar prestige and success. Now the SEC had left the SWC far behind. It produced national contenders annually and TV paid big money to cover its games. The 9-state SEC, boasting 18 percent of the nation's TV sets, delivered a much larger audience to watch a network's coverage – and its commercials. The all-Texas SWC had only 6.7 percent of the nation's TV sets.

The College Football Association, composed of a majority of major conferences and independents, had given the SWC exposure and revenue through its contracts with ABC and ESPN, but now it was dissolving. The SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East landed handsome network deals, but the SWC was too small to attract a buyer.

SWC hopes for a merger with the Big Eight to form a 16-team "super conference" died quickly. The Big Eight, composed strictly of state-supported schools in six states with 8.1 percent of America's TV sets, wanted only the SWC's four strongest football members in a new league.


Draw your own conclusions. Texas and aTm brought additional TV sets. I can't complain about the athletic teams. Texas has springboarded us to three MNC game appearances. I'm glad they're in the Big XII, even if I hate their puke orange with a passion. IMO, it is a symbiotic relationship. The Big XII is an ideal athletic conference for UT. UT (and to a lesser extent aTm, Tech, and Baylor) makes the conference better.

BTW, Lid, academic affiliation had nothing to do with Texas' decision to jump to the Big XII.

[goingoneight]

Actually.. Texas would have gone to the Pac 10.

The Big 10 was looking at Missouri and/or Nebraska.

Oklahoma may have ended up in a revamped SEC.

The Big 8 would not have survived in its then current format. Not enough television sets or advertising revenue being pulled in to guarantee a prime television contract.

Would the PAC 10 actually change their number to, oh... eleven??? Apparently the BIG 10 never did... :D