Hand Sign of the Times

Let me start by saying this: “Horns down” should NOT be a penalty.

But everyone should really stop doing it.

 

I get it. It’s fun to beat Texas. We’re a big brand. We’re often pretty full of ourselves. And we have the best hand signal in sports hands down (pardon the pun.) So when you get that big win over Texas, you’ve earned it. Throw the “horns down” sign and then go celebrate with your friends.

 

But that’s where it should end.

 

If you’re having high school kids who have never played Texas do “horns down” in a recruiting visit… That’s really not doing your own school any favors. You’ve made Texas part of your story, and it makes you look weak in comparison. Your identity is no longer pro-Oklahoma… it’s anti-Texas.

 

And if that’s your identity, then what happens when you don’t play the Longhorns? Well, just watch any Texas A&M or Oklahoma game. The camera pans across the crowd and you get Sooner fans doing big “horns down” signs at the camera while they play West Virginia. A&M corps members furiously flashing “horns down” as they lose to Mississippi State.

 

I was at a Dallas Stars hockey game in January and the jumbotron caught a group of guys in their green Stars jerseys enjoying the game. When they saw the camera was on them they all instinctively did “horns down.” 

 

You shouldn’t get your worth from Texas. That is the TRUE definition of “rent-free.”

And you buy Texas gear to turn upside down? Thank you for supporting our athletic department. And… wow. 

 

The common talk track is that Texas is so sensitive about this that they want “horns down” to be a penalty during games. Most Texas fans don’t feel this way. Taunting should be called. If a Texas player “holsters the guns” in the face of a Tech player, that should be a penalty (more on that in a minute). If an opponent walks up to a TCU player and does a choke sign, that should be a penalty. And if a defender stands over a Texas player and does “horns down,” yeah, that’s taunting, too. 

A little history: the common talk track is that “Texas whined about it until it became a penalty.” Not true. At all. A Texas player was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct in 2012 for “holstering the guns” against Tech. On Monday Mack Brown said he was told the penalty was called because it’s disrespectful. “The Horns Down are disrespectful for players on the field. If Horns Down are OK, we ought to have Guns Down be OK.”

Mack was right. Call all the taunting or none of the taunting. More than that, he was calling for none of it to be a penalty. That’s the opposite of whining to make it a penalty. 

 

But you hear all kinds of logic gymnastics come into play.

 

“If horns down is a penalty, then horns up should be a penalty.” What a horrible take. Horns up is a celebration of your own school. “Horns down” is directed at putting down another school. It’s not the same. It’s like a thumbs up vs flipping the bird. One is positive. One is negative.

 

Again, get in the end zone. Run over to your own bench or your own fans and do a “horns down” if that’s how you feel you need to express yourself in the moment. Fine. We’re all grown-ups. No flags on the play.

 

We don’t even mind that. We secretly like it. We’d do it if we were you. 

 

In the wise words of the Minister of Culture himself, Matthew McConaughey, “Appreciate them putting the horns down. It’s a compliment to us. It means they hate us more than they love themselves.”

 

All right, all right, all right.

 

So maybe give it a rest when you’re playing Arkansas? Maybe don’t co-op “horns down” to be the rallying cry of your entire fan base. It’s sad. For you. And it gives us arrogant Longhorn fans all the ammunition we need to remind you that you’re always thinking about us.

But you’re not… right?

The Best of the Best

 Another narrative I'm hearing lately that is a bit of a head-scratcher is:

"Texas is going to get killed in the SEC. Enjoy going 5-7 every year!"

The Aggies joined the SEC in 2012. That year they were unranked in the preseason AP Top 25. 

Texas is currently ranked 20th in the preseason poll.

While the Aggies haven't won the conference, they haven't been embarrassing. Their team now is as good as it's ever been, and they've finished in the Top 25 in 4 of their 9 SEC seasons. Not great... but not bad. Their average SEC season nets them 8.5 wins. Respectable. 

Are we supposed to believe that Texas could never DREAM of having the same success as A&M has had in the conference? 

And that got me thinking... just where would Texas rank as a member of the SEC?

We all know football is king, but football isn't everything. Texas has been a very reliable "all-sports" school for quite a while. But even where your teams finish on the field isn't the whole story. Money is just as big a deal as football in this equation (obviously they go hand-in-hand to a large degree), but these are also schools, and academics matters, too. (Sorry, Mississippi State.)

Looking at what information was available, I began the process of ranking each "new" SEC team on 5 different criterion:

1) Football now. How good is your football team today? This will be 20% of your score.

2) Football history. How good is your program historically? Another 20%.

3) Value of your program. Money talks, and in this case tells another 20% of your tally.

4) All-sports ranking. 60% of your score was about football. Seems fair. 20% on all sports combined.

5) Academics. Gotta' throw Vanderbilt a bone! But seriously, the conference wants to be taken seriously as a group of universities. You always see commercials for these schools talking about how most college students "will go pro in something other than sports" and they want that to be a part of the equation, so that can be our final 20%.

So below I'll show you how all 16 SEC schools rank in each of these categories. You get 1 point for being the best, 16 for being the worst... and at the end you'll get an admittedly crude idea of where Texas an Oklahoma rank as far as total value of their membership.

Let's start with football now.

This is going to be Texas' worst category, as they're middle of the pack. Based on preseason rankings, Texas is #20 in the country, but that would only be #7 in the SEC. This is also, of course, the most short-sighted of all the rankings we'll look at today, but let's not pretend that this isn't what is driving the "Texas is gonna' get destroyed" fun that rivals like to have these days. 

"Rank" means national ranking and "points" will be used to determine our composite rankings at the end. Here's how it shakes out RIGHT NOW:

College Football Preseason Rankings

Rank        Team                      Points

1             Alabama                       1

3            Oklahoma                    2

5            Georgia                         3

6            Texas A&M                  4

11           Florida                         5

17           LSU                             6

20           Texas                           7

27           Ole Miss                      8

29           Auburn                        9

34           Missouri                    10

35           Kentucky                   11

46           Arkansas                    12

50          Mississippi St             13

56          Tennessee                   14

76          South Carolina            15

90           Vanderbilt                  16

I used the Athlon rankings here because they went beyond 25, but the order is basically the same in the Associated Press poll. Florida and LSU are flipped, but the points remain the same for everyone else.

So what about all-time?

For that we go to the college football all-time wins list. But wait! That's not fair to "younger" teams! I'm all for fairness. This is according to the college football all-time win PERCENTAGE list:

College Football All-Time win percentage

Rank        Team                      Points

2             Alabama                      1

6            Oklahoma                   2

7            Texas                            3

11           Tennessee                    4

13           Georgia                       5

14           LSU                            6

18          Florida                         7

20          Auburn                        8

25         Texas A&M                 9

39         Arkansas                     10

65         Ole Miss                     11

66         Missouri                     12

84         South Carolina           13

90         Kentucky                   14

96         Vanderbilt                  15

97         Mississippi St            16

There are other ways to measure overall football success, of course. National titles is a good one. If that was our metric the order would be Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas - then LSU, A&M and Ole Miss. But some of those are "claimed titles" from way back when and harder to verify. And what if you had 3 great teams 100 years ago but lost most of the time? Not looking at anyone in particular, TexAgs. All-time win % seemed like a fair way to do it. For the life of your program, how often do you win?

So we've covered today's football and football history, but let's not forget the almighty dollar. Thanks to the Wall Street Journal, we have rankings as to the VALUE of each program. Nationally, the SEC is very good in this department, but it doesn't look like the addition of Texas and Oklahoma is going to hurt TOO badly! (wink)

College Football Brand Value

Rank        Team                      Points

1             Texas                          1

3             Alabama                     2

6             Georgia                      3

7             Oklahoma                 4

8             Auburn                       5

9            LSU                            6

10         Tennessee                    7

11         Florida                         8

12         Texas A&M                9

16         Arkansas                    10

17        South Carolina            11

22        Ole Miss                     12

31         Kentucky                   13

35        Mississippi St             14

56        Missouri                     15

61        Vanderbilt                   16

Just a quick note here that on brand value, every team in the SEC is in the top 61 teams and 14 of them in the top 35. That's pretty impressive.

That's 3 out of 5 categories and so far they've been all about football. But what about other sports? Football will count in here, yes, but a conference plays many sports. That's why there's a Director's Cup given every year to the school with "the most success in college athletics."

Texas won it this year.

"Well, hang on - this shouldn't be only about this year." That's fair, but in the history of the Director's Cup, Florida and Texas would be 1-2 in the SEC in top 10 finishes, and they're the only ones that are high up in that department. In fact, this year was the first time Alabama has EVER finished in the Top 10. The Aggies have made the top 10 only 4 times. Texas, 21 and Florida 27 times.

Here are the current rankings:

Director's Cup "All-sports" Standings

Rank        Team                      Points

1              Texas                         1

5              Florida                       2

7             Alabama                     3

8            Arkansas                     4

10          Georgia                       5

12          Kentucky                    6

15          LSU                            7

19         Texas A&M                 8

22         Ole Miss                      9

24         Oklahoma                 10

26         Tennessee                   11

42        South Carolina            12

48        Missouri                      13

50        Auburn                        14

56       Vanderbilt                    15

59       Mississippi St              16

So that wraps up the athletic portion of our competition. Football, again, making up 60% of the total grade on its own, plus part of the all-sports total. All that remains is academics. Obviously this is more subjective, but the most commonly used ranking system comes from US News and World Report which puts out an annual list of the best "national universities." There are other lists, but it's hard enough to compete with Harvard and Yale without also adding Oxford and other international schools.

Here are the 2021 rankings for SEC schools:

National Universities Ranking

Rank        School                    Points

14            Vanderbilt                  1

30            Florida                       2

42            Texas                         3

47           Georgia                      4

66          Texas A&M                5

97          Auburn                       6

112        Tennessee                   7

118        South Carolina           8

124        Missouri                     9

133        Oklahoma                10

133        Kentucky                  11

143        Alabama                   12

153        LSU                          13

160        Ole Miss                   14

160        Arkansas                  15

206        Mississippi State     16

US News uses a lot of factors to decide these rankings, but the biggest are graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, and undergrad academic reputation. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it's the best we have.

I recognize that this is hardly a perfect science. I tried to look into national fan bases, but there isn't a really strong source for that. Sports Illustrated came the closest with a top 10 - for our schools the order would be Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma as the only ones ranked. Impossible to really quantify, but not going to change the overall rankings anyway, as you're about to see.

Conclusion:

So here we go! 5 different ways to stack the SEC schools up against one another. So what happens when you put them all together?

Well,  here's the final rankings based on each school's average finish against one another in the 5 categories:

Composite Rankings

Rank        School                  Composite  

1               Texas                        3.0

2              Alabama                    3.8

3              Georgia                     4.0

4              Florida                      4.8

5             Oklahoma                5.6

6             Texas A&M              7.0

7             LSU                          7.6

8             Auburn                      8.4

9            Tennessee                   8.6

10          Arkansas                   10.2

11          Ole Miss                   10.8

12          Kentucky                  11.0

T13        Missouri                   11.8

T13       South Carolina          11.8

15         Vanderbilt                  12.6

16          Mississippi St           15.0

This shouldn't be that much of a surprise. This is the reason Texas and Oklahoma are considered such a big prize. When you factor in several different ways to measure their value, they rise to the top.

There are really 4 tiers here. With the top 5 schools, there's never more than a .8 difference between them. Then a 1.4 drop into 6th and the same thing again. 6-9 are all fairly close, then it drops off at 10. Vandy and Mississippi State are really in their own category, even with Vandy's excellent academics.

So walking in the door, Texas and Oklahoma are 2 of the top tier of 5 schools. There's an argument that Texas has the most overall value of any of them.

"But how can that be? Texas can't even win the Big 12!"

Will Texas need some time to catch up in football? Perhaps. But history shows us that it's a lot easier to catch up in the on-field football results than it is to catch up in all-sports, or value, or fan base, or academics.

I've heard a lot this week that the Big 12 is garbage and there's no comparison.

Well... we just did a comparison. 

The SEC is great. Texas and Oklahoma make it greater.

A Big 12 History Lesson

The Longhorns and Sooners are headed to the SEC and I'm seeing a lot of anger and bitterness from other schools. Oklahoma State is upset that they're not being included. Schools like Kansas State, Baylor and West Virginia are scrambling to figure out where they fit. And the loudest, whiniest voice is definitely that of the Aggies.

The narrative now is that Texas and Oklahoma are destroying the old conference and A&M is being railroaded by the new one.

But I think some perspective is important here.

Sometime during the mid 2000’s the Big 12 Conference got together to vote on individual TV rights. The main deal is a conference deal – everyone gets paid on that one. But this conversation was for 3^rd tier rights. A handful of football/basketball games that weren’t going to be on the big network and a slew of smaller sports. There was talk of a conference network like others have, but in the end, the league voted to allow schools to maintain their own individual rights to do with as they please. Again – a league vote. Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Nebraska led that charge – feeling they could do better for their schools by making their own deals. Just to reiterate: A&M and Nebraska voted to let each school do what they wanted.

In 2007, Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds approached Texas A&M to see if they’d want to partner in a network. The Aggies weren’t interested – UNTIL…

Early 2010. A&M gets wind that the Longhorns are working on a deal with ESPN to form their own network and asks if they can get in on a little of that. Texas informs the Aggies that it’s already too far down the road and by June it’s leaked that a 20-year, $300M deal to launch the Longhorn Network is imminent.

Meanwhile, the Sooners have struck a nice little deal of their own with FOX for some of their TV – including a pay-per-view plan that still makes Oklahoma a nice chunk of change. The Aggies got a bit of regional money, but not what they had hoped. Most of the schools sold those rights to a company like Learfied or IMG College to make a few bucks.

The top Big 12 schools are being courted by the PAC 12 at this time, but Nebraska isn’t in those discussions.

The Huskers had wanted to create their own network, but AD Tom Osborne quickly realized that there wouldn’t be enough national interest and programming would be tough and was now convinced that a conference network was the way to go. Seeing that they missed the boat, and that the other conference big boys may be on the way out, Nebraska pulls the “eject” lever and announces they’re heading for the Big 10 to get a piece of that network. Colorado sees a Pac 12 life raft float by and jumps on it.

It’s June 11^th 2010 and the Big 12 is suddenly now 10, in large part because Texas and Oklahoma were the only ones actually successful at doing what they all wanted to do. Again, these Tier 3 rights are only for the sporting events not in the main conference TV deals. Texas and Oklahoma haven’t taken any money out of anyone else’s pocket – just added more to their own. Anyone can do it. And they all did – just not as successfully.

So now the conference is in trouble. Texas and Oklahoma feel like they’re being blamed (ok, mostly Texas for starting a TV network). 

At the time, as Texas was being raked over the coals, DeLoss Dodds said, “I’m very upset. We’ve talked about it for years. People got interested when they found out what the money is. Should we apologize for someone paying us for it? I say no.”

That’s the rub – it wasn’t that Texas was able to start their own network. It’s that they were paid so much to do it. This was jealousy. Pure and simple.

So Texas can take a hint. This isn’t going well. The writing is on the wall. It is announced the next day that Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and “another Texas school” are considering leaving to go to the Pac 12. The reason it was “another Texas school” is because the Aggies thought maybe they’d rather go to the SEC, which would have sent Texas Tech out West in their place. The Longhorns don’t want to lose their LHN deal, though, so negotiations are difficult. And it becomes clear that the PAC 12 only wants the Oklahoma schools if Texas is also coming. At this point A&M would love to get away from Texas, but they don’t have a firm offer from the SEC. So what now?

The Big 12 tries a Hail Mary. They get the remaining 10 schools together and say, “how do we fix this?”

Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Baylor lobby HARD to keep the conference together, fearful of what will happen to them if it disbands. They’re making more money in a power 5 conference than they likely would elsewhere, so they’re happy enough just to keep the status quo, but it’s even better than that for them: ESPN and FOX say they’ll keep paying the same money for 10 teams that they were paying for 12. So everybody is going to get more money.

Texas just wants to continue to have their network and some assurances that the conference will stay together.  Oklahoma wants to keep their FOX deal and keep a “top share” of the revenue (the money in the conference isn’t distributed equally – and all the schools agreed to that upfront.)

But the Aggies want more money. So the conference re-configures payouts to give A&M, Oklahoma and Texas $20M each and the other 7 teams split what’s left. So the Aggies have negotiated more money for themselves than they previously had. That was their only stipulation – more in their own pocket.

So on June 14^th, 2010 the Big 12 announces that the 10 remaining schools have committed to a new deal (and to each other) and the conference will remain. In essence – Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M have banded together to “save” the conference and the smaller schools from irrelevance.

The Aggies then spend the next several months behind the scenes scheming to leave, which they do the very next year. Whoop!

So to recap:

The league voted to allow individual TV rights deals.

Texas asked A&M if they’d like to partner in a network. “No thanks.”

Schools went out to see what the market would be for their wares.

Oklahoma got a deal.

Texas got a better one.

Everyone else got pennies and freaked out.

Then when the Big 12 looked to be blown to bits, Texas, Oklahoma and A&M agreed to work together to save the conference.

A&M immediately reneged and left.

Sure, Nebraska’s departure probably started the inevitable dissolving of the conference, but it was A&M and Missouri leaving for the SEC that really made it untenable.

Big 12 leadership may have had a chance to make it work if they could have been aggressive about bringing in some good schools to expand, but they sat on their hands for years.

So a decade after A&M and Missouri left, Texas and Oklahoma are doing the same.

But now it’s Texas and Oklahoma who are the bad guys?

“They’re destroying the Big 12.”

And the poor Aggies are the loudest, most disgusted voice in the room – “we’re getting screwed over.”

I get why they’re angry. They thought they had a commitment from their conference and its members. That’s how 8 Big 12 teams felt when you promised to stay then immediately went back on your word.

Sorry, A&M.

For a school who talks so much about tradition, you sure easily forget your history.

Surprised by the Texas coaching change? You shouldn't be.

I think it’s lovely that so many of you want my take on the Texas coaching move. I don’t know that I know any more than you do since I’ve been out of TV for 12 years now (gasp!) but here are my thoughts: 

First off, this can’t be a surprise. Yes, there was a “vote of confidence” given last month, but that’s worth less than the paper it’s written on. Texas thought they had a legitimate chance at Urban Meyer. Maybe they were led to believe that. Maybe it was just hubris. But they took a run at the big fish and he got away. No harm no foul, right? Wrong. From the moment it became clear that they were courting Meyer, it was EXTREMELY unlikely that Tom Herman would be back on the DKR sideline in September.

For one, the relationship is now damaged. Herman knew they would have rather had someone else – he also knew that so many alums were behind it - and that makes everything harder. He’s less likely to be a “team player” with his Athletic Director and boosters, and he wasn’t exactly that guy to start with. That’s a bad place to be.

But worse than that, it cripples recruiting. What kid will be convinced by Tom Herman that Texas and his scheme is right for them when they know he could be gone at any moment? It’s still Texas. They’ll still get some guys. But those 5-star kids that are the hardest to land would have been even harder. We can’t have that.

There were already reasons to move on. The problem is, there weren’t slam dunk reasons.

Herman seemed immature at times – he mocked the Missouri quarterback at the end of a game. He was seen headbutting his players in what felt like a showy display of excitement. He gave the old “double bird” to Longhorn Network cameras in the “war room” on signing day. He never quite seemed to get that he was the serious face of a serious program now. That didn’t sit well with boosters. But they hired a “player’s coach” and you can forgive the eccentric when it’s going well on the field.

Speaking of on the field… it got better. Let’s not pretend it didn’t. 4 seasons, 4 bowl wins. A couple of them were against real teams, too. The program is better today than it was when Charlie Strong was shown the door. But it always felt like they should have produced more.

The Longhorns played in 27 one-score games under Herman (the most of any power 5 program during that time.)  They went 14-13 in those games. Texas was a top-25 ranked team for 19 of those games and went 10-9 in those, so whether they were good or not, every close game was a coin flip. That’s terribly frustrating. It makes it hard to fully buy in, and also makes it hard to give up. They seemed to perpetually be a play or two away, finding new and creative ways to lose in the final minutes – which often makes it feel like just bad luck. Until it happens over… and over… and over. Herman never lost a game at Texas by more than 20 points. They hung around. But let’s face it - results are results.

Here’s where it gets harder to stomach: a ranked Texas team lost to an unranked opponent 7 times during the Herman tenure. Nobody has done that more during these 4 years. Nobody. So even when they were “good” it turns out they weren’t good enough.

When you put all of that together (on the field and off) with the fact that they had already decided to try and hire a better coach, this relationship was doomed.

So Texas had a choice to make: do we fire him and start the coaching search in public? That can lead to bidding wars and weeks of rumors, then the perception of “missing out” on your top choices. Chris Del Conte decided to try it a different way. This was his hire. He may have known exactly who he wanted. He may have talked to a few different guys. But in the end, he got one of the biggest names available. He got the quarterback whisperer off of THE team. Are there some crimson flags? Sure. We’ll get to those.

But if you look at Sarkisian’s resume’, you start with the quarterbacks. In his time in college football, Sark has coached Carson Palmer, Matt Leinert, Matt Cassell, Mark Sanchez, Jake Locker, Tua Tagovailoa… all of whom went on to play on Sundays. That’s a long list… and Sarkisian is only 46. That’s going to sound awfully good in 5-star living rooms. Then, when Alabama lost their superstar Tua to the Miami Dolphins, they turned it over to Mac Jones, who had nowhere near the same hype, and you could argue Jones has been better. Plus, Sarkisian brings NFL experience, which always opens some doors with recruits.

Let’s get to the drunken elephant in the room. Yes, 5 years ago Sarkisian was forced out at USC due to an alcohol problem. He’s been open about it. He had just gone through a divorce and he got himself into trouble. He went to rehab and has since been hired by both the Atlanta Falcons and Alabama without any incidents. People make mistakes and deserve second chances. So far it looks like Sark has learned from his.

I’ve also heard a lot of talk about his head coaching record. It’s only 47-35. At first blush, that doesn’t look so good. But let’s start here: his first head coaching job came at Washington after an 0-12 season. That’s right – 0 wins. Sarkisian’s first year on the job, they went 5-7. In year 2, they were above .500. 3 more years at Washington winning more than he lost before resigning to be the head coach at USC. That’s not exactly failing. Then the Trojans went 9-4 in his only full year before falling off the wagon. It’s not world-beating, but you know what has happened since then? Sarkisian has gotten to watch and learn under Nick Saban.

I’m also hearing “Saban assistants haven’t done very well” but that list includes Mark Dantonio, Will Muschamp, Lane Kiffin, Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher. Smart, solid football men who always seem to find work at the highest level. If you don’t think Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher have “broken through” then I guess one of the Saban guys is due. But there aren’t many coaching trees producing more fruit than that.

Just like any other hire, a lot of the Sarkisian success will come from who he brings in as his assistants. Tom Herman saw it as a way to throw million-dollar contracts at his buddies. That was the first of many ways Herman didn’t take it all quite seriously enough.

Which brings us full circle.

Herman could have stayed if he had been a bit more of a grown-up. Or if he had found a way to win just a few more of those close games. But he wasn’t. And he didn’t. And Texas went after Urban Meyer, so here we are. Herman had to go.

Texas could have pursued Pat Fitzgerald (15 years at Northwestern averaging 7 wins per year – even had a few 10-win seasons, but has never made a Rose Bowl or New Year’s 6 game.) Or Matt Campbell! He’s the hot head coaching name right now after winning the Fiesta Bowl. But he’s had 5 years at Iowa State and just had his first season there with less than 5 losses, so let’s not get starry-eyed. Those would be good hires, sure. And I'm sure you can think of a few more. But Sarkisian is in that same conversation.

Chris Del Conte is the Athletic Director. Herman wasn’t his hire. He gets to own this one, and most people think he’s a pretty smart guy. So was this process perfect? Of course not.

But In the end, I think Texas needed a change, Del Conte needed his own guy, and Sarkisian needed a chance to prove that he can lead a team to the promised land.

Ok, cool. Hook ‘Em!

The Big 12's Big Mistakes

I know I'm biased, but I say it's the best game in college sports.

Every year the seldom-used Cotton Bowl on the Texas state fairgrounds comes alive. Divided at the 50 yard line. A sea of burnt orange on one side, a wash of crimson on the other. It's Texas/OU - and it's glorious.

On every play, 50,000 people go crazy. Then on the next snap, the other 50,000 get their turn.

It happens in the first half of October, when seasons still feel new, but where this afternoon will help determine where these teams are headed. It's stressful, it's blissful, it's unbearable... and the winner gets to hold onto that feeling (and those bragging rights) for 12 months. To the victor go the spoils. And for the loser... that sting is deep and it lasts all year.

Well... until now.

This Saturday the Longhorns and Sooners will play again, this time in the sterile vastness of the Cowboys "Death Star" in Arlington. For the first time since 1903, the game in October isn't the last word on a season's best rivalry game.

This is a shame. The winner in October shouldn't have to prove it again 8 weeks later. I've attended every Texas/OU game in the Cotton Bowl (except for one) since 1990. I'm not going to this sham on Saturday. That's how I feel about this re-tread.

And this isn't sour grapes from a Longhorn because we won in October. I'll go on record right now and say this: Oklahoma should be the conference champ. They were the best team in the conference for the entirety of the season. They're the only team that only has 1 conference loss. But the Big 12 can't leave well enough alone.

This all started when we moved to a 4-team playoff. Remember 2014? In the very first 4-team year, TCU lost an epic mid-season game to Baylor. The Bears finished the season #7. TCU was #3 headed into the final week. The Frogs destroyed Iowa State 55-3 and dropped out of the playoff. The Big 12, the kings of the overreaction, began to plot.

First it was, "we need to add two more teams." But lukewarm recruiting and the realization that they'd have to share some of their money kicked that can on down the road. Then in 2016 it happened again. Oklahoma was 11-2 and conference champs, but of the 5 major conferences, the Big 12 was the one left out. It was too late to add a conference title game for 2017... but they added one as fast as they could... and here we are.

Oklahoma only has 1 loss. They deserve to be the conference champs. But the new "extra" game they've added has the potential to ENSURE that no Big 12 team gets into the playoff. Not to mention that it's absurd. Pick any two teams you want from the Big 12 and announce the game. We've already seen it. The other conferences have championship games because they don't all play each other every year. That was the whole point behind the Big 12's "one true champion" campaign that you may have missed if you blinked while they were declaring TCU and Baylor co-champions in the first season of "one true champion." Yeah, that's a thing that really happened.

So now we get Texas/OU for the 2nd time this year. I told you why I hate it. Some people love it. Ok, cool - Hook 'em. But at least the game will be rich with the feisty traditions and prodding that goes with this salty rivalry.

Texas DE Breckyn Hager Forced to Apologize by Big 12 After Saying "OU Sucks"

Oh come on! Texas all-hair candidate Hager is asked about facing OU while leaving the Texas practice facility and says, "It's 11:12 and OU still sucks!" But the Big 12 Fun Police won't have it. This wasn't the game. We're talking about practice. Not the game. Not the game. We're talking about practice. The conference forced Hager to apologize publicly. Which he did. Insert dumbfounded emoji here.

I made a joke on social media when I saw this and said, "well, I guess they'll reprimand every Oklahoma player who does the 'horns down' sign from now on then. Ha-ha-ha!"

Ha-ha-what?

Horns only go up as Big 12 says Sooners can't throw them down

I wish I was making this up. They're going to penalize Oklahoma players if they do the "horns down" sign during the game? Are you kidding?

"After further review, #5 put the 1st and 3rd fingers down, not the first and 4th. There is no penalty on this play."

So to recap, the Big 12 took the best rivalry in the conference and cheapened it with an extra game... an extra game that has potential to do more harm than good to the conference's playoff chances. Then they sucked the fun out of the only part of it that is any good?

If you want to play with the big kids in the deep end of the conference championship pool, it's time to do the right thing and cozy up to BYU and Central Florida. It's going to cost you a few bucks, but right now you look ridiculous.

And as for Texas/OU part deux - the conference is lucky. Because it really is the best game in college sports. I'll be rooting for my guys... but I'll be dreaming of October.

The death of discourse

Outrage is the new national pastime.

We are simply never as happy as when we can be angry about some perceived injustice. It has completely overtaken honest debate in this country.

“You aren’t 100% on my side? Then you are a stupid liberal.”

“You aren’t as angry as I am about this? Well, then you are definitely either racist or sexist. Probably both.”

We don’t listen to each other. And we CERTAINLY don’t respect one another.

If you’re out marching, you’re too sensitive and you’re causing trouble. If you’re not marching, you’re part of the problem.

“Political correctness” has gone WAY beyond the pale. Just yesterday the internet was exploding about an Asian broadcaster being pulled off a University of Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee. In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, the decision was made two weeks ahead of the game to reassign Lee to a different game. It’s a wonderful example of all of our problems in one perfect, and completely unimportant package.

Let’s all agree here. It’s completely ridiculous for anyone to assign ill will to ESPN because this guy’s name happens to loosely match a Confederate general. Of course he shouldn’t have to change games. It’s also completely ridiculous that Lee would be in any danger. But you know what else is completely ridiculous?  Assuming that someone in this “victim for sport” culture won’t try to make hay out of it. Of COURSE someone will be upset. Of COURSE someone will take a photo with his name on the screen and turn it into a meme – finding a way to hurt people with something that should be nothing.

Even the way this story was discussed online tells you everything.

Some people lost their minds that “this guy can’t even do his job because of all the delicate flowers who might get their feelings hurt.” And the response?  “He’s being reassigned to a different game. It’s no big deal. Have a little perspective.”

But the problem is that none of us have perspective. Not anymore.

Why can’t we all use common sense? Why should ESPN have to say anything other than “Robert Lee is a professional broadcaster who has been assigned to this game. We condemn racism in all of its forms, and will proudly stamp our logo on his fine work in Charlottesville next month?” Why should ESPN have to say anything at all?

A friend of mine was talking about the horrible events in Virginia recently and how he had to explain it to his kids. You know what he said to them?  “There are some people in the world who think that white people are better than black people. Isn’t that crazy?”  His daughter’s response? “Really? That doesn’t even make sense.” I’m proud of that statement and the response. Don’t lend it any weight.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it could be that easy?  It should be.

But our society won’t let it be. We have to continue these conversations - lend credence to arguments that would have seemed silly 20 years ago - to the point where it’s actually plausible that Robert Lee doing his job might offend someone… to the point where it isn’t ridiculous at all for him to change games.

It comes down mostly to WHO is sharing the story, not the story itself. If you’re on the left and see one of your Republican “friends” sharing this ESPN story then you feel obligated to jump in and defend “your side" - take on outrage that you don’t actually even feel yourself.  Just in case someone, somewhere MIGHT be offended, and the other guy will never be this enlightened. If you’re on the right and a “friend” you know to be a Democrat posted this story, you must rush to call it silly, and an overreaction. Make their perspective into a punch line. Because of the SOURCE, not because of the actual story.

Get off social media and talk to actual live people. You’ll see that we’re not that different. The truth is, nearly all of us hate racism, and wish that we could take the word “nearly” out of that sentence. The truth is, most people don’t actually want to see every citizen on the street carrying an assault rifle. The truth is, most people don’t actually want the federal government to support anyone who simply doesn’t care to get a job. These aren’t black-and-white issues and yet we feel obligated to treat them as absolutes – you’re with us or you’re against us. But who is representing the REAL us?

Sadly, most people don’t want to have an actual, thoughtful, measured conversation about any of it. The outrage is more fun. The anger is more energizing. A snarky comment about how stupid the “other side” is… or a flippant response to the same – that’s the currency of the day. Who got in the best zinger today?

I’m certainly not immune to this. You just read 750 or so words about how outraged I am by all of this outrage.

But I just feel like we’re shouting into the wind. All the time.

And what are we teaching our kids? That there are 2 polarized sides to everything. And anyone with a differing opinion should not be invited to the conversation – in fact, he should be mocked.

I’m reminded of an old quote. “I have never learned anything from someone who agreed with me.”

When will we learn?