The posturing between Texas and Texas A&M has finally hit the absurd mark.
First, A&M sends a break-up letter to the Big XII. But it’s cool, everyone, the Aggies still want to be friends and will be sure to let the Big XII down easy. After all, when it comes to a conference that contains a heated rivalry such as the one they have with Texas, it’s important to be considerate when jumping ship to the SEC.
Not to be outdone in absurdity, Texas’ internet mouthpiece, aka Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, tweeted that should A&M dare leave for the SEC it’s over between the two of them. No more football game, they’ll play Notre Dame Thanksgiving night instead.
How ND got mixed up in this, I have no idea. The shark has officially been jumped.
Firstly, just consider the source. This is the same guy that last offseason had his sources assure him that the superconferences were coming, with Texas bolting to what would be the Pac-16, A&M going to the SEC, Nebraska to the Big 10. The Big XII was even going have its scraps picked up by the Big East! In the end, all he got right was Nebraska jumping ship (easy to do since they already did it) and Texas found themselves holding the Big XII by the balls with a sweetheart contract, full well knowing they were going to spring the Longhorn Network the following year.
I have no doubt Chip has great sources inside of UT; however, those sources are not dumb. They know Chip is one of the most followed UT news sources and one that I have seen quoted and re-tweeted by several national media outlets and sports writers. If Chip gets a scoop like Texas will replace the Aggies with ND on their schedule, people are going to listen. It’s a shot across the bow to A&M, and something that will get everyone talking. It’s a political play and a damned smart one at that.
As much as I hate the Longhorns (if you are a new reader, Texas A&M would be my Texas school of choice), I can’t begrudge Texas for making use of a media outlet like Chip. However, if Texas is going to create a steaming pile bigger than Bevo’s droppings, it should at least be feasible.
ND/Texas on Thanksgiving night not will not happen, period.
Any ND fan knows that the ND/USC rivalry game has USC’s home leg over Thanksgiving weekend. During years which ND hosts Southern Cal, another west coast trip is planned. This gives the team a nice warm-weather location to end the season every year as well as keeping an annual Irish presence in the state of California for recruiting purposes.
Currently, the ND/USC contract extends to 2016 and that game will not be going away anytime soon (read: ever). As for the other west coast opponent, ND currently has a home-and-home agreement with Stanford stretching until 2019. So I’m not sure what Chip’s source is thinking, but ND has it’s turkey-day plans booked for quite a while and ND isn’t exactly in the habit of setting fire to such contracts at the whim of another school. To add on to the absurdity, Texas and ND are already booked to play in two separate two year home-and-home series in 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. All four games are currently slated to be early season or opening games for both teams.
While both ADs might be good friends and while all of college football would likely love (or love to hate) such a match up during Thanksgiving weekend, it ain’t happening anytime soon.
This breakup is like watching Ronnie and Sam scream at each other in the Jersey Shore and then having the Situation create absurd rumors to keep you two at each other’s throats. Seriously, leave my alma mater the hell out of this mess.
I can’t “Like” this post hard enough.