Ha Ha Ha Ha. Enjoy Pullman, Whorns!!!!

by BatesHorn on Jun 14, 2010 1:37 PM CDT in Texas Longhorns and Other Football

There's much frivolity and asshattery amongst our friends in and of College Station about how AWFUL the Longhorns travel schedule will be in a Pac-16, while A&M will enjoy the easy commute of the SEC each fall weekend. Now, anybody that tested out of 9th grade Geography probably realizes the foolishness of this argument, but since speaking slowly and in clear tones is occasionally necessary to help that family member who isn't quite right, let's have some fun with schedules, shall we?

For the sake this argument, we'll use Missouri, the current trendy 14th team, as the partner in the Aggies grand ascendancy to perceived gridiron Valhalla. I'd be more inclined to add Miami or FSU myself, but that's not the name being bandied about right now. I understand the attractiveness of Missouri: Add the St. Louis Television market and an easy W on the football field every year, maybe even for Vandy.

I've assumed some conference realignment if the Aggies and Tigers join the conference. Unlike Gene Stallings, the SEC understands the importance of rivalry's so they'll be loath to split Auburn and Alabama, and I've declined to put both schools in the East, as it would ridiculously overweight the Eastern Division in terms of competitiveness. This schedule is based very loosely on LSU's 2011 schedule:

East:
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Missouri
Vanderbilt
Tennessee
South Carolina

West:
Alabama
Auburn
Arkansas
LSU
Miss.
Mississippi St.
Texas A&M

A possible schedule for the Aggies could look something like this:

Sept. 3 OTC
Sept. 10 OTC
Sept. 17 @ Auburn (651 miles)
Sept. 24 OTC
Oct. 1 Tennessee
Oct. 08 Mississippi St.
Oct. 15 @ Florida (837 miles)
Oct. 22 Vanderbilt
Nov. 5 LSU
Nov. 12 @ Miss. (480 miles)
Nov. 19 Alabama
Nov. 26 @ Arkansas in Dallas (156)

Texas's schedule could look like this:

9/3 0TC
9/10 @ Arizona (789 miles)
9/17 OTC
9/24 Colorado
10/1 OU @ Dallas (176)
10/8 @ OSU (399)
10/15 ASU
10/22 UCLA
10/29 OTC
11/5 @ Washington St. (1535)
11/12 KS
11/25 @ Tech (326)

Not exactly the Apocalypse? Because of the structure of a possible PAC-16, Texas will be asked to go to the actual West Coast once a year, as well as Arizona, and continue games with traditional BIG 12 rivals at locations we've all become familiar with over the last decade. Now, Aggie may cry "Ha ha ha ha, you'll have to play at 10 pm, CST!!!!!"

Well, no. The original PAC 8 teams have no more interest in playing a noon game in Austin then we have playing a night game on the West coast. Austin based games will be played at night in all probability, while PST games will occur in the afternoon to accomodate travel schedules. Yeah, a trip to Pullman, Bend, Eugene, or Seattle is going to be a haul, but one we only have to do once a year, and we won't have to return for eight years. In some years, we'll only be going to LA, which isn't much more of a flight than Ames.

On the other hand, A&M is going to have to haul its squad all over the South East, every year, with some of those year's involving potential trips to South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, or Florida. Having recently driven from DC to Columbia, SC, a virtual straight shot down I-95 and over via I-20, it's eight hours and nearly 500 miles, not something that can be undertaken on a whim of a roadtrip.

That's the beauty of a PAC-16: It alleviates the horrific travel necessary for just A&M and UT to join the PAC-10 alone, and maintains regional rivalry's that largely already exist. When constructing this schedule, I was forced to have A&M play Arkansas to end the season, which is somewhat problematic, as Arkansas and LSU are technically a rivalry (although the Tigers don't really think much of Arkansas) and all the other teams in a realigned SEC West have Thanksgiving week rivalry's that preclude A&M finishing the season against one of these teams. The same is true of the Eastern teams, which means A&M may find itself playing a rivalry week team like Miami or Missouri, with which it has zero history.

See, A&M, unlike Texas, which can easily take another former Big 12 team, like Tech or Colorado and establish a new rivalry, comes into the SEC as the proverbial third wheel, sharing nothing in common with its SEC brethren beyond a history of recruiting violations and generally conservative politics.

But hey, Mississippi St. and the Aggies can duel for best turf management program, so there's that.

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Comments

Apparently you missed the memo. We’re all staying in this dysfunctional, backwoods conference but Texas keeps all the money as overlord.

by Satan on Jun 14, 2010 2:00 PM CDT reply actions

Furk?

by Aggie Whoop on Jun 14, 2010 2:04 PM CDT reply actions

I view any Big 12-2 arrangement as temporary, at best.

by bateshorn on Jun 14, 2010 2:05 PM CDT reply actions

If A&M does end up in the SEC, the will ALWAYS have the hardest road schedule of any SEC team in terms of travel requirements due to their geographic location. That can’t be discounted in terms of how you perform on the field.

by texoz on Jun 14, 2010 2:17 PM CDT reply actions

A side comment would be how you make travel arrangements to the various city’s in each conference. The PAC 10 schools are all major cities that you can fly into, whereas many of the SEC schools you have to fly/drive to.

by dellhome123 on Jun 14, 2010 3:06 PM CDT reply actions

And, we just move our Tech series to Thanksgiving week/weekend.

by Cimarrones on Jun 14, 2010 3:08 PM CDT reply actions

So much clueless banter.

Your stuff makes me wish for an old fashioned newspaper with professional writers instead of blithering idiots.

by Bill Bixby on Jun 14, 2010 3:19 PM CDT reply actions

by Sailor Ripley on Jun 14, 2010 3:43 PM CDT reply actions

You must remember that due to budge constraints, the Aggies have to carpool. Those extra miles really add up!

by BEHorn on Jun 14, 2010 3:43 PM CDT reply actions

Fuck the heck?

by Joey Jo Jo Jo on Jun 14, 2010 3:44 PM CDT reply actions

“Budget”! Damn I hate it when marginal humor goes even further south due to lack of an “edit” feature.

by BEHorn on Jun 14, 2010 3:44 PM CDT reply actions

Texoz -

“If A&M does end up in the SEC, the will ALWAYS have the hardest road schedule of any SEC team in terms of travel requirements due to their geographic location. That can’t be discounted in terms of how you perform on the field.”

Are you suggesting that Aggie will fall a further step below “suck”?

by BEHorn on Jun 14, 2010 3:45 PM CDT reply actions

I understand the attractiveness of Missouri: Add the St. Louis Television market and an easy W on the football field every year, maybe even for Vandy.

Geez, do you have to be such a cock about it?

by Phenomenal Smith on Jun 14, 2010 3:58 PM CDT reply actions

"If A&M does end up in the SEC, the will ALWAYS have the hardest road schedule of any SEC team in terms of travel requirements due to their geographic location. That can’t be discounted in terms of how you perform on the field."

Yeah, just look at Florida, currently the most geographically distant team from the SEC centroid.

by redfoot on Jun 14, 2010 4:08 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah, just look at Florida, currently the most geographically distant team from the SEC centroid.

Giggle.

Because Aggie and Florida have so much in common right now.

God, you guys are drinking the Kool-Aid the past few days. Get over yourselves. You cannot become a powerhouse by osmosis.

by Johnnymac on Jun 14, 2010 4:18 PM CDT reply actions

Common, Texas should go to the SEC with TX A&M. This is the first time in my life I have to agree with A&M over the Horns. Think about this scenario? What if UT A&M OU OKST all went to the SEC. It would make sense geographically and it would be the sickest badest conference unparalleled by any other super conference that can be created. Just imagine the SEC West would look like this: LSU,AK,TX,A&M,OU,OKST,Miss, MST. The SEC East would look like this: FL,GA,AUB,AB,KY,SC,TN,VANDY. Texas is a prominent school that needs to play against the best teams in the country on a regular basis, and if this scenario were to playout we would keep our rivalries with our old foes and create a powerful SEC West to take on the powerful SEC East. Why doesn’t Texas do the right thing and go play with the big boys. I’m a UT fan and I know that this would be the right thing to do if we had the balls, and you know the fans and kids playing would love it too.

by Roland on Jun 14, 2010 4:53 PM CDT reply actions

oh man, you got it roland. And we should also cheat our asses off too. Yeah, let’s do the right thing!!!

by The Bobs on Jun 14, 2010 5:09 PM CDT reply actions

BEHorn,
“Are you suggesting that Aggie will fall a further step below "suck"?”

Yes, Aggie suckage is like the nine circles of Hell.

In fact, Dante visited College Station before writing “Inferno.” He stayed at the Ramada.

by texoz on Jun 14, 2010 5:45 PM CDT reply actions

Roland, why would you want to stack a conference like that when schools are positioning themselves into superconferences, which could and should lead to a playoff system. That is insanity until the NCAA ups the scholarship limit. Texas wouldn’t balk at a higher number of scholarship athletes, what about the other schools.

Run a gauntlet like that, and you will need a significant number of extra scholarships. Guys will get beat up. There will be few weeks when the starters come out early in the third quarter.

I guess you do want to play the National Championship in-conference.

Hook ’em!

by java on Jun 14, 2010 6:52 PM CDT reply actions

I can’t wait until Thanskgiving. I’m warming up my SEC! SEC! SEC! chant for aggie.

by Bob on Jun 14, 2010 8:26 PM CDT reply actions

Well, we’re all staying. I guess College Station will still have to be our Pullman.

by Woody Bombay on Jun 14, 2010 8:52 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah. I just got the forward from my Mom, whose on Faculty:

Dear Colleagues,

I know many of you have been following discussions about our conference
affiliation. I want to let you know that we’re announcing that UT will stay
in the Big 12 Conference.

There will be a press conference with more information tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Coverage of the press conference will be available at:

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=tex&media=182505

Sincerely,

Bill Powers
President

by bateshorn on Jun 14, 2010 9:02 PM CDT reply actions

If there was ever any doubt that money talks and bullshit walks…..

I’m very interested in hearing what they say tomorrow.

by nordberg on Jun 14, 2010 9:11 PM CDT reply actions

I’m very interested in hearing what they say tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to the behind the scenes book. I want Sorkin or Eichenwald to write it.

by Phenomenal Smith on Jun 14, 2010 9:20 PM CDT reply actions

I’m looking forward to the behind the scenes book. I want Sorkin or Eichenwald to write it. I’m thinking more along the lines of Woodward & Bernstein. “Follow the money.”

by Texoz on Jun 14, 2010 9:30 PM CDT reply actions