Texas Doesn't Want Special Payout; AM And OU, Well, Still Thinking

Those comments by $ Bill caused me to send him this letter. I don’t expect any response:

Mr. Byrne,

I was very troubled by one of your comments in last week’s e-Newsletter:

“Great program’s fans support their team regardless of the opponent. They are grateful to be in the stadium.”

Sir, I stood in the driving rain in 1980 watching Baylor pummel us. I stood in the heat of three OTs watching us pull out the Fresno State game. I braved the cold rain to watch us fall to FSU in the 1992 Cotton Bowl.

Sir, I was here long before you got here and will be here long after you are gone. So do not suggest, by that type of comment, that I am less of an Aggie because I have chosen to not renew my season tickets these last two years.

I have not been listened to by the Athletic Department in years. The wishes of the common fan are regularly ignored and we are simply asked for more money.

I have complained about our conference. I have complained about prices at Kyle Field. I have complained about our non conference opponents. I could go on for pages.

And the latest is this horrible decision to stay with a disfunctional conference that will be dead within 5 years. Almost 100% of the former students I know thought the SEC was the best decision for A&M. But alas, we once again were not listened to.

You see, the wallet is the only vote I have. I was fully prepared to buy 4 season tickets, starting this season, if A&M announced moving to the SEC. But alas, now my wallet will stay closed.

Since my concerns have not been listened to for about a decade now, I have no expectation that these concerns will be listened to either. However, be aware that there are four less season tickets sold this year as a result of that decision than there would be.

Multiply me times the thousands of disgruntled Aggie fans and you then realize that Kyle Field failing to sell out is not the fault of “bad Aggies”. It is the thousands of us just biding our time until we are listened to.

It isn’t too late to change your mind and re-energize your fan base. This bold move would be the crowning achievement of your term as Athletic Director. Please listen to us instead of chastize us.

Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx, Class of ’84
_________________________________________

Frankly, AMC is holding firm to the $20 MM a year promise. Based on events of this week, if anything less than $20 MM is forthcoming, we bolt. The offer is still good.

Yeah, this is Bill Byrne. I got an e-mail from someone named Xxxx Xxxxxxxx. I’m 65 years old and no one talks to me like that. You can give me a call, and we can have a real discussion about this, because someone who talks like that needs to have their ass kicked. Okay, bye bye now.

Not a shock, given how the Cornhucksters want to retroactively change game lengths to 59:59.

Ag’s letter sums it up. If Alden said something like that, Mizzou fans would quit going to games out of spite. I’ve ordered a ticket to the Mizzou/A&M game in College Station and now am having second thoughts about contributing anything to that Byrne character. OK, not really. I’ll be there.

Has Dodds defeated Aggie the same way Reagan beat the USSR during the Cold War?

A&M spent all that money on their stadium and facilities to keep up with the Joneses. Someone should have pointed out both sides of the balance sheet to $ Bill, and a little thing called ROI.

Ag in Tx

It certainly sounds like there is no 20 million dollar payout at least nothing has been signed. Sure there are possible sources of revenue—CU and Nebraska liquidated damages, a larger cut of the same ESPN pie etc, a renegotiated Fox contract, but other than the ESPN deal none of that is guaranteed. In addition, since CU and Nebraska’s share of the ESPN deal can’t be very much particularly CU’’s. Also, from what I understand a part of the 20 million dollar figure in UT’s case was from BEVO TV so unless ATM is working on a network of its own I suspect that number is even more unrealistic.

All of the possible revenue streams will only be determined in the future, so how can ATM hold firm to that figure in any near term time frame?

it will be years before we know if the 20 million was a complete and total fabrication. Actually I should restate that—it will be years before anyone can show that the 20 million figure was never real its already pretty obvious that its a joke. At that point you may or may not have an SEC invite. But do you really think that there is any chance ATM will head to the SEC in the immediate future?

If Texas doesn’t want the money, Texas A&M should offer to accept Texas’s share.

Harvey Perleman and Nebraska have morphed from clamoring welfare recipients with notions of economics that would make Che Guevara wince to moralists that can’t understand contract law

Ben (“bad haircut”) Nelson made himself a state pariah with that kickback, and will soon be shown the door.

It’s a conservative state. They think “Che Guevara” is the name of a French restaurant, and if you show them your t-shirt, Scipio, they’ll tell you they knew he’d be a troublemaker from the long hair.

Not surprising – the pairing of hubris with self-indulgent martyrdom that they’ve been pedling seems quite natural for them, although not terribly flattering.

If Texas doesn’t take it, the rest won’t either, Jaggy. This whole situation is bizarre. Numbers don’t add up. Nebraska thinks the way they divvy up the penalties should bolster its feeble argument against paying. Texas saying forget the money is the most sane news, and I’m still scratching my head. Has Beebe even finalized his big plan???

My previous post was in regard to Nebraska.

Good for you, Ag – I’ve had many of the same feelings about UT / Belmont but never put them in writing.

This Big 12-2 deal looks more and more like smoke with no fire as each day goes by.

I agree with the Aggies. UT should all keep the money that was offered.

That was supposed to have been a pretty big selling point for UT and A&M keeping the conference together.

Seriously horncasting? Penalty money for a school leaving goes to all the rest of the conference members evenly. TV revenue is shared unequally because some teams bring in a lot more of it. I’d be embarassed if we even thought about taking the penalty money that was offered – thats literally like throwing a rope to someone drowning only if they give up their firstborn. Just disgusting.

“Great program’s fans support their team regardless of the opponent. They are grateful to be in the stadium. "

That definitely seems to accord with the thinking in Belmont this days as well.

Yes, seriously.

“TV revenue is shared unequally because some teams bring in a lot more of it.”

I don’t see any difference between this situation and the penalty money. Penalty money should be shared unequally because without some teams there is no conference. The schools that offerred this up (assuming it was ever even done) were looking at moving to the MWC or CUSA and having their current tv revenues cut by 80%. We aren’t taking their first born, we giving them a chance to keep their first born.

You could understand if a young doctor that had just spent 24 years straight with his nose in a pile of books, upon starting his own practice and pulling in $300K a year, went out and spent $500K on Porsches, hookers, a pile of blow that would make George Jung blush, and a set of vintage English side-by-sides. This guy just spent his prime years learning absolutely nothing math or money related, except for half-life formulas.

But we’re talking about an entire University here. OK, maybe just the athletic department, but it isn’t like they aren’t half-a-hallway and a secretary ass-slap away from asking some of the learned professors in the Mays Business School how to keep a current account.

First lesson, aggy, is to balance the timing of your assets and liabilites. Don’t have contractual payments for half a decade each to multiple fired coaches when your piss-poor on the field performance is two games away from driving three-quarters of your fanbase (and variable revenue) away.

I see a couple of differences. One is contractual – the conference members agreed to an equal distribution of penalty money and an unequal distribution of tv revenue. We shouldn’t use the duress created by this situation to renegotiate the contract so drastically. Second, its my understanding that we were willing to stay in the conference based on a better tv deal and getting the longhorn network alone, and its just distasteful to me to also take the penalty money even if it was offered willingly, albeit by schools staring into the chasm. Third, a strong conference benefits us. Shaking down the other schools may pad our pockets now but would lead to bad blood that would make Nebraska look like our best friend. Not to mention the PR nightmare it would create – see the “Mao” post.

I guess I still find principles even in a capitalist system. There’s fair ways to put yourself in a better position and unfair ways – holding a gun to someone’s head just because you can is unfair to me.

And can we stop bitching about ticket prices, fizthume and others? The reason UT gets to be in the drivers seat in all of this is because of capitalism, i.e. make the best product you can and sell it for the best price you can. If you have a job, you should know this. If UT artificially held down prices for tickets etc (a) it would be a lot harder to get tickets (b) UT would not make as much revenue, meaning not as great facilities, coaches, meaning less competitive team, meaning less bargaining power etc.

I don’t feel like I should have to explain this. If you can sell all of your cokes for $4 and all of your tickets for $85, thats what you do, this is America. If you want a socialist society thats fine but then you should also support equal revenue sharing among the schools, equal bargaining power, and a whole shitload of other things that are completely contrary to what just went on the last couple of months. I won’t even try to explain to Ag_in_TX.

texastough – I just see it in a different way than you. I see it as an investment by those schools to make it as attractive (or more so) to UT and A&M to stay in the Big 12 as it would have been to go to the PAC or SEC. In other words making them whole on the lost revenue from not moving to another conference. The fact that this is all “found” money to the have nots, makes me feel even more strongly that the more deserving schools, those who saved the conference, should keep more of it. This penalty money’s existance is 100% due to Texas and A&M staying.

Nero,

You really ought to post here more often. I think you’re the smartest poster here. Of course, that’s akin to being the best Mexican food restaurant in South Dakota.

TexasTough,

I get it. And if Texas U or Texas AMC were private schools, I would agree on the pure capitalism argument. However, as state schools, the ability to draw profit out of the taxpayers is a little bit different.

And with regards to conferences, we have talked about this time and again. The healthy conferences are the ones with equal revenue sharing. The disfunctional ones don’t. The Abortion Conference is now most likely the most disfunctional conference in America. Hence, it’s likely to last about as long as a few rails of coke at Cooper’s house.

Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

Ag in TX,

My friend emailed Byrne today with much of the same content you put in your letter. Byrne called his cell phone an hour later and addressed his concerns. Byrne is a huge asshole, but I think even he realizes he needs to do some personal PR work after the voicemail debacle. You might be hearing from him.

Well, I didn’t include my phone number cause…. well, I’ve heard about that guy.

I’m with texastough on this one… it’s just unseemly. Some things offered in desperation you just need to turn down, and I’m glad we’re doing that here.

And with regards to conferences, we have talked about this time and again. The healthy conferences are the ones with equal revenue sharing. The disfunctional ones don’t. The Abortion Conference is now most likely the most disfunctional conference in America. Hence, it’s likely to last about as long as a few rails of coke at Cooper’s house.

Are they healthy because of the revenue sharing?

Everybody in the Big 12 has been at odds since the beginning. The revenue sharing scheme was voted on unanimously by its members at the creation of the Big 12, and it wasn’t like Texas had a revenue gun to anyone’s head in the mid 90’s.

In the Big 12, every team has the same rights to revenues. Some teams just generate more revenues.

General,

I wholeheartedly agree with you, but to mix metaphors a little here, I’m not surprised that all of this King-of-the-Mountain stuff has made several members of the conference want to take their balls and go home.

Machiavelli would prefer we share just enough revenue to keep this thing humming along. The sharing doesn’t have to be as linear as it is now. National title appearances are the golden egg that is laid out of the America’s Crotch Conference and we’ve nearly (or already have) let it slip away.

“The fact that this is all "found" money to the have nots, makes me feel even more strongly that the more deserving schools, those who saved the conference, should keep more of it.”

Yeah, there were two reasons for the offer — 1) there would be no league if the Pac-10 offer was accepted, and 2) this is only a potential receivable. Nobody has budgeted it and therefore, there is nothing lost.

It isn’t too late to change your mind and re-energize your fan base. This bold move would be the crowning achievement of your term as Athletic Director. Please listen to us instead of chastize us.

Ag,

I’m…typing…very…slowly…

aTm…doesn’t…have…an…unconditional…offer…from…the…SEC…that…Dollar… Bill…can…accept. Get…over…it !!!

“aTm…doesn’t…have…an…unconditional…offer…from…the…SEC…that…Dollar… Bill…can…accept. Get…over…it !!!”

A&M is like Chris Farley the bus driver in Billy Madison:

A&M: That SEC is one piece of ace, I know from experience dude. If you know what I mean.
Big XII South: No, you don’t.
A&M: Well, not me personally but a University I know. Him and SEC got it on. Wooo-eee!
Big XII South: No, they didn’t.
A&M: No, no, no they didn’t. But you could imagine what it’d be like if they did, right…? Everybody on, good, great, grand, wonderful.
[shouts]
A&M: No yelling in Byrne’s Office!

Can we just go to the SEC with OU, Tech, and OSU just to prove to aggie that they didn’t have an invite?

Now I’m on the nero train too

I think pretty clearly we need Close To Jumping to craft a pot banging email for Batman Byrne and then record the call.

Wow. That’s probably illegal but it would be funny.

The not so real invite from the SEC was golden. It was purely was ploy to get one of Texas/OU to bite and jump ship but clearly the SEC was not interested in taking A&M alone.

That is why the outrage from the fans over A&M not “choosing” to leave the Big 12 might be the most awesome twist to this whole fiasco.

Fans like the ones above still believe it was merely a conscience decision by the A&M athletic department not to go. Once Texas/OU told them where they intended to go that was it. There was no decision to be made.

The fact that their already apathetic fan base has turned to such a degree of self loathing is just one, gigantic, fat ass bonus to all of this.

Newy you just earned a new handle

Hard to sell out Kyle Field when the poor Ags have to be faced with those ridiculous Yell Leaders every game. I’d avoid those queers, too.

Sailor,

If CTJ won’t do it, I’ll just send the email to Byrne on behalf of him and ask Byrne to call him. It’s not new territory for me. :-)

“Based on events of this week, if anything less than $20 MM is forthcoming, we bolt. The offer is still good.”

Hah.

to Where?

If CTJ won’t do it, I’ll just send the email to Byrne on behalf of him and ask Byrne to call him. It’s not new territory for me.

Please do this. It’s a moral imperative.