Literally. Since there’s some sort of footsie being played between the conference and BYU, I assume the LDS Board of Apostles is thinking they’ll get invited in a couple of years. Maybe we ask for a ton of money as a buy in since we know they have it out there in Provo. There’s probably a Scrooge McDuck vault under the Temple. But what about the other spot? I’ve thrown this idea out to a few other Orangebloods and the best I can say is that nobody hates it.
The University of Memphis.
A couple of months ago, around the Big 12 Missile Crisis, the CEO of FedEx said something along the lines of his Memphis based company being able to give ten million dollars a year to whichever BCS conference would take those sad little Tigers out of C-USA. The Dirty Dozen has a spot and those cash-deprived Aggies dying for their share of the Colorado / Nebraska buyout money can be satisfied. And frankly, why does Texas care? Memphis is a Southwest flight away from Austin. Sure, it lacks the granola flavor of Boulder or the midwestern charm of Lincoln. It makes up for that in ease of travel and one of those big checks every year. We’d only see them every other year – think about how long we’ve put up with Iowa State. I know that a lineup of BYU, Memphis, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Mizzou doesn’t really excite anyone on the gridiron, but what other options that pay the conference ten million are out there?
TCU? I’ve championed them for a while because it would weaken Tech, A&M, Baylor, and Oklahoma State significantly just being in Fort Worth. I have to exclude Norman for being the only habitable town in the state and Austin is still Austin. Line up Fort Worth against College Station, Lubbock, Stillwater, and Waco – it’s not even close. Their annual home game against UT or OU could go into Jerry’s Death Star in Arlington. We’re fully aware what they can do in baseball and the city would finally own them with BCS conference membership – just to have either UT or OU in town twice a year, really. They’d join up so fast our heads would spin since BYU just ditched them and their crummy league. I bet even a Horned Frog would rather go to Ames (or Memphis) than Fresno or Boise. Really though, I don’t know what value they bring that Texas doesn’t have already. It just sounds good.
Memphis makes sense. Fork over the check and we’ll use the Kansas excuse that’s come in handy over the years – we’ll put up with your terrible pre-Mangino era football teams for basketball superpowers. For that matter, why the heck would we want two stud programs joining up? The NCAA isn’t going to take the Big 12′s BCS autobid. If this really is the Longhorn Athletic Conference like so many say, adding two bleh teams for the money when the default title game is in October every year is important. Texas sells out wherever the Horns go, and if we’re talking TV sets, Memphis plus most of Utah is about as close to replacing Denver and Nebraska as we’ll get. Talk about sticking a thumb in the eye of those Rocky Tops – stealing their TV’s and recruits by adding poor little Memphis to the big time. It would screw up Arkansas, too, and that never stops being entertaining.
This could be fun! C’mon, we’ve got starving Aggies to feed!
ESPN labeled this video as a preview of Texas versus but they start immediately with “if Texas loses, who should play in BCS title game?” And then proceed to spend the entire video talking about how awesome TCU is. I’m assuming they’re basing this off TCU’s big wins over… the mighty… um…
During an interview this week, Texas head coach clearly states that there should not be a distinction between BCS and non-BCS schools and that all schools should be treated equally. Somehow, ESPN spend the next 36 hours claiming Mack had said non-BCS schools didn’t belong in the national title game. Say what? Watch for yourself below:
The BCS standings for the week have been released and the Texas Longhorns are still sitting at number 3. The team’s impressive win over Missouri did earn the Horns a few first place votes and overall points in the human polls, and that gain allowed the Horns to gain ground on both and in the BCS standings.
Iowa and TCU made big jumps in the rankings but Texas should still control their own destiny. As we see every Saturday, anything can happen so just worry about what you can control between the lines. Keep winning and the rest should take care of itself.
SI.com is predicting the second half of the 2009 season and they don’t foresee good things for the Texas Longhorns. Only one out of six of their experts thinks the Horns will end up in the BCS title game and even worse that would mean some awful “no win” matchups in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas better keep winning, because a bowl game against , , or does not sound fun.
Posted June 8th, 2009 by Brian
Filed under: Baseball, Feature, World Series
Kevin Keyes' first inning homer set the stage for the Texas win. (Statesman.com)
The Texas Longhorns are headed back to Omaha for the 33rd time. The team topped 5-2 to win their Super Regional and advance to the . The Longhorns won thanks to a complete performance in all facets of the game, getting great starting pitching, great defense, and great fundamental offense and power.
Freshman starter allowed only 2 hits over 6 innings to earn the win. The offense was led by and who helped get the Horns off to a quick 3-run lead in the first inning. Keyes homered in the first and nearly had another one later when he double off the top of the rightfield wall.
Texas will open CWS play Sunday against at 6pm on ESPN2. (more …)
Posted June 8th, 2009 by Brian
Filed under: Baseball, Feature, World Series
Kevin Keyes and the rest of the UT lineup could only produce 2 runs. (TexasSports.com)
One day after giving Texas fans hope that the offense was hitting its stride at just the right time, the bats fell back to earth as the team fell to 3-2 Sunday afternoon. Starting pitcher spread 3 runs over 7.2 innings but the offense couldn’t back him up and fell short in a late comeback.
The middle of the TCU lineup featuring Matt Vern and Matt Carpenter once again powered the offense, hitting a home run each to drive in all 3 TCU runs. It’ll be interesting to see if Texas pitches around those two hitters during Monday’s game and forces someone else to beat them.
The two teams face off for the right to move on to Omaha Monday at 6pm on ESPN2. Freshman starter will be on the mound for the Longhorns.
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Posted June 7th, 2009 by Brian
Filed under: Baseball, Feature, World Series
Texas senior 3B Michael Torres had 2 home runs against TCU. (Statesman.com)
Texas set an NCAA record Saturday with 7 sacrifice bunts but luckily Texas coach let third baseman swing away. The senior from California had a career day leading the Longhorns going 4-for-5 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs (and zero sacrifice bunts) as Texas beat 10-4 in the opening game of the Super Regionals. Starting pitcher gave up 3 homers but didn’t make many other mistakes during his complete game win.
The Longhorns play TCU today at 2pm on ESPN and if they win they’ll be headed back to the College World Series in Omaha.
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Posted June 3rd, 2009 by Brian
Filed under: Baseball, World Series
Times and television have been set for this weekend’s CWS Super Regional for Texas and TCU. Game 1 will take place Saturday, June 6th at 5pm on ESPNU. Sunday’s game 2 will be at 2pm on ESPN. If necessary, the two teams will play in one of two time slots on Monday, either noon or 6pm on either ESPN or ESPN2. Tune in to 40 Acres Sports for all your coverage.
For the second time this year 3 of the Top 4 teams in the nation lose. No one is safe at the top, and most of the Top 10 will be playing each other in the next few weeks so expect to see even more changes. So far this year is looking even crazier than last year.
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LW: 3Even though they didn’t play, I don’t think they deserved to be bumped down below Texas.
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LW: 5Texas won with Colt’s leadership and the defense stepping up at the right times. Will Muschamp has the defense improving every week. It was kind of nice cruising through the season unnoticed, but that time is definitely over.
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LW: 7I guess I to move up Penn State after their blowout win. It looks like they are definitely the class of the Big 10, though that is not saying very much.
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LW: 1Sam Bradford threw for 5 touchdowns and still lost. Oklahoma has a great team and their schedule is setup to keep them in a BCS bowl game.
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LW: 11I had watched Florida play a few times this year, but I have never seen the speed and precision they displayed against LSU. They have some of the fastest running backs in the nation, and if they can keep Tim Tebow from making mistakes they should be good.
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LW: 8Texas Tech played like crap but was surprisingly still able to come out with a win against Nebraska. They have a pretty easy road before playing Texas at home.
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LW: 15Not sure if was too much of an upset, but Oklahoma State managed to put a hurting on Mizzou. Oklahoma State has proven they definitely have the offense, but do they have the defense to hang with the big boys.
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LW: 2I am actually pretty disappointed that Mizzou lost, because that would have meant Texas would play two #1 teams in a row. Now that Mizzou has lost, Texas will definitely be expected to beat them this Saturday.
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LW: 10Looks like USC is getting back into form after totally dominating Arizona State 28-0. They probably have the easiest schedule left of any Top 10 and will probably somehow backdoor their way into the national championship.
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LW: 9Georgia had a solid win against Tennessee but I am still not very impressed with this team. I expect them to lose 2 more games this season.
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LW: 6I have decided to not leave BYU so high up in the polls. They play nobody, and until they beat Utah I will not move them any higher.
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LW: 4You either smoke, or you get smoked, and LSU got smoked. That was a pretty weak performance against Florida, and if they don’t get someone to play quarterback they will struggle all season long.
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LW: 12Kansas continues to plod along and will probably go relatively unnoticed the rest of the way unless they can beat one of the big teams in the Big 12. Don’t expect that to happen.
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LW: 13Utah and BYU really don’t seem much different to me. They will have to prove their ranking by beating both TCU and BYU.
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LW: 16Thank goodness we didn’t have to see them play on their ugly blue field this weekend.
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LW: 17Luckily Ohio State beat Purdue because they are about to lose two in a row. I can’t wait to drop them out of the Top 25.
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LW: 19Again, the only thing they have going for them is their running back, but man is he awesome. Can we trade for him?
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LW: 18Does anyone really care about anyone in the ACC. They will probably all beat each other and end up with a conference champion that has 3 losses.
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LW: 20Bye week
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LW: 21It took a last minute play, but North Carolina thankfully kept Notre Dame out of the Top 25. North Carolina is making the most out of their spot, but see Virginia Tech.
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LW: 22Another so-so ACC team barely holding on to their spot in the Top 25.
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LW: 24Bye week
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LW: -TCU has another huge game coming against BYU. Can they prove BYU is overrated, or will they fall back out of the Top 25?
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LW: 14It was only a matter of time before Vanderbilt came back down to reality. They couldn’t handle the pressure of the being a top team and now they will probably struggle the rest of the way.
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LW: 25They struggled a little only scoring 37, but I am sure they will get back on track and put up 60+ on UTEP.
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