with all this talk about expansion with the SEC, i thought it would be fun to bring back some time capsule moments
The times Houston just fell short of an SEC invite
1955/1956
There was a strong push within the sec for expansion in 1955, notably by Florida who wanted miami in the SEC. there was strong disagreement with the conference… there was a strong contingent who wanted expansion too but didnt want miami (too far) and some who just opposed expansion
Houston (was MVC at the time) and Miami were the most favored teams amoung the tons of applicants including FSU…an intial decision couldn’t be made in 1955 and a study was order and to be decided in 1956…
Harry Fouke (our Then AD) documented the voting process in 1956, and how everyone voted (there was an article that detailed everything, through letters fouke wrote the then president, i searched everywhere but can’t find it again, but i posted it on the old coog fans like 5 or 6 years ago)
everyone was asked to vote for if they want expansion and then vote on a team for expansion even if you didnt want expansion. Houston was #1 in the expansion votes, Miami was #2. both Mississippi schools were our biggest advocates. everyone in the west voted for houston, all the eastern teams voted for Miami. If there was expansion it would have been houston and Miami, but they did not have the 75% vote needed for expansion… there was a strong contingent that felt 12 teams (in1950s) was already too much, that 14 was too many members
1990
in 1990 in the conference strength arms race when the pac 12 was still seen as a major power. Texas and Texas A&M flirted heavily with the idea of joining the Pac 12 while in the SWC. Both Texas schools and the Pac 12 wanted each other.
The SEC saw the Pac 12s move as a power grab into Texas and had multiple statements leaked that if that happened theyd add Houston and empower them to be a contender in Texas
unfortunately the Pac 12 was not proactive, and despite both sides wanting each other, the Pac 12 never formally invited the Texas schools till after the big 12 had already been formed and it was too late
we were just a few minor leadership decision changes away from being in the SEC today. what could have been
Unfortunately this is not quite right. The utau pimp wanted the PAC to lower its academia standards. The PAC refused. At this precise time the utau pimp was already talking to the BIG8 figure heads. We all know the rest on how the utau pimp orchestrated a coup (see Coog51) post in the old SWC thread. It has some to do with Anne Richards but she was not the decisive point.
pac 12 ultimately invited them in 1994 after hestiting in 1990. but texas had a public presser that it was too late , but uta said the invite was open ednded according to the pac 12 and maybe one they theyd consider it
its extremely well documented that Florida was an extreme advocate for miami to the SEC, and not just miami but florida state aswell… i didnt want to spam news paper article but atleast 15 article on this topic all say flordia wanted miami in the sec
news clipping from the 50s all the way to the 90s…they were also extremely strong advocates for florida state to the SEC in 1990, but ultimately florida state decide it was in their best interest to go the ACC…it was originally supposed to be south carolina and Florida state to the SEC
harry fouke talks about it in the article i cant find , about the Mississippi’s schools allegiance to us and Florida’s allegiance to Miami … i actually found a different paper clipping from 1960 about a unanimous SEC source claiming most of the expansion push is from florida for miami and they dont get way because the conference is too big as is …
my guess is probably a strong case for a travel partner and someone to have a voting block with them, like other sec… alabama/auburn…Goergia/Georgia tech… ole miss/miss state… Tennesse/ vandy …LSU/Tulane… kentucky and florida were the only main members in the 50-60s without a pair
I had a number of conversations with Coach Yeoman about the SEC. He told me that there were a number of times when we could have gone to the SEC. But the SWC had the better facilities, the better coaches and was considered a better conference.
Research the NCAA contenders for a NC and the SEC was in contention for the title from the 50s to today. Research our opponents in the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc. and we played the SEC numerous times.
Another point. What difference would it have meant if the SWC had better facilities? Does that mean that UH had better facilities than the SEC? Better than LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, etc.?
Better SWC coaching would imply that we had better coaching than the SEC. Advantage? I would hope so. Wouldn’t that have indicated we had a heads up recruiting advantage?
The SEC was composed of leading state schools from Georgia to LSU. We would have been the singular Texas program in the SEC.
I believe that there was an geographical culture driven by regional emotion and the lure of in-state rivalries that caused the powers to be to want UH in the SWC.
By today’s standard, it would have been a no-brainer to want UH in the SEC.
Years later, we now sit back and debate among ourselves whether we will land in a P-5 conference or not.
We wonder what went wrong? I’ll tell you.
Lack of vision. Lack of leadership. If you think about it…lack of common sense. Too much good old boy mentality and ego.
We can assess blame towards UT and A&M and others for our current situtation, but the truth of the matter is that we were, and probably still are, our own worst enemy.
So, just as I have always said, they all knew that if UH were given the opportunity to compete in a Power5 conference it would be able to become a major player in the state and country and would be able to compete with UT and A&M for support among fans in the state, definitely among fans in the Houston metro. I think UH could garner more support than even Miami if it is in the Power5 for Miami too have trouble filling in seats in its stadium despite its Power5 status. And UH is about 4 times the size of Miami. With Power5 status UH’s popularity among fans would only improve immensely.
Could you guys imagine how different things would be for us, not just as an athletic department, but as a academia had we accepted that invite? Would be something amazing to witness
I don’t think anyone could have envisioned back in the 1960’s how things would look today.
Why didn’t we join the SEC in the 1960?
The NCAA TV money was disbursed equally so there wasn’t a financial incentive to join the SEC. So being independent you got the same amount of money and you could schedule who ever you wanted. Plus outside of Alabama there wasn’t a school that you salivated over playing. We beat SEC schools all the time. Plus the SEC’s scheduling was not round robin so who knew when you would actually play Alabama. Then in recruiting, Texas kids wanted to play in the SWC not the SEC. Then you had the fact that we were fully integrated and SEC was not.
Not joining the SEC in the 1960s was the right call at the time.
I beg to differ! Joining a conference that played a more diverse group of schools would have been so much better than joining a group of Texas schools. Being a part of a conference that played a bunch of schools from an entire southern region would have garnered UH more of a national following rather than limited UH to the Houston metro, which it also had to compete with UT and A&M for fans. That was the short-sighted part of the school administrators at the time. You always want to make yourself be known and seen by the largest audience possible, that’s how you accumulate a fanbase and a national following.
By joining the SWC that was made up of almost entirely of Texas schools UH allowed itself to live under the shadows of UT and A&M, which also made it much harder for UH to stand out among the other Texas schools. Had UH been a part of the SEC it would have stood out like a sore thumb among the other schools since it would have been the only Texas school in the crowd, which would have been a great thing!
You are looking at it from a perspective of 2021 not 1968. The sports world was different then.
The SEC was good not great. The great migration to the Sun Belt handn’t begun, the SEC was viewed as rural backwards and racist. Given that we were in Space City and played in the Dome and we were integrated, we didn’t view it as a fit. We didn’t recruit those states other than Louisiana and no Texas kid grew up wanting to play in the SEC.
It was the right move then. The world changed however and the right decision then turned out to be the wrong decision now. But who knew.
That’s why those who thought in the same mindset as me was right. Not that I’m bragging or anything, but that’s simply a matter of fact. Those who thought similarly to me simply had a larger vision and saw the world in a bigger way. In any aspect of life you should always want to present yourself to the largest audience possible, especially in business and college football is a business.
Had UH joined the SEC and competed against Alabama for the conference title and defeated Alabama for the title that would have been more interesting to the rest of the country than UH defeating UT. People outside of Texas would have loved to see a great UH team playing Alabama, Florida, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, etc than watching UH playing another Texas team. It takes more vision to realize allowing your school to play more teams outside of Texas would create a much bigger footprint for your school nationally than limiting it to Texas and Arkansas only.
By playing more outside-of-state schools UH would have been in more TV sets with every game it played. That’s why I can’t understand why choosing to stick with a Texas-centric conference was a smart move regardless of which conference had better stadiums or how backwoods they thought the SEC was.
Anyway, with UH being less regarded than UT and A&M at the time (and today) it would also be smart for UH to find its own way outside of Texas since that state was already owned by UT and A&M. It would have been much easier for UH to create its own reputation and legacy outside a state that was already owned by UT and A&M and start anew with a conference that didn’t have such a negative opinion of UH.
You know kind of like if you’re an unpopular kid in your school and neighborhood it is better for you to move to a new neighborhood and school for you to make friends and start a new life than for you to try to fit in with a bunch of kids that don’t even like you. That’s how I have always felt about UH choosing to stick with the SWC rather than go to the SEC when it had a chance.
