5. The Big 12 dragging its feet and leading on any number of schools in the process
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It has been long established that the LilXII werenāt going to have to split the pie more ways. The conference was going to receive more money for the added schools, and they probably wouldāve ended up with larger portions because of a vesting period for the new members.
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How about throwing away a traditional conference like the SWC for the current Farm Belt 10?
It looked good on the surface and now they are swirling around the toilet waiting for the final flush.
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at some point, we have to look in the mirror and be honest: UH belongs in this thread as well. Not once, but twice we had open invitations to join the SEC: first, in 1971, sponsored by Old Miss, but then chose the SWC for cost of travel reasons, and, again, in 1991, when Arkansas left the SWC, we were asked to be their travel partner and SEC entry into Texas. We politely declined, unwilling to see the thin ice that was the Southwest Conference by then. South Carolina took our place that year. I would think, given the past 20 years wandering in the group of leftovers, those 2 decisions would rank in the top 5 or 10 as well.
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Iād have a hard time believing the SEC showed interest in us in 91. Our attendance was horrible in football and basketball. Our facilities were old. We had probation problems. The Mooreses saved the athletic department from the brink of death.
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i canāt really agree that breaking up the swc was an objectively bad move
sure, it hurt us, but upwards of half that conference (SMU, Rice, TCU, Baylor, UH) was dead weight at the time. honestly, if not for the swc breaking up, iām inclined to think that weād still be a bottom-feeder.
the real sham in that agreement was letting the whole Big 8 in. thereās absolutely no reason ISU should have been in that conference.
There was some action back in the 50s as well. Who knows. Both UH and the SEC have run hot and cold. Adding A&M helped them enter into Texas but Iām not sure it gave the conference the āBig bangā it was looking for.
I have talked with religiously devout sports fans of Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina. None of them gets excited about either playing the Aggies or having them in the conference. Several have expressed they would have much preferred having UH, particularly if we could have played in Reliant/NRG. Maybe some day soon it will come to pass.
I donāt believe the SEC ever had any real interest in UH. Is there an interview, news article or book that we can reference? Sounds like a bunch of hearsay.
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the SEC and SWC both had real interest in Houston in the early 70s. Our situation was dynamic and who ever got us was going to benefit as a conference.We played many SEC schools in those days and the Mississippi schools were prepared to sponsor us. We chose to go to the SWC because in those days, if you were a Texas school, being in the SWC was the ultimate.
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You need to go read about the breakup of the SWC. There was talk of A&M and UH to the SEC. Only UT was going to at the time the Big 8. Bullock AG at the time and Texas Tech Alum put pressure on UT to take additional schools to the Big 8 and agreed to fund the building of Reed Arena for A&M to go to what become the Big 12.
Somewhere on this forum (probably posted over a year ago) someone posted a document of the list of schools in the SEC back in the 70s that listed UHās potential admission the SEC. ( I think the title of the thread is āwhat could have beenā but I donāt remember exactly.) The majority of the schools provided support for UH admission (ole miss, miss state, auburn, Tennessee, and Alabama either fully supported or were open to the idea of UH admission into the SEC; Florida was the only one I remember that was indifferent).
The thought of us possibly joining the SEC I believe is what got us in the SWC.
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I do believe you are correct.
The SWC was a top three conference. Ending that kind of tradition is beyond words. imo
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Top 3? Iām not so sure about that.
This is correct. Ole Miss tried to sponsor us in the 50ās.
Conference decisions were made for entirely different reasons back when the NCAA equally distributed the TV money. Back then sanity and tradition prevailed.
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I have been around for many years and can never remember us being mentioned publicly as a candidate for an SEC spotā¦most of the SEC schools hated us, especially after bringing in black athletes and then beating teams like Ole Miss and MSU, Kentucky and Georgia. They all dropped off our schedule and all these years later only MSU has bothered to call and schedule with usā¦oh yeah, I forgot about Vanderbiltā¦
We were in one of the best conferences in America until scandals began to rip apart the Big 12ā¦had we had our stuff in order along with a decent fan base, we would not have been in this position today.
You can blame it on Ann Richards or Trump, the bottom line is that we had fallen to a low point in '95 when the conference fell apartā¦our lack of fans let us down in a big wayā¦
Nationally ranked football teams like UH, Texas, Agy, Arkansas, and at times Baylor and SMUā¦yes the SWC was one of the top three for several years runningā¦when the Hogs left and scandals started catching up everything started falling apartā¦
Back in the olden days UH, Arkansas, Texas, Agy and Baylor all had some decent teams, with of course UH and Arkansas having some really good teams.
Texas dominated in baseball and all the other minor sports were well representedā¦
The SWC died because of the Oilers and the Cowboys. Almost half of the teams were located in the Houston and the Metroplex and during the late 60ās, 70ās and 80ās the NFL dominated football in those two cities. Fans of TCU, SMU, Rice and to a certain extent UH stopped showing up. You canāt have a conference where 4 schools are playing in front of crowds of less than 20,000.
The SWC hasten itās demise by making very bad decisions. Not many people know this but ESPN approached the SWC in the early 80ās to be itās premier conference on Saturday nights. The SWC opted to not go with ESPN and sign with Raycom. Had the SWC opted to go with a struggling start up (ESPN) the history of the SWC would have been different. I believe Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would have joined the SWC as opposed to 4 schools from the SWC joining the Big 8 schools.
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