The Big 12 has been imploding for a long time, and it’s not exactly been a secret. It seems like twice every year we get treated to the hilarious roller coaster of emotions where the Big 12 says it’s considering candidates, a few colleges get really excited and think that things are finally going to change, and then the Big 12 decides that it isn’t going to expand, but leaves the door cracked just a tad so that you have some hope again.
The fractures began in 2011 when Nebraska announced that they were leaving for the apparently greener pastures of the Big 10. After Colorado left as well, the writing was on the wall, and rumors abounded about where the rest of the conference would go. It stayed stable for a few months until the Big 12 (most notably Ken Starr and Baylor) finally agreed to not pursue legal action if the SEC offered A&M, and the Aggies subsequently left for the self-proclaimed (and proven on the field) best conference in the land. The SEC eventually poached Missouri as well, and the Big 12 added West Virginia and TCU.
The conference’s cracks and subsequent duct tape wrapped around a leaky pipe with the two additions are still relevant today, as the Big 12 tries to navigate a future that seems to dictate one thing: expand, or die.
The conference wasn’t the only casualty of Texas A&M leaving. It killed one of the greatest rivalry in college football, the annual Thanksgiving day game between Texas A&M and Texas. It used to be a family tradition in my house. The dad’s side of my family follows cues from my father, and are all Texas fans. My mom’s side of the family, all my aunts and uncles, are Aggies. I remember not having Thanksgiving dinner until the game was over, or until the game started. I remember watching the Texas band preform after the 1999 bonfire tragedy at A&M. I remember watching Justin Tucker delete the A&M hopes at the end of the Big 12 era of the rivalry. I remember watching Michael Bennett delete Colt McCoy. I remember Ricky Williams breaking the rushing record.
There’s more to this rivalry that I wasn’t alive for, like the years legendary coaches like Dana X. Bible, Bear Bryant, Darryl Royal, and Jackie Sherrill. The first football game broadcast on the radio in Texas was the 1921 matchup between Texas and Texas A&M. Both Bevo and Reveille have bee stolen at some point.
It’s more than just a game, it’s a cultural landmark in Texas. I’m a fan of neither team, I got my degree from Texas Tech, and actively root for those two respective teams to fall down a deep mine shaft every time I see them playing. I still want this game back, not so I can make lame jokes about meteors hitting stadiums, or be mad that someone technically has to win this game, I want it back because it’s a part of a holiday that seemed irreplaceable. It was a unifying moment, even for those families with divided houses.
Now, we have whatever the hell this weekend is. A&M will play LSU, and while they definitely have a history, it’s not the archrival in burnt orange. Texas has traded off with TCU and Texas Tech, and as much as I loved my Red Raiders ruining Thanksgiving in Austin last year, it was just missing something.
It definitely won’t happen anytime soon, that’s for sure. There’s money involved now, and the worst thing for amateur athletics has been money, hands down. Just please, don’t let this thing die forever, and let’s not have to get legislation passed to do it. Ignore who told who they weren’t pretty enough or who left for the SEC or whose network is a colossal drain of precious resources on ESPN, which is dying itself. Play it because it even after all these years, Thanksgiving just doesn’t seem like Thanksgiving without it.
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For the good of the state…LOL