The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Bill Little commentary: New folks
10.05.2012 | Football, Bill Little Commentary
Oct. 5, 2012
Bill Little, Texas Media Relations
In the mid-1950s, the area in northern Runnels County around the town of Winters was thriving in the midst of the discovery of a shallow oil field. That meant that our little town was the beneficiary of an influx of executives and employees of companies associated with the oil industry.
It may have meant new money and new homes in suddenly created subdivisions to the adults in Our Town, but for us kids it meant only one thing: "New Folks."
The transient nature of the business meant that some friends would come and others would move on, but the overriding excitement of newcomers trumped the sadness of departures. New kids translated into "new friends."
That is the feeling as West Virginia heads into Austin for the first meeting in Big 12 competition between two schools with highly respected athletics programs and top ranked football teams.
What began seventeen football seasons ago as a dramatic reorganization of two conferences - the Southwest Conference and the Big 8 Conference - the Big 12 has now seen the departure of four of the original dozen members over the last two years.
The season of 2012 marks a new direction for the league; part of a changing landscape of college football nationally.
Two new schools - TCU and West Virginia - are the latest additions to the league which has been a dominant force in the post season BCS National Championship picture, dating back to the late 1990s.
Coupled with the changes in the conference in which Texas competes are future changes on a national scale. In a couple of years, the BCS as we have known it will give way to a four-team playoff to determine who wins the national title.
All of that, however, is in the future. The present offers a new and exciting landscape for Texas football. It will also be one of the most competitive.
Perhaps as never in its history, the Big 12 - at least from a pre-season view - appears to have more teams capable of winning its title than ever. Of the ten league teams, at least one media representative tabbed six different teams as a potential winner.
The Longhorns history with the two newest members is about as diverse as it can get. West Virginia, which will play the Longhorns in Austin on Saturday, won the only meeting between the two schools, 7-6, in 1956. The 'Horns that year went 1-9 the year before Texas brought in Darrell Royal as the new coach.
The Horned Frogs of TCU, on the other hand, are one of the oldest rivals in Longhorn history. The two schools, which last met in a non-conference game in 2007, first played in 1897. Beginning in 1923, the two schools were members of the Southwest Conference until the league disbanded after the 1995 football season. When it hosts the Frogs in the final home game of the 2012 season, Texas maintains a 61-20-1 edge over TCU - including that 34-13 win five years ago.
The massive changes in the college football landscape began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Penn State announced its intention to join the Big 10 Conference. Soon afterward, Arkansas declared it was moving from the Southwest Conference to the SEC. The 1980s had been a traumatic time for the Southwest Conference.
Where the 1970s had reflected growth in the league with the addition of the University of Houston, the 1980s had seen the dark clouds of scandal cover the league. SMU rose to national stature in the early part of the decade, only to have the football program eliminated in the NCAA's only "Death Penalty" in its history in the middle of the 1980s. TCU received a stern penalty and before the purge was over, nearly every school in the league had been implicated in violations ranging from minor to major.
It was under that umbrella that new horizons appeared possible for schools such as Arkansas, Texas, and Texas A&M. The SEC and the Pac-10 both showed significant interest in the two Texas schools, with the Razorback nation holding out hope that they would join them in the journey to the SEC.
The initial response was to try to hold the Southwest Conference together, holding fast with its eight schools - Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, SMU, Rice and Houston as members.
But as the 1990s proceeded, the large shadow of the television industry began to influence decisions. The Big 8 Conference, whose schools were linked geographically in the Midwest, had only seven percent of America's TV sets. The Big 10 had over 30 per cent, and the SEC 23 per cent. Even though Texas teams brought major television markets in Dallas and Houston, the SWC had only seven per cent coverage itself.
The first option for the SWC and the Big 8 was to attempt a coalition that would entice the networks. When that failed, so did the leagues. The popular thought was that four Texas schools - Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor - elected to join the Big 8. But the fact was, the Big 8 had no regional television package and was actually in more trouble than the SWC. So the result was that both leagues disbanded, and the eight schools in the Big 8 and the four Texas schools formed a league of a dozen teams known as the Big 12.
Among those left behind, of course, was TCU. In the years since, TCU has become a respected football program, and with the combination of the Frogs and West Virginia, the Big 12 has added national respect - reinventing itself just when many rumors had the league on the brink of extinction.
The history of the Texas-TCU series is rich with some of the greatest figures in football in the southwestern United States. From the 1920s and 1930s, when Sammy Baugh and Davey O'Brien were becoming almost mythical heroes on the Fort Worth campus, through the time of Bobby Layne in the 1940s, and Roosevelt Leaks and Earl Campbell at Texas in the 1970s, the series was a mosaic of gridiron glory.
West Virginia, on the other hand, is truly the "new friend" in the equation. When the two top ten teams meet Saturday, it will bring together two schools who have a kinship of excellence when it comes to athletics competition. The fan bases of the two schools, as well as the national media, has taken notice. With a reputation of passionate fans and excellent football, the Mountaineers extend the borders of what once was a Midwest-Southwest venue. The television cameras (not to mention the networks) will relish the new rivalries featuring the two new schools with the established programs in the Big 12.
As they did last season, the Big 12 under its new alignment will see all ten teams play each other, as well as the elimination of a conference championship game. That, in its own way, will change dramatically the sense of the campaign.
That is why, as the media pundits and prognosticators try to predict the league's navigation through this 2012 season, it becomes darn near impossible to handicap the finish.
For the first time in its existence, every team in the league will likely be thinking at the season's beginning that they have a legitimate chance to win. Where in the "old" Big 12 Oklahoma and Texas, for example, might go two years without playing a Nebraska or a Colorado, now West Virginia will play at Texas, and Oklahoma will be visiting the Mountaineers.
That is why there is excitement throughout the league, and why the Longhorns are committed to their team motto of "RISE." This will be a rugged campaign, and it will play out with a lot of interest on a lot of levels.
It is, as it was, in Winters in the 1950s. You've got new friends, and therefore new competitors. Winning this league will be harder. Everybody is going to want to date the prettiest girl in town. There is strength in the completion, and power and prestige in the camaraderie.
Most of all, it is an intriguing and exciting new world.
New folks have a way of opening new windows, providing new horizons, creating new friendships, and by definition, new rivalries.
