Texas A.D. Dodds Blames End Of A&M Series On A&M (Also Talks Expansion)

March 19th, 2013 10:33 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
Tags: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Notre Dames

You’ve got to hand it to DeLoss Dodds. His lies give credence to the old line that “everything’s bigger in Texas.”

The Longhorn athletic director said in an interview with the student newspaper at UT — the Big XII’s UT, not the SEC’s — that it’s Texas A&M who brought the football rivalry between the two schools to a halt, not the other way around. This in spite of the fact that everyone outside the Lone Star State and half the people in it know full well that A&M has said it wants to continue playing the series and that Dodds’ school is the one that balked:

“I’m think we’ll play sometime. I don’t know when it will happen or how it will happen, but I’m sure it will happen…

They left. They’re the ones that decided not to play us. We get to decide when we play again. I think that’s fair. If you did a survey of our fans about playing A&M, they don’t want to. It’s overwhelming. I know. I hear it. Our fans are important to us. I think there’s got to be a period where things get different. I think there’s too many hard feelings.”

“They’re the ones that decided not to play us,” is a complete fallacy, a canard, an untruth. Georgia Tech once left the SEC. Their arch-rival, Georgia, didn’t take their ball and run home. South Carolina left the ACC in 1971. Their hated cross-state neighbor, Clemson, didn’t pout and cancel the South’s uninterrupted football series.

While Dodds flat-out lied about which school said it wouldn’t play the other, he simply put his own personal spin on the ongoing conference realignment story. It’s been pretty well reported by now that Texas is the the biggest opponent to Big XII expansion. If the league can’t add Notre Dame — Dodds’ personal dream — then the Horns don’t want the conference to grow at all as expansion would cost UT even more of its influence and power within the league. Better to be a loud voice among 10 than a slightly quieter voice among 12… or 16. For that reason, Texas’ AD seems to be a fan of the possible Big XII/ACC scheduling alliance that ACC commish John Swofford has been angling for:

“It you walk through it, the Pac-12 truthfully has not place to go to pick up teams, except the Big XII. The SEC and the Big Ten can pick up teams but it’s only probably the ACC teams, maybe the Big East. So they’re the conference that could be under attack. And the alliance between the Big XII and the ACC, I think, strengthens them. I think that the Notre Dames of the world, it would unite them a little bit, toughen them a little bit. Then I think it would be less likely that anyone could pick one of their schools up.”

That’s the first public admission from anyone inside the Big XII — that we’ve seen at least — saying that if the Pac-12 expands again, it’ll likely do so by trying to nab a Big XII school or two. Or six.

Whether a Big XII/ACC scheduling partnership comes to fruition will depend on whether or not the other nine schools in the league see the future in the same way that Dodds does. If so, an alliance may become a reality. If not, an ACC school or two might wind up in a league with Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Kansas State.

Fun.

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33 comments

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greg.w.h

Thoughts:

1. DeLoss Dodds is largely correct regarding fan support opposing an active series with A&M. At least among the constituency that directly supports the athletics.

2. His strategy in all of this highlights his attachment to the LHN: he intended to leverage the branding of his opponents to draw in money from not just his alumni but the general public AND opponents alumni. It was rapacious and greedy and justifies A&M & Mizzou--not to mention Colorado and Nebraska--leaving the Big 12.

3. After his death I think you'll see the series get a reboot. That's assuming Texas isn't already in the SEC before then of course. This Aggie is quite clear-eyed on that possibility: Texas brand value to the SEC is enormous even with MY SCHOOL (A&M) already in the conference. Subsuming the LHN into the planned SEC Network won't happen while Dodds is alive. But ESPN will be able to discard one bad deal and improve the SEC Network all in one fell swoop. Plus they get the renewed rivalry to broadcast to boot.

DuaneDavis

@greg.w.h

I don't see tu in the SEC. PAC maybe. But their shenanigans leading up to the brink of their league disbanding has revealed to the world what we've known for decades. Deloss has hurt their brand over the past 3 - 4 years.

As for playing them; like I told my sip radio host friend on the air just before thanksgiving when he was lamenting the loss of the game and how Aggies felt about not playing them this season....."Who?"

LouRios

@greg.w.h The steers in the SEC? Ahhh NO....they have care-taker responsibilities and BU/TT and TCU will not be left out...NO steers in the SEC...

ghall5517

@LouRios @greg.w.h You really don't think UT cares what happens to BU/TT, TCU etc. do you? Despite decades of voting "me too" to whatever DeLoss proposed.

ghall5517

@LouRios @greg.w.h I don't the UT fan base could stomach what would essentially be A&M leading the Horns into the SEC. The SEC, too has some pretty long standing traditions. Some years ago, Fla. State would have been a nice addition, but Florida would not stand for it. Same for Clemson and Ga. Tech being asked in over the objections of current SEC members. And really? The Longhorn Network is not going to "part of" anything. It will be dismantled if and when UT moves to join another conference. This is an epic fail and DeLoss has to run out the string yammering about its "potential." Talk about your "tiny slivers."

Bigfoot in Aggieland

1 Like

@greg.w.h Polls are strange on the renewing of the series. In the local College Station paper, The Eagle, most people did not want the series to return. The poll on ESPN SEC blog shows 72% support the game returning. I can't figure it out.

The only UT in the SEC will be the Vols, as it should be. Longhorns are more Berkley style, and Austinite culture will not change anytime soon.

seegul

1 Like

Dodds loves to pretend A&M is pounding his door down trying to schedule a game. Geez, how far removed from reality can he be? Or maybe he just lies. Look at A&M's tremendous conference schedule and compare to tu's pathetic lineup. What great games tu fans have to look forward to year in and year out: ISU, TCU, TTU, Kansas, WVA, and mighty Shyster High showing up with both their fans. When OU decides to leave and take OSU with them what will Dodds do? With the reputation he and Powers have built for tu who will consider any dealings with them?

DM_Shirley

@MrSEC Pac-12 should target BYU and Boise State

DuaneDavis

1 Like

This is the kind of stuff we put up with for decades, and why I could not care less if we ever play the tsips again in anything.

Bigfoot in Aggieland

I am glad to be done with the Longhorns.

There is nothing better in life than a good marriage, there is nothing worse in life than a bad one.

BonzaiB

3 Like

@NewtonCrew One of the best things about getting the Ags in the SEC is that we get to compare our AD's to what you guys have and had to put up with in the Big XII. This article catalogs the Longhorns, but I just read somewhere that Baylor and Tech have both said they would love to start playing A&M again..... Hmmmm. You guys need to just stick with us. We need to beat up on you some more, you need to beat up on us, and then swap lies for about 10 years before you go back to the former relatives for anything. From what I've seen of Texas, the SEC won.....

ghall5517

@BonzaiB @NewtonCrew Agreed - 10 years out...all strictly at Kyle Field. Those school cannot come up with a decent enough gate in 40K 50K size stadiums.

Bigfoot in Aggieland

1 Like

@BonzaiB Agreed. I want more scheduled games against the SEC East. Gators, Dawgs, Gamecocks, Vols. All of those games would be a blast.

But I never want to play Tech again. Ever. Lubbock is an embarrassment to the entire state.

BonzaiB

@NewtonCrew The advantages of a 9 game intra-SEC schedule baby.....

mitchs3

2 Like

Dodds is clearly still tasting bile from TAMU (and MU and NU) not cow-towing to UT's directives like the rest of the B12 did and heading for greener pastures. This is on the heels of his 'our worst years are better than Missouri's best years' comment a few weeks back, which as was pointed out (1) is completely false, (2) was something he'd been waiting to say for 2 years since he chose to pull it out at the oddest time, and (3) is completely ridiculous because given Texas' over-the-top resources ($, recruits, population, etc.), ut SHOULD be that much more successful than MU and every other athletic program outside of maybe 5 nationwide.

This also is exactly the same tripe that Kansas spews about playing Mizzou ('they chose to leave' and 'we'll play only if/when it is advantageous for us') while Mizzou (like A&M) says anywhere, anytime, while Kansas has chosen to schedule fellow B12 escapee Colorado. I suspect Texas has decreed that no B12 schools are to play TAMU or MU for the foreseeable future, and the others will subserviently comply until Texas says otherwise.

Good riddance.

TEXAGEAGLE

3 Like

This is just the latest in a decades-long fantasy and superiority complex pervasive among the Longhorn leadership. The irony and hypocrisy of Deloss Dodds' spin on A&M's move to the SEC is that Texas would be gone from the Big 12 themselves if the PAC-12 would have had them. The same is true for OU, OSU and Texas Tech. Texas made their play to join the PAC-12 but the the PAC-12 said "no thanks" to the Longhorns. At the same time, the SEC accepted A&M. So, Texas is responding like a spoiled little girl who didn't get her way. On the other hand, A&M's union with the SEC did work out and will bode well for both the SEC and A&M for years to come. A&M has said repeatedly they want to play Texas "anytime, anywhere" and everyone knows that. Just let the Longhorns stew in their own juice over their PAC-12 rejection and ongoing egomania. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

ghall5517

@TEXAGEAGLE Nice post - let me revise just slightly in saying the PAC wanted Texas and the four team deal they had worked out - UT, A&M, OU, OSU. This is why all the talk of the Horns at the B12 savior is nonsense, because Baylor, TT and the rest would have been left adrift. It was A&M that torpedoed the deal, saying that if we went anywhere it would be to the SEC. This fight was led by Gene Stallings, then on the Board of Regents.

AndrewMartin

@ghall5517 @TEXAGEAGLE Texas Tech was part of the PAC expansion too, Utah would have been left out. In my opinion, all these teams would be gone if A&M would have agreed.

BonzaiB

@ghall5517 @TEXAGEAGLE The more I hear of Stallings career after football, the more I am impressed by the man.

DanHogan

3 Like

Striking that Texas is the one with "hard feelings" after Texas worked so hard to destabilize the Big 12 and ship everyone out west. Hard feelings? You gotta be kidding me!

sojourner

1 Like

back in the day (when arkansas and s.c. joined the sec), i was hoping that texas and a & m would tag along. i thought it would make for a super conference. it had never dawned on me, the superiority complex which infects the powers that be at texas. they weren't about to dirty their hands with the auburns and georgias of the sec when they considered themselves more at home with the likes of cal-berkely and stanford. now, i'm relieved it never came to pass. the worst i could hope for texas is that they get their wet dream of being allowed into the pac-whatever. besides the logistical problems it will be pure delight, watching them being dismissed as rubes by the west coast snobs.

ghall5517

@sojourner The LHN cannot make the trip out west with them. No other league would put up with that except the UT amen corner in the B12

ghall5517

1 Like

@sojourner No one is going to take the with the pathetic Longhorn Network. Dodds knows it has to go but that will be a painful thing that could be the last straw on his job. The public failure of LHN is an humiliation UT will not stand for long.

viciousdawg

6 Like

The more DeLoser Dobbs opens his mouth, the more I think the SEC won with admitting A&M to the Conference.

ghall5517

1 Like

@viciousdawg The Aggies love the SEC! Win, lose or tailgaiting...we are home.

I4Bama

3 Like

Texas is a cancer. Wouldn't you have left if you were putting up with that bull?

TigerinMO

@I4Bama Texass is indeed a cancer. Truer words were never spoken. If Texass ever, ever gets close to sniffing SEC membership, I really hope all the SEC schools will take note of what a horrible partner it has been in other conferences. It has now managed to kill not one, but two, conferences. The Big XII is Texass' lapdog, and I am SO glad my TIgers are out of there.

alamoaggie08

3 Like

is it possible that DeLoser Dodds and Dr. Power(les)s are becoming the most laughable AD-President duo in the country, surpassing ohio state's Gene Smith and Gordon Gee? both pairs seem to think they are all-powerful and completely immune to criticism, causing them to end up saying stupid things and looking like idiots to the rest of country. meanwhile, in their little bubbles they still think the world revolves around them.

KY_Daktari

1 Like

It sounds more like the faulty logic and sour grapes than an outright lie. He probably even believes it, even though it's obviously false to an objective observer. He's saying that by leaving the Big XII the real implication was that A&M would no long play the Longhorns. It's another case of Texas thinking everything is about them. It's like losing a recruit--they don't hate your school just because they picked a different one, so why all the hate?

Texas is just a bully that got shown they're not as important as they think they are, so they're trying to show they're really in charge. Grow up Dodds. And guess what? A&M just showed with a monster year how they don't need you. At all.

John at MrSEC moderator

4 Like

@KY_Daktari

If you say you will play me and I say I won't play you... I'd consider it a lie for me to tell folks, "He decided not to play me." I spent several years in advertising/marketing and I know spin. This is deeper than spin in my book.

Thanks for reading,

John

ghall5517

1 Like

@John at MrSEC @KY_Daktari I get it guys...thing is....I don't want to play them. Our Ags are likely to win but the game helps UT more than A&M. Aggie tail lights are disappearing up ahead and the horns can't keep up. We wasted too much energy trying to be tu's rival and they were too arrogant to admit they cared about the game. And we did win 50% of the games since scholarship limits. Free of that "rival tratdion", the focus is on winning championships. So easy to see now. I don't want to ever play them again, unless it's in a bowl. All the advantages are in Aggieland now. Why give them a game that adds the credibility of playing a superior program?

BonzaiB

1 Like

@John at MrSEC @KY_Daktari "This was deeper than spin in my book," makes more of a gentleman than most.....

kentatm

2 Like

@John at MrSEC @KY_Daktari

dont forget that he threatened to end the series in 2010 when it looked like 4 B12 teams would join the Pac b/c A&M wanted to be in the SEC or stay put. It was basically a if you don't follow us we will dump you thing.

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