Texas *: Who cares?
There seems to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the sign that put up, then taken down, in the University of Texas football complex. Under Big 12 championships, it read: 2008*.
To which I say, at least they put up the asterisk.
I don’t understand this whole notion of OU fans wanting Texas fans to relax and accept what happened in 2008, that the Longhorns came out on the short end of the three-way tie. The Sooners advanced fair and square; they went on to win the Big 12 title, sans asterisk, and could have settled the whole thing with a victory over Florida, but that didn’t happen.
If the roles were reversed, OU fans would be revolting in the streets, too. We wouldn’t hear the end of how the Sooners beat Texas, but Texas got to play in the Big 12 title game.
One difference, I think, is there probably would have been no sign up in the OU locker room. And I’m hard-pressed to believe that Mack Brown didn’t know about the sign going up. If he didn’t, there are a lot of poor decision-makers walking around that complex. Bad Decision 1: Thinking up the goofy thing in the first place. Bad Decision 2: Don’t ask Mack about it.
But before Soonerville cackles too loudly, remember that OU is the school where the coach suspended his no-excuses policy after the Oregon debacle and where the president asked for the game to be declared no-contest. Yes, it was a series of bad calls in Eugene, but welcome to what Blackie Sherrod called the world of perspiring arts. The University of Texas knows the feeling well.
The truth is, you make Texans shut up about it by winning the game next autumn. If OU doesn’t win, the amplification of the 2008 controversy only multiplies.
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