Big 12 football: Texas removes ‘2008*’
UT coach claims ignorance on controversial wall post
By Jake Trotter
Comments 
77
Published: April 7, 2009
Trying to defuse a controversy over claiming a Big 12 Championship they didn’t win, the Texas Longhorns removed "2008*” from a wall listing their Big 12 titles, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.
Texas spokesman
John Bianco told the
Statesman that Longhorns coach
Mack Brown was unaware 2008 with an asterisk had been posted on a wall inside the Moncrief-Neuhaus training facility.
"Obviously there was a lot of discussion about the two teams playing for the Big 12 title being two teams we’d beaten,” Bianco said Monday. "The kidding around became a misunderstanding as an instruction to post it on the wall (of the meeting room). It was clearly not the intent of Mack to post it.”
Following Monday’s spring practice,
Oklahoma coach
Bob Stoops was asked what he thought about Texas claiming the 2008 Big 12 Championship on its wall with an asterisk.
"It doesn’t much matter to me at all, I don’t much care,” Stoops said. "I know there isn’t (an asterisk) on ours. And I know where the trophy is. I’m not worried about anyone else and what they’ve got.”
Last season, OU edged out Texas and
Texas Tech for the South title in a tiebreaker determined by the
BCS Standings, despite ardent protests from Brown and the Texas fan base.
The Longhorns claimed that because they defeated OU head-to-head, they deserved to go to the Big 12 title game — despite the fact they also lost to Texas Tech, creating a three-way tie among the one-loss Big 12 South teams.
On the last week of the regular season, Texas fans even paid for a flyover in
Stillwater before the Bedlam game to remind voters of Texas’ 45-35 win over OU in the
Cotton Bowl.
Nevertheless, the
Sooners ended up ranked higher than Texas and Texas Tech in the BCS and went on to beat
Missouri in
Kansas City, Mo., to win their third-consecutive Big 12 Championship.
That victory is still not being acknowledged by some in
Austin, apparently.
Said one school official to the
Statesman when asked about the asterisk, "We beat both (OU and North Division winner Missouri). I thought that (championship game in Kansas City) was for the runner-up spot.”
Moreover, even though OU officially won the Big 12, Texas president
William Powers Jr. announced Monday his university would pay out $44,000 total to its assistant coaches in bonuses that are called for when the Longhorns win the Big 12 Championship.
The team’s two coordinators, strength coach and director of football operations will each receive $5,000. The others will each get a payment of $3,000.
"I think this was the right decision,” Powers told the
Statesman. "A flip of a coin basically deprived them of the ability to earn that part of their compensation.”
Brown, however, did not receive a South title or Big 12 Championship bonus, which together would’ve totaled $150,000.
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I think you are working from shaky grounds here comparing this Texas' claim to the Oregon game a few years back. In the Oregon, there were apologies issues because the failure of the referees to call the game accurately.
Last year, Texas' AD knew the guidelines for establishing the South Champion and he even voted for it. He and Mack, also took a page from Bill Snyder's famous coaching manual, "How to Schedule Pansies as Non-Conference Opponents." Strength of schedule has always been a factor in the BCS. If Texas fans are mad (and they should be), they should be asking for an AD at Texas like Joe Castiglione. That's why Texas wasn't playing in the Big XII and National Championship (losing at Texas Tech didn't help either...). This year's UT schedule makes last year's look down right impressive. Odds are Texas gets left holding the bag again.
Lets see-where to start-if the Big 10-actually 11 teams played a home and home series with each team-they would play a total of 20 games. I do not believe that the NCAA allows that many games, but I am sure jo's rules will circumvent NCAA rules. Now shut the hell up and get me a beer...
LA Sooner
"Mack Brown Claims Ingnorance" I'd buy that t-shirt/bumper sticker !
What a joke those guys are, it's not like they just had it written on a dry erase board...they had to order this and have it installed. It's hard to believe that Mack Brown didn't know about it. I think having no direct quote from Mack tells a story, hiding behind a spokesman. I'm really suprised he wasn't on at halftime of the NCAA Basketball championship game still whining !
For a school that claims academic superiority, Texas sure is stupid.
hint : prima dona
Big10 & Pac10 only play 8 conf games (not9)
home & home each year= playing the same team twice per season
I always hated UT, but at least I respected them. No more. They are just a sad lot now. It never made me mad that they were claiming a championship that was not theirs. It made me pity them.
Like Bob said, there's no astericks by ours and we know where the trophy resides. As does everyone else.
Keep in mind, too, that although OU has lost several big games at the end of the season the past few years, the game this past season versus Florida was still competitive (as was the LSU game, the BSU game, etc.) The only "blowouts" were vs USC and West Virginia.
them. OU did not win the Big 12, there was a 3-way tie for the South, and a panel of people
using a lap-top "Gave" OU the Big 12 South Title that allowed them(OU) to play Missouri for
the Big 12 Championship. OU did not earn the right to play in the Big 12 Title game by
beating all its Big 12 opponents, it was "handed" the right to play, like a gift. Lets also hope
Buffalo Bob didn't get another bonus for winning the conference when the same previous
statement applies to him. He did not coach his team to wins over all Big 12 South opponents.
He also got a gift(Title Game)that he didn't earn. The PAC-10 and BIG-10 are, I believe, the
only BCS conference's that have a true champion by each team playing all the other teams
in the conference during the season, home-n-home, like the old Big-8. The likely hood of having a 3-way tie for the conference is far less and you get a true champion at the end
of league play, not some pre-madonna team that always gets the nod and winds up
humiliating it's fan base by going to a BCS bowl where they are always(last 6 years)in over
their head by being a non-competitive team, but they "wana-be" a winner.