This Week in the Southwest Conference

By: Dave Roberson

It is now the end of September and the warm-up games are behind us. The pretenders have been exposed and the sorting has begun. The first BCS polls will be out soon and most of the nation is now praying that on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a few hours after Auburn has whipped the Crimson Tide, Nevada somehow beats Boise State; that is unless Nevada is the only undefeated team left. What a mess!

Week 4 was definitely about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s start with our friends in Waco. The Bears came into Rice Stadium and left with bowl dreams still dancing in their heads. It was a must win, so put a check mark in the good column. However, the next time Baylor gets the headlines is after they beat a favored opponent, which will be most any week the rest of the year. And after slamming TCU and SMU for playing on the high school Sabbath, they actually both get a good grade this week. TCU gets a mark for both dominating in the second half while winning and SMU’s comes for putting a record crowd in Ford Stadium and playing with great intensity against a far superior team. Another attaboy goes to UH. After losing their first and second string QBs at UCLA, freshman Terrance Broadway lead the Coogs to a convincing road win at Tulane. And believe it or not, although they will stubbornly disagree, I am giving the Hogs a good grade for playing their hearts out against Alabama. I know the Arks are crushed from coming oh so close, but they played a really good game. It was just a case of the better team winning. As for the bad, I am calling the LSU and OU wins underwhelming. Although both won, OU’s on the road, I am convinced that both Coach Miles and Coach Stoops have plenty of film to teach with this week. And Rice, come on now. Do not make me look bad by bringing you back into the SWC. Got to shape up boys.

Now for the ugly. These bad boys get their own paragraph, and I mean bad as in stinking bad. It is bad enough to lay an egg at home, but when you play an opponent whose fans are bright enough to spell out not one, but two different chants, that my friend is ugly. These folks could spell both U-C-L-A and B-R-U-I-N-S. And they spelled it perfectly every time and they spelled it out often. They did not even need cue cards. I am just glad they did not get to O-V-E-R-R-A-T-T-E-D. And to add insult to injury, the lead upper deck cheerleader was wearing a sweater. It was over 90 degrees in the shade, and trust me, there was no shade in the NE corner of DKR-Memorial Stadium. We are talking about a seriously tough surfer dude. I just wish the guys in the orange jerseys were as tough as the UCLA cheerleader. Even the Showband of the Southwest took the game off with a quick, half-hearted halftime show. Hey, the game was on ABC and if you wanted to, you saw it. I do recommend that you keep the kids away from any Texas coach this week. They would definitely have their little vocabularies expanded.

Before I preview the first weekend of October, which because of ESPN actually starts the last day of September, I want to get back to this whole SWC thing. Since there is no real expectation that the Big 12 minus two, which I will now refer to as the B12-2, will last much longer, we need to be concerned as to where all of our favorite southwestern teams will wind up. And after hearing a suggestion this past week that the B12-2 should raid Arizona and Arizona State, a kind of pay back for stealing CU, it just validates that we need to be proactive on this re-alignment thing. So let’s start with a clean slate and build a 12 team conference which has plenty of tradition, natural rivalries, and several teams with a national buzz factor. The last nine members of the SWC have the tradition. OU and Oklahoma St were former members and they have great tradition and great rivalry. Throw in LSU, who was originally invited back in 1914 but who declined, and you have a potentially great conference. Arkansas and Oklahoma St are natural rivals and LSU has played many games against Rice, Texas A&M, and of course Arkansas recently in the SEC. As for national appeal, Texas and OU are always in the national discussion and LSU, Arkansas and Texas A&M can easily be when they have good seasons. And there is TCU who just happened to go to a BCS bowl last year. And over 40 million people living in the four states give you plenty of passionate eyeballs to sell to television. Since it could work, I am going to keep this dream alive until the B12m2 completely blows up.

Now that I have you on board with viability, what does it look like? Well, first we have to come up with two divisions. You can look at this several ways, but the best is to have Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, OU, Oklahoma St, and Arkansas in one division and Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M, Rice, UH, and LSU in the other. When I considered names for the Divisions, North and South seemed so yesterday. Then I had this great idea of letting the students from the schools help me. I noticed that when students talked about a hated rival, they used short mono-syllabic words that described the natural breathing process of inhaling and exhaling. That led me to think about windy weather, which seems to play a factor in many SWC games and voila, The Tornado Division and the Hurricane Division. As for scheduling, the SWC would play 9 conference games. That would still give them a throw-away game on Labor Day weekend and then 2 other non-conference games to schedule to either please the fan base or bag a couple more wins. Each team would play each team in its division, that’s five, one traditional game, that’s six, and then three others on a rotating basis. The tradition games which would be played every year are: OU – Texas, A&M – Tech, Baylor – TCU, Rice – SMU, UH – Oklahoma St, and Arkansas – LSU. This tradition game is very important. One of the criticisms of the Big 12 was that OU and Nebraska did not play every year. Great games will not be lost in the SWC. The championship game would rotate among the four domes, Alamodome, Reliant, Superdome, and Jerry’s World. And the first team on facility probation is UH. They will be forced to play in Reliant until they upgrade their campus stadium. As for possible future facility probation, SMU may be asked to expand their stadium and Rice, TCU and Baylor will be encouraged to keep upgrading theirs. We now have the perfect conference for our part of the country.

So, what is in store for Week 5. Let’s first look at Thursday night. The Aggies head north and play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater. This is a good game for Texas A&M to finally show that they can bite as well as bark. A win on national television on the road is exactly what Texas A&M needs. It should be a good way to spend Thursday night. And thankfully we do not have to worry about Friday night this week. Saturday brings a mostly full slate. Baylor gets Kansas at home. Another must win for the Bears and I think they will pull it out. LSU gets a 2-2 Tennessee in Baton Rouge. This one should be over by halftime. SMU plays Rice in Houston. This is a major game for Rice. From my perspective, SMU has passed Rice in most categories. A win by SMU puts Rice back in the position of questioning how to get out of the basement and Bailiff may be looking for a new courtroom if this one goes bad. TCU should roll in Ft. Collins over Colorado St.

That leaves the Red River Shootout at the Texas State Fair. You have one team coming off an ugly loss at home and one team that has not put the fear of anything in anyone. This game could be a blowout, or 17-14. If Texas scores a touchdown on their first possession, especially if the scoring play is 15 yards or less, then this could be a really good game. If OU scores twice before Texas can put any points on the board, then Texas fans may want to mow the grass in the second half, or Sooner. My gut is telling me that a 3-2 Texas will spend the off week re-evaluating everything that has happened since Colt got injured in the Rose Bowl, while 5-0 OU will take a mid-season break and then get ready for Iowa St. But it is one of the greatest rivalries in the country, so who really knows what will happen.

Have a great week and let’s see if we can get another one of the teams into the Top 25.

New Rules for the 2012 Presidential Primaries

The new rules state that no delegates to the national convention may be chosen before the first Tuesday in March--except for delegates from New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Nevertheless, Iowa will hold its caucuses in January because the caucuses don't select any delegates to the national convention, just to the county conventions, which then elect delegates to the state convention, which chooses the national delegates.

Anyways, the decision to let Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada go first was not brought down by Moses from Mt. Sinai, but does have some real value. First, they are from four different parts of the country, which gives a better idea of how the various candidates might do than, say, having all of New England vote in February and all of the West vote in March. Second, they are all small states, which means that candidates without massive bank accounts can complete if they are determined enough. If California went first, any candidate who didn't have $30 million in the bank by the end of 2011 would have no chance.

Furthermore, the Republicans' new rules prohibit winner-take-all events before April 1, so delegates won in March will be divided proportionally to the votes obtained. This change will slow down the process by preventing any candidate from collecting large blocks of delegates early on. Also, after the first four, about a dozen low-population states go next. Then come the biggies in three rounds. Wikipedia has a nice colored map showing the order.

While it is hard to say this far out what impact the new rules will have, it will be extremely unlikely for, say Sarah Palin, to win Iowa, skip new Hampshire, and then win all the marbles on a Super Tuesday a week or two later. The ultimate winner will need to be a seasoned veteran by the time 2012 rolls around and he (or she) will HAVE to be able to win states in the North.

This Week in the Southwest Conference

September 21, 2010

By: Dave Roberson

As much as I love college football, I am having a real problem with this 12 game regular season. I have been to two games in person, night games no less, and have had to take a major shower after each. I am not into publicizing my personal hygiene, but it has been seriously hot. I pity anyone who has actually attended day games. Now that we are on the autumn side of the autumnal equinox, maybe we will be getting some relief soon. I can only imagine what the players are suffering through. And while on the topic of player suffering, condolences go out to UH on the season ending injury of not only their starting QB and Heisman candidate Case Keenan, but the back up Cotton Turner as well. So much for redshirting the 3^rd string this year.

Week 3 Recap

So let’s take a quick look back at Week 3. The reason that it is a quick look is that there is really not much that was memorable. The two conference games turned out to be what the “experts” thought, Texas would handle Tech and TCU would blowout Baylor. Not exactly an ESPN Instant Classic for either one. As for developing trends, we see that Oklahoma St has no problem scoring and that Rice does; that Oklahoma and Texas A&M can win at home and LSU can win away from home. The best trend so far is that the conference is undefeated against all hyphenated Louisiana schools, schools name for Texas Heroes, unrecognized Tech schools, and the ACC.

Week 4 Outlook

So how does Week 4 stack up? The conference games this week are TCU at SMU and Baylor at Rice. First let me rip on TCU and SMU. I realize that both programs need the exposure and revenue that comes from a national television broadcast, but a Friday night game? In Texas! Are you serious? I am personally going to boycott the broadcast and place my fanny where it belongs, at a high school stadium under the real Friday Night Lights. Is anything not sacred or for sale anymore? As for Baylor and Rice, I consider this a must win for both. The loser is going to have a very tough road to a bowl. Baylor still has Kansas and Colorado, but I cannot find the other two wins they would need. If Rice goes to 1-3, they will need to finish 6-2 (Sorry Owls, but I think you will need 7 wins to get an invite). So from my perspective, the loser is reduced to building momentum for their 2011 Season ticket sales.

Now as for the non-conference schedule, we have some games to watch. The big one is the Hogs hosting the #1 Ranked Crimson Tide at 2:30cdt on CBS. Arkansas QB Ryan Mallet wants to put himself in the Heisman discussion and an upset of the ‘Bama would fulfill that desire. Other games that are not nearly as exciting, but important none the less are Texas vs. UCLA (Pac 10, 12, and counting) at 2:30 cdt on ABC, Oklahoma vs. Cincinnati (Big Least) on ESPN2 at 5 cdt, followed immediately on the deuce by LSU vs. West Virginia (another Big Least) at 8 cdt. Texas A&M should easily handle BYE this week (I believe they are a 2 touchdown favorite) and stay undefeated (No TV, but you can catch the highlights by Dave South on the Aggie Radio Network next week).

For those of you who are new to This Week in the SWC and are wondering why I am talking about a conference that you cannot find in the paper, I will go into more detail in the next issue when I will roll out the two divisions. Until then, hope your team wins. Catch a game if you can and back at you next week.

Inside Texas Football

Pat Forde spent a week with the Texas football team. It's a must read.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=texasfootball

This Week in the Southwest Conference

September 14, 2010

By Dave Roberson

Welcome to the first edition of This Week in the Southwest Conference. The plan is to write this article by Tuesday each week and get it to the blog no later than Thursday. That is the plan anyway. I will try to make sure that the day job does not get in the way. You will see through the season that I am passionate for both NCAA football and for what could be the greatest conference in Division 1. This summer’s defection of two Big 8 members from the unnatural Big 12 has convinced me that it is time to go back to the future. I felt it was only a matter of time until something like this happened and now it has. So since it has, it is time to begin the resurrection of the SWC, and I mean the original SWC that was envisioned in 1914. Face it, the only people who think that the Little Ten are going to stay married beyond the end of the current television contract cycle are the same people who believe that the Big East is a major football conference, that Kentucky and Kansas can also be football schools, and that USC is not already the NFL’s Los Angeles franchise. If we do not take matters in our own hands, the great programs of the southwest will be scattered to the four winds. Now it will take a few years and a lot of work to get everyone officially on board, but it is time to lay the foundation.

For many of us, the 1995 season was more of a wake than a football season. One of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious conferences was told to get lost by the major television networks. And sadly, the powers that were the SWC at the time said okay. But the reality is, the Red Raiders could care less about Missouri. The Corps of Cadets were originally gung ho about marching through Manhattan, until they realized it was in Kansas. And while Bevo may have fantasized going a couple of rounds with Ralphie, not even Baylor was scared of Kansas. And now without a championship game, do you really want to play Iowa State every year? Shotgun weddings generally never work out and the made for TV Conference that was dreamed up in Bristol, CT was just that, a dream, or I should say, a nightmare. And while there may have been a flirtation with the West Coast, come on, even A&M saw through that smoke and mirror and said no to Berkeley while giving Starkville the blinking eyelashes. Well so much for the past and the dreadful present, it is on to the future.

One final note before we get to 2010 football. If you pay attention to the standings below you see that OU and OSU (Ok A&M) were members long ago. They may have wandered away after WWI, but they are now back and back with a vengeance. In fact, history will show that the only good to come out of the Big 12 was the Big 12 South, the only division in college football that is really its own conference. But if you are paying attention, that’s because that it originally was its own conference. And if you are saying “huh” about LSU, look at the meeting notes from the gathering at the Rice Hotel in 1914. LSU was invited; but they never joined. Let’s just say that the invitation has always been open and since Katrina, there seem to be more LSU stickers in Houston than UH. And finally, just for the record, Ole Miss was also invited to join back in ’14, but we’ll just let that invitation expire. It is hard enough to get to Fayetteville; we sure do not need to go looking for Oxford, the one in Mississippi, that’s 2 p’s for you Crimson Tide folks.

So with that introduction and bit of history, it is time for football. The first two weeks have already been exciting in the SWC. In Week 1, SMU took Tech to the wire and Rice got 70,000 people to pay good money for their more often than not early season scrimmage with Texas. With no conference games in Week 2, it is a good time to review the early season performance of the teams. Six in the Top 25, ten at 2-0 and two at 1-1, no a bad start at all. OU played through a slumber in Week 1, thinking they were playing Utah, not State; but ripped through Florida State in Week 2 like a tornado through a Nebraska trailer park. TCU showed how weak the west really is by beating a ranked Oregon St. Ok St has one of the nations leading rushers and Tech destroyed an overmatched New Mexico. Looks like Baylor and A&M both have talent at QB, while UH may have Heisman talent at QB. And speaking of the Heisman, it looks like Texas may also have a Heisman winner at QB, but from 5 years ago, not in 2010. As for the here and now, if Texas does not want a major letdown this season, the defense is going to have to get really nasty while Gilbert tries to find his way and the running backs try to find the end zone. And Rice and SMU, on the short end in conference play, both notched wins in non-conference. So against the world, the SWC is undefeated; even if the world includes wins against a couple of dead Texas heroes, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin. At least the SWC can beat a dead President; better than what the Virginia Polytechnical Institute did against President Number 4.

So much for history, let’s preview Week 3. Two conference games are scheduled, Baylor at TCU on Versus at 3:30 cst and Texas goes to the South Plains to tangle with Tech at 7 cst on ABC. Both should prove to be interesting games. Conventional wisdom says that TCU should handle Baylor, because, well because they are Baylor. But Art Briles has the Bears believing, which is what they do really well at Baylor, and Robert Griffin has them winning. Do not be surprised if this game goes down to the wire. As for Saturday night, oh my gosh, for you youngsters I guess that would be OMG. Let’s see, the last time Texas went to Lubbock they had everything right where they wanted it. Undefeated, late in the season, national television, and playing on the road against a Top 5 team. All the ingredients needed to get into the BCS Championship Game. And with 0:02 seconds left, it was looking good. But it fell apart at 0:01. The fact is that over the last six visits to Lubbock the series is tied at three apiece. Now, the pirate may have been forced to walk the plank, but Tommy Tuberville is smart enough not to mess up a good thing. Taylor Potts looks as good as any of the QBs from the Leach years, which will force Muschamp to come up with full 60 minute plan this time. If you cannot catch this one live, be sure you have your DVR set. It could be one of those instant classics the four letter network shows on Sunday mornings while the rest of us are at church. An interesting non-conference game is Arkansas going over to Athens, the one in Georgia, not Greece. Whipping up on the SEC is always fun and let’s hope the Hogs run wild. As you can see, SWC is off to a great start in 2010. Let’s hope it keeps going that way. See you next week.

Rice Game Highlights

http://videos.utexasclan.com/view.php?id=7268

Given my newfound, work-in progress commitment to this place:

I was not able to watch the game live in-person or live on tv, yes I know I'm a bad fan. But after watching the game on dvr today, I feel a little better after initially hearing the final score was Texas 34, Rice 17. I understand what the coaches did yesterday and am holding back any criticism towards them at this point. However, I sincerely hope that the coaches analyze this game with realistic minds and have a serious discussion about the future of the offense.

Unlike a lot of the articles I read today, I'm not ready to abandon ship and hit the panic button on this team, ala 2007 post-mortem Arkansas State. I saw some very encouraging things this weekend; Garrett Gilbert's comfort in the pocket and excellent decision making, a fast and active front seven, a potentially explosive special teams unit (if we can settle on a punt returner who can catch), and a receiving corps that actually paid attention to Shipley the last 5 years and caught every pass with their hands. If a few things would of gone different the score could of easily been 48-6 and the masses wouldn't be flooding the blogospheres with panic.

However, my optimism for this season did take a hit after yesterday's game. If I were a betting man, I would be hedging my bets against any championship-type payouts for this season. Unless the coaches used this game as a glorified tryout to see if the offense can handle a pro-style attack, I have serious concerns about our ability to control the game by running the ball at will. The same issues that costs us from taking a 14-0 lead on Alabama in the BCS Championship are going to cost us at least 2 losses this year -- inability to execute when teams know what's coming. All championship teams have one thing in common; an unmistakable identity. Texas has one more week to figure out what kind of team it is going to be in 2010, because the "Vince Young on 2" days of play-calling are long gone.