Just what we need a legislated game between Texas and Texas A&M. An A&M graduate from the Valley, Ryan Guillen a democrat to boot, has filed a bill to force Texas and A&M to play. I wish we were still playing, but I don't think the Leg should get involved and truthfully the majority of Texas fans at the moment don't want to play A&M. So why should we play.
Scott, Doc and Kes are much closer to this situation than I.. but I know quite a few Aggies here (lots of Engineers in these parts).. and I can't think of any of them that want anything to do with Texas at all. From what I've read, Doc's reports seem to be spot on that a majority of Texas fans are done with the Aggies. This just seems like a bad idea.
I, and all the guys I know had enough of the sips. We offered to keep the series alive and Deloss Dodd's gave us the finger. Now he can sit and spin. We've got much bigger fish to fry. Last season was awesome sans that ugly orange-ish color... we'll move the LSU game to Turkey day to make sure folks have something interesting to watch. We would have enjoyed eviserating them in the Cotton Bowl, but going forward... "they are dead to me."
So you Ag's need to call your boy in the Legislature (the guy who introduced the Bill is an Ag) and tell him to stand down that you don't want to play us either. Not to mention that the Leg has a lot more important things to do than worry about whether or not A&M and Texas ever play again.
Bill I think we'll eventually get back to playing one another, but I don't want to be locked into having to play them like you guys are with FSU. I want to be able to play one out of region good BCS opponent on a Home/Home basis, we have the Irish on our schedule for 4 games in the next few years. I want to be able to play USC or UCLA or Oregon or Ohio State again, or Michigan or Tenn or Alabama. I doubt if our AD would schedule two really good opponents out of conference in the same year and if the Aggies got back on every year it would limit the rest of the schedule.
Terry I have no fear his bill will never even make it to debate. BTW, Im pretty sure we revoke your degree if you are a Dem. ;-)
Terry, we are not locked into playing FSU because of any legislation but because we want to keep the rivalry. There was legislation introduced but it never passed. That is a common misconception even among Florida fans.
I don't know why I thought you guys were locked into playing FSU. Did you get to take a break when you played Miami or did you play both FSU and Miami? I might be wrong here as well, but I was thinking that Ohio State had to play an Ohio University every year in their non-conference under legislative mandate or threat of one.
We played Miami every year but not FSU. Our first game with FSU was in 1958. It was not mandated, but the threat was there. We have played FSU every year since then and I don't think either one of us want to give it up. Miami was our big instate rival until FSU but as the FSU series took hold most Gators looked on that as our bigger rival. They are very close milage wise and at one point Florida was a predominantly males and FSU had been a women's college and was still predominately female. So a lot of miles and time were spent by the student bodies driving back and forth to date. After we started playing FSU we continued playing Miami until the late 80's. When the SEC increased the number of conference games the Gators made the decision to keep FSU but drop the Miami series. At that time both Miami and FSU were to 5 every year and the Gators still struggling from the probation in 1984. When Spurrier was hired as coach starting in 1990 one of his conditions was that Miami was put back on the schedule every year. He said if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. That was in the process of being done and a number of games were scheduled in the 90's. However the SEC then increased the number of conference games again to 8 and the Gators again made the decision to drop Miami as an every year opponent. However we did schedule them every year that there was an extra Sat in the football year and that carried through to next season when we play Miami in Miami. But both schools have now pretty much agreed to let the series go perhaps to schedule sometimes but not on a regular basis. Another factor was both FSU and then Miami passing up the opportunity to come to the SEC. If either had come in instead of running to easier pastures we would likely be playing both today. So to summarize, we played Miami from way back when to the late 80's and FSU from 1958 until now. From 1958 until that decision in the late 80's we played both. I may have a typo or so here but have to leave to go bowling, I will check for typo, spelling etc latter today.
Terry it sounds to me that A&M is just trying to work on scheduling that easy non-conference schedule it needs to fill the season.....
Bill that is a great summary of the Florida, Miami, FSU schedule history. I do have one comment though in reference to running to an easy conference instead of the SEC. Correct me if I am wrong but way back when Miami was being considered to join the SEC, Miami was an independent and at the top of the college football world. We had a cross country schedule that rivaled anyone else in college football and the thought process to join a league was contrary to what Miami considered its better interest because of our status. It was only years later that it became almost mandatory to join a conference and by that time the SEC was no longer calling. So we joined the big "L"east conference and finally made the move to the ACC. In hindsight joining the SEC was a missed opportunity for UM and one that most Cane fans will never admit too.... It could have been very interesting to say the least.. If you ask "old" Cane fans who our most bitter rival is they will tell you Florida, FSU was always competative but we had enough "Wide Rights" to make it fun rather than anything mean spirited or bitter. Florida in our eyes has always been the team that has looked down their noses at the other in state schools and I believe it happens today (excluding some astute UF fans )...
TOK, more the latter....it just seemed every time we went through a season without scheduling an in-state school, just by sheer coincidence no doubt, some legislation managed to get proposed in the statehouse.....the thinking being obviously to keep the big money paydays for out-of-conference schools in-state...can't say that I can argue with them.....after all, they pay the bills!
Ralph, I lived in Miami and actually had season tickets to the Miami games during the middle 80's. I agree with most of what you said but I also think that those tough schedules Miami had usually didn't include back to back tough games. They managed to play a lot of very good teams, usually winning but ha their share of patsies also. But no one can deny how good Miami was for a good bit of that time. But a lot of the Cane fans hatred of the Gators bordered on irrational and it was part of the reason I gave up the season tickets. We sat with a lot of people who were pretty nice and there were a lot of FSU and Gator fans who had tickets. But my last year there was a guy who sat in front of me who bad mouthed the Gators the whole year no matter who the opponent was that day. I had moved to Jupiter and my had kids at UF and started going to Gainesville and setting in the student section with them. That was legal at the time. Then after they graduated and Spurrier came to Florida we bought season tickets to the Gators which we still own.
Bill I remember you sharing that you lived in Miami, I bet your glad you moved out of the area... No disagreement on the patsies we played at times, it was part of the joy of being an independent and also the curse when conference play became so important. I am sorry to hear the bad experiences with Cane fans and will admit our fan base is on par with Raider fans with the sorry things done to the opposing fan base. The majority of the Miami fan base did not attend UM since we only have 8,500 - 11,000 students at any given time compared to larger State schools around the nation. Regardless it is embarrassing to hear stories like this and unfortunately I do not see this ever changing. I will say that compared to the other sport programs at UM this is the aberration. The baseball fans are fun loving family oriented fans that appreciate other fans attending the games but football has a "Hood" mentality... I can say that I have enjoyed a few games in the swamp and yelled until I could no longer while pulling for the Canes and never have had a problem... The Gator fan base is loyal but considerate from what I have seen while attending the games. Now outside of that arena I have seen it get ugly but that happens everywhere. I work in a UF dominated field of business with UF being a Land Grant University so I am surrounded by Gator fans.... My brother and his wife graduated from UF and my son is in the process of transferring from his junior college to UF in the fall.... Our household may never be the same especially my 80 year old father who is a Miami graduate and vividly remembers the "Gator Flop"....
Hey I was raised in Miami and my first football game ever was in 1949 at a Miami - Kentucky game when Kentucky was coached by Bear Bryant and one of the best in the nation. Babe Parilli was the QB I believe. Over the next 6 years I attended a lot of Hurricane games and was a major fan. However when it came time to go to college I couldn't afford Miami and went to Florida and of course fell in love with my Gators. But I remained a Miami fan also. Andy Gustfason was the coach and put Miami on the map. I also got my Masters degrees from Miami when my company put me in the weekend Executive MBA/MIE program. So I have a lot of history with the Canes and a lot of fine memories. But at the time I was there in the 80's there was a lot of hostility toward Florida. However I don't remember it earlier or know if it is that way now. But I will remember the fun times in the early 50s and those teams in the 80's were really exciting. And one of my sons is a major Miami fan.