JDC had no idea that any other sport other than football was played at A&M.

Well said.

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He is "kicking ass" in every sport but football. Is it possible that other people have too much influence on football decisions?

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this I can agree with. he won't derail the gravy train as long as we're in the red though.

I'm impressed at the rational comments. I really just expected to get called a bunch of names. Ha.
Touchdown, your graphic shows some ups and downs, however, each down is after losing a head coach. This is a whole different argument, but:
1. RC did a good job, but a decade is about the time any coach can make it these days, and the Big 12 record didn't help matters.
2. Fran was one of the biggest names in football at the time of his hire. I'm still scratching my head on that one, but i think it may have been doomed from the start with the tragic way he departed from Alabama. Believe it or not, i think Fran is a decent coach, as evidenced at Alabama, but it just wasn't a good fit.
3. Sherman's graph is headed upward. He didn't have much to begin with, but how can you look at his current team and not get excited? Fuller, Johnson, Michael, Gray, Jones, and our new big dog offensive lineman. Michael running behind that lineman for 2 years is going to be potent.
It's on the rise,just have to wait.
Since i mentioned Alabama, even they had to wait a decade to get a good football team and they're arguably the most powerful team in the SEC.
The way is see it, we should be able to knock of f any team in the new conference this year, with a shot at knocking off OU and tu. I'd say Sherman is where he needs to be for year 3. I just hope it goes well because a new coach would put a downward slope on touchdown's graph again.

Cheeks,
you are correct the $20M is not iron clad but I'm sure t.u., A&M, and o.u didn't go into this FOX-10 Conference without some damn good assurances. Bill Byrne explained that it's not in writing yet for very specific legal reasons, but they got some great assurances. If not, we all split and go our separate ways in April.

By all accounts A&M did not burn bridges in the SEC.

one more thing about Fran. After he left Alabama the way he did, Byrne requested that Turgeon return to Wichita State in person to tell his players he was leaving. There is still something to be said for doing things right, and I do believe intangibles this small can make a difference. I promise I'm not Bill Byrne, but being able to swipe the track coach from LSU was genius. We took the best coach in the country from the second most powerful program in the SEC, and have since won 4 national championships. My point is, if the guy left A&M for greener pastures, we'd be taking a big step down. Don't you remember everyone wetting their shorts a few months back about Turg and Oregon? Guess what, we held on to the possibly the best basketball coach in A&M history (yet to be seen if he's better than Billy G., but Billy G. kicked us to the curb)

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Cheeks,
you are correct the $20M is not iron clad but I'm sure t.u., A&M, and o.u didn't go into this FOX-10 Conference without some damn good assurances. Bill Byrne explained that it's not in writing yet for very specific legal reasons, but they got some great assurances. If not, we all split and go our separate ways in April.

By all accounts A&M did not burn bridges in the SEC

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assurances...you're not a business owner are you? what possible "legal reason" exists to prohibit this?

this was a move to save time for certain people. remember back to when the SWC was dissolving and A&M/sips were looking to merge with the Big 8 before Bullock and Richards weighed in. the Big XII took 2+ months to form and this was in our backyard. Now we're talking about different coasts in 2 weeks? Judging from how quickly this fairy tale tv contract was put together, there are a lot of folks that needed to help tap the brakes.

So assurances are offered to hold this off for a few years. We won't see any of the proposed $20 million until when? Our current contract runs out in 2012 so 2013 at the earliest, but I'll wager the conference ends in 2013 instead. there is no justification for that kinda promised money for this conference and by then certain teams will have worked out deals to move on citing various bullchit reasons.

if you dont think bill is a good ad you are less than 25 yrs old and never lived with the groff administration, which was a friking joke and why football is suffering, or you are an idiot. byrne is doing so much without the financial support he should be getting. a school with our number of alums should have twice the revenue we have. we are a cheap crowd that wont pony up unitl good things happen. guess what, it takes money for good thigs to happen. if you want to bet even better, give tot he 12th man. that is the road to success.

Byrne is definitely 10x the AD Groff ever was. Groff was so cheap he'd steal the pennies off a dead mans eyes.

He hired an "awesome football coach"...but he can't compete in the SEC. Gotcha.

To the best joke ever by an OP. I haven't laughed this hard from a post here in a long time.

Thanks for the giggles OP.

no fear, I watch a lot of SEC football. It hurts to say it, but no, we can't compete in the SEC. Not in football YET. Maybe one day, but I still cringe when i think about going to the cotton bowl to watch us play Tenn. That was a world class butt-stompin'.

This is like Astros fans claiming Tim Purpura was an awesome GM when Astros made it to the World Series, and then got fired later on.

candyland, Sherman is the only football hire he has ever made in his entire career as an AD; and there is aome question as to whether or not he is responsible for making that hire

Being the best we ever had is one thing. Screwing up this conference thing is another. The so called "Best" just pooped up his record.

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if you dont think bill is a good ad you are less than 25 yrs old and never lived with the groff administration, which was a friking joke and why football is suffering, or you are an idiot. byrne is doing so much without the financial support he should be getting. a school with our number of alums should have twice the revenue we have. we are a cheap crowd that wont pony up unitl good things happen. guess what, it takes money for good thigs to happen. if you want to bet even better, give tot he 12th man. that is the road to success.

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Wrong. We generate plenty of revenue. Name some other schools that generate the revenue we do and have a 48-50 record over the past 8 years.

Remember that $Bill didn't make the conference decision. I'm sure he had influence but it wasn't his choice.

It is easy to make great hires when you pay over the mark and promise facilities that threaten to bankrupt the program. He is well liked by some on the board who think of college athletics as some sort of fantasy sports game or our federal government in which the dollars you spend don't actually have to be accounted for. Not many AD's can claim to have hamstrung an athletic budget by building an indoor track. Are we better off than we were? Certainly. Is he a great AD? Even a good AD? I am not so sure and whoever succeeds him will have a heckuva financial mess to clean up with most major donors tapped out. Of course the only thing worse than the Fran contract was the Byrne bonus structure for doing the job he was hired to do.

I don't know if he's the best, but I support him. I remember the days when the head footballl coach was also the athletic director, which was a figure head position. Times have changed and Bill has definitely brought us to a new level.
One observation I have made is that we have alot of immature individuals posting negative BS on this site, and frankly I doubt that they're Ags, or at least not committed to supporting this university if they are. And I say that not as some fanatical alum who follows lockstep with the university's decisions, but as a graduate who tries to dissent in a civil manner when I have differences. This is the best development in years, regarding the preservation of our conference, and for all of those naysayers who think we could have competed in the SEC and have blown an opportunity, I say...do your research. Compare endowments and university rankings in athletics and academics to Texas and admit with humility that we have some catching up to do. I look at this rivalry as a great tradition and an opportunity for excellence in the areas where we are currently falling short, though there are aspects to our university for which we are the envy of the conference and others can only dream of emulating. Byrne is right...we don't excel by abandoning this conference with the excuse of being tired of following Texas, which is nothing short of an insecure projection, but by remaining and improving in every category where we are currently deficient.

agree with op. And Byrne did actually call the guy and leave a message, that is awesome!! moved up in my book

While I wanted to go to the SEC I have to admit that Bill is a damn good AD. Football has no doubt been rough but that doesn't change what has been done including making A&M the site of NCAA championships. Too many times in business and life we learn the hard way, it can definitely get worse. We could definitely do much worse than Bill.
I do have to give him credit for even posting the lapdog email in his response today. Nice to see him get fired up. Unlike so many he doesn't hide behind email.

Right on, Pikes Peak! We have many "hiders", whose postings are of such a banal and tasteless quality, that their anonymity is not surprising. On some level, even they must know that they're full of BS or they are simply unknown pranksters who get their jollies ringing the doorbell and running.

exactly doctorz. My hope is that the good ags that are still in school are out on dates with some of those 25,000 nice looking Texas ladies instead of trashing everyone connected to A&M.

BB

There is something to be said about going from where we were 8 years ago to becoming a top 10 athletic department in all-around success. And FIVE national titles in the past two years is more success in a shorter amount of time than the Ags have ever experienced.

jjordan, good point. I can assure you that if I was still a student, I'd be enjoying college life as I did then and not posting on this site like the old fart that I am.

Bill Byrne is the best AD A&M has ever had. We are well represented in all sports, and football is coming around.

I was disappointed we didn't join the SEC as well, but we managed to counter tu's exodus and helped save the Big 12. It's the right place to be. In two years everyone will be very happy we stayed in the Big 12.

By the way, I personally know jjordan, and he's not Bill. He doesn't even know Bill. He's just making a good point.

you contradict yourself in your post.

You express optimism that we have "a great football coach" and an "up and coming team" yet you go on to say we would be 3-9 every year in the SEC and losing by 50 to Alabama.

These things would not happen to a "great coach" and an "up and coming team."

I happen to disagree with everything you said, and was looking forward to the SEC because in 4 years when we are finally able to get rid of Sherman, there would be a line of coaches a mile long wanting to head up the Texas school in the SEC.

Now we just have to look forward to settling on whatever dumbass is desperate enough to take over the reins at school that has shown it will fall in line with this wishes of its main competitor and is part of a cracker jack conference that is as stable as the stack of blocks you end up with after a 6 hour game of Jenga.

Unmade bed, you better change the sheets because you just crapped in it. You're a gutless jerk, proven by your anonymous profile. You cannot be an Aggie with such comments. If you are, prove it by updating your profile and contact information, but you and other ingrates who post similar crap never will because you're afraid of getting hunted down and having your ass kicked.

doctor z, whats your problem?

rather than getting your jollies ringing the doorbell and running off your prefer to get them anonymously threaten to kick someones ass on the internet? Wow, real tough guy.

I deserve an ass kicking because I don't think Sherman is the answer to our prayers as a football coach and that we will be looking for a new coach by 2013? Ok, whatever man.

I guess we shall see about that.

For the record, I have no major problem with Bill Byrne and think he has done an above average job as AD and much better than his predecessor.

That doesn't change the fact that the original poster completely contradicted himself by on one hand saying we have a good thing going in football and on the other hand saying we would suck in the SEC.

PS, please don't kick my ass, I am sorry for offending you.

last post tonight, i'm tired. Unmade bed, my point is that our team is up and coming, and ready to compete with anyone in our current conference, although tu and OU still have an edge on us, but not for long. However, i do feel that up and coming or not, our first at least five years in the SEC would have been rough. Up and coming in the big 12 does not equal a winning record in the SEC. I think between year 5 and year 10 recruiting would have picked up, but as Corso would say "Alabama....Florida???? Forget about it." much more of a long shot win than tu or OU.

As far as football, he's only really had one hire and that Sherman. Fran was hired before $Bill. I think Sherman was a very good hire, who respects and understands what A&M is about, and more importantly he is a damn good coach, who I believe is on his way to turning the program around. What was our problem this season...it was defense. And what did they do, they went and hired one of the best DC's out there. I support $Bill as I think he has done a pretty good job here in Aggieland.

He sure is good with contracts.

jjordanaggie96 +1