How did the sips become such media darlings that the ESPN announcers seem to root for them to win and the refs help make it happen? Has it always been like this? What year did it start?

It seems like it got exponentially worse around the late 90's / early 2000's. Once they beat Nebraska and the big money donors got their checkbooks out, it was all downhill until they won it all. Since then, the media has been dying for them to return to glory.

They controlled the NCAA infractions committee in the late 80s. They have been in a lot of influential positions to help them succeed (or punish their rivals).

T-shirt fan base took off late 90s, that's what created the media darling... lots of eyes on their games benefits the media... no reason to not pump them up.

C2 Ag 93 said:

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Not that I am an expert here, but in fairness, Texas for first half of the 1900s was the largest state school in Texas and I can imagine because of that, they were seen as the "Alabama" or "Michigan" of Texas. Then, when they won two national titles in the 1960s and in 1970, it sealed the deal.

Texas A&M became Texas's equal in every sense the last quarter of the 1900s. Other "special focus" schools like the private schools (BU, SMU, TCU) even developed with similar resources. Even though times changed and the collegiate landscape in Texas looks nothing today like it was in the 1970s, I just don't think the media has ever adjusted.

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Agreed

Their early titles were obviously related to scholarship stacking... they're large and wealthy donor base certainly helped that into fruition.

ESPN pays lil bro $300mil, yeah right after that….called needing some ROI

When Mac Brown took over. His first 3 years they finished with 9 wins each year. Then for the next decade they won at least 10 games a year. Mix in a national championship win/appearance and Colt/Vince. Once you take off the maroon colored glasses it's easy to see. Same as the Bama love fest over the last decade.

the 2004 phantom P.I. call vs. Kansas was before Mack's national title

My question is why doesn't A&M have that much influence with Just as much money and powerful alumni as Texas.

This is the real reason. Sips put out hundreds of journalists across the country every year. We killed our journalism program, brought it back, stole the Sips' journalism program (a Former Student) coordinator to lead the charge, then fired her because she's a black woman.

zafzo said:

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My question is why doesn't A&M have that much influence with Just as much money and powerful alumni as Texas.

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Austin >>>> BCS
In most metrics that count to media outlets

zafzo said:

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My question is why doesn't A&M have that much influence with Just as much money and powerful alumni as Texas.

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Our Law School builds corporate lawyers not plaintiff…

They win. Not always but on the national stage they frequently do.

When things don't make sense

Politics and money

Next question.

SunrayAg said:

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bankshot11 said:

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This is the real reason. Sips put out hundreds of journalists across the country every year. We killed our journalism program, brought it back, stole the Sips' journalism program (a Former Student) coordinator to lead the charge, then fired her because she's a black woman.

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A blatant lie disguised as journalism. Good job showing the real reason she was fired… which is the fact she endorsed agenda based journalism instead of reporting facts.

But on the original subject, the sips have always had alumni sports journalists and alumni sports officials. They have also had more money than anyone else. Money buys alumni officiating crews calling your games, media worship, and bandwagon supporters.

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MUCH better marketing, too. Across the board.

SunrayAg said:

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bankshot11 said:

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This is the real reason. Sips put out hundreds of journalists across the country every year. We killed our journalism program, brought it back, stole the Sips' journalism program (a Former Student) coordinator to lead the charge, then fired her because she's a black woman.

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A blatant lie disguised as journalism. Good job showing the real reason she was fired… which is the fact she endorsed agenda based journalism instead of reporting facts.

But on the original subject, the sips have always had alumni sports journalists and alumni sports officials. They have also had more money than anyone else. Money buys alumni officiating crews calling your games, media worship, and bandwagon supporters.

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That hire was A&M in a microcosm. We have plenty of money to get things done if you know who to ask. Want to restart the Journalism program? Great! We have a benefactor to help get the program restarted, but we need a splash hire. Ok, let's money whip the chair of the program at t.u. . They have a renowned program. So we do, but no one realizes what a bad cultural hire she was until it was too late to keep from looking stupid. Multiply that mistake by 10, and you have the Jimbo Fisher hire in football. Did anyone not ask why FSU was stuck in neutral within a couple of years after they won the MNC?

Aggies are stubbornly loyal, disciplined, and hard workers, but we make a lot of bad long term decisions. The best decision we made was jumping to the SEC, and then we proceeded to piss all that away. But hey, look at our shiny new stadium!

LB12Diamond said:

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ESPN was willing to give them the LHN. They obviously have people there in management making decisions.

And for those not paying attention. The LHN was a total failure.

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Mostly this. There has always been a media love affair with sip, but it ramped up exponentially when ESiPN threw $300M at them. Now the networks, who we all know call the shots on everything anyway (I still laugh at the concept of 'playoff committees'…….come on now…….) have a rather large skin in the game. And we don't like when our investments tank and are ridiculed……..

Look, we know they're better than us right now. That much is indisputable. But it's not unfair to state they were given a red carpet regular season schedule this year, and a red carpet playoff path. It's obvious to anyone outside of sip nation. They're the epitome of the old Barry Switzer saying about being born on third base and going through life thinking you hit a triple

It's definitely the journalism school thing. They take care of their own.


Now then, go to an oil field and ask who the favorite schools are among them ….(hint, it ain't gonna be Wellesley)

Charlie 31 said:

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Lightning Dexter said:

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How did the sips become such media darlings that the ESPN announcers seem to root for them to win and the refs help make it happen? Has it always been like this? What year did it start?

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1893

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EOT. UT effectively got off to a 75 year head start. They were the flagship university of a football-crazy state while we were a small military school. Politics, journalism all that stuff came along with the deal. We will never overcome that deficit. Call it Horn Privilege. It's real and likely permanent.

"Not that I am an expert here, but in fairness, Texas for first half of the 1900s was the largest state school in Texas and I can imagine because of that, they were seen as the "Alabama" or "Michigan" of Texas. Then, when they won two national titles in the 1960s and in 1970, it sealed the deal."


I'm sorry, but Texas is the "Michigan" or "Alabama" of Texas. And always will be.

Surely you're aware of this? Right?

It began with "Run Rickey run." 1998.
Then Mack Brown took it from there.