Sorry if this has been posted already. This hilarious quote is at the end of this (long) article, which explains how WVU, after being denied by the ACC at least 6 (!!!) times, finally found their home.....until it dissolves soon enough. And I'm sure women's lacrosse et al. are just fascinated with the travel to Nowhere, Kansas and Purple Baylor.....

http://www.wvusports.com/page.cfm?story=25902

So upgrade means taking the team nobody else wants. That map is revealing.

The story kind of reminds you of the girl that no one wanted to take to the prom. It is really a sad story.

I think that it would behoove the members of the XII to add UConn, Cincy, and maybe USF/UCF as a means to survive. This would bring them to 14 and give them a championship game. I'd maybe even try to figure out a way to add UH as well. Folks have got to know that this league will be folding once tu and OU leave. Adding those schools would give them some sort of cushion.

WV: Nobody cares about us but us.

BDF: You'll fit right in!

quote:

---

“The University of Houston is a tremendous academic institution, but the people of Texas referred to it as ‘Cougar High’ because they were not playing Texas and Texas A&M any more in football,” Luck explained. “An accounting degree from Houston was considered to be less valuable than one from Texas just because of football, and I thought that was awful. People would moan and groan and complain because perception is sometimes reality.”

---

LMFAO!!!

quote:

---

least 6 (!!!) times

---

jblaschke, the funniest part of that quote to me is that we were calling uh cougar high long before the Big12 was ever imagined.

Holy crap that banner at the bottom is annoying.

Cougar High never put 50 k fans in the Dome.

Andrew Luck's dad is way dumber than I thought. And he's on the playoff committee?

quote:

---

When Oliver Luck was living in Houston and working for the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority he would frequently run into University of Houston graduates.



He learned quickly from them the depressing tale of Houston Cougar football.



At one time, U of H was challenging Texas and Texas A&M for football supremacy in the Lone Star State. During an 11-year period from 1968-79, the Cougars were nationally ranked nine times, including three seasons in the top 10 during a four-year stretch from 1976-79.



Houston was able to parlay that great success into membership in the Southwest Conference in 1976, and for 17 years Houston was sitting at college football’s big table - that is until the Southwest Conference imploded in 1994.



When the dust had settled, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor joined forces with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference. And the one prominent Southwest Conference school left standing on the outside looking in was Houston.



“I’m living in Houston; great city - booming,” Luck recalled. “Houston’s football program used to play in the Astrodome with 50,000; they were playing in Cotton Bowls; they had a Heisman Trophy winner in Andre Ware. They were sending lots of guys to the NFL and they don’t make the cut when the old Southwest Conference falls apart.”



Houston’s football program – and to some degree the school’s academic reputation – had suffered a critical blow in the world of public opinion.



“The University of Houston is a tremendous academic institution, but the people of Texas referred to it as ‘Cougar High’ because they were not playing Texas and Texas A&M any more in football,” Luck explained. “An accounting degree from Houston was considered to be less valuable than one from Texas just because of football, and I thought that was awful. People would moan and groan and complain because perception is sometimes reality.”

---

Now we know why Luck didn't get the tu AD job. Too much love for UofH.

so Luck equates UH with A&M and Texas academically, but when it comes down to nut cutting time he sends his boy to Stanford?

There were 50k+ fans in the dome when Cougar High played A&M, tu, or Arkansas.

Lol!

quote:

---

At one time, U of H was challenging Texas and Texas A&M for football supremacy in the Lone Star State. During an 11-year period from 1968-79, the Cougars were nationally ranked nine times, including three seasons in the top 10 during a four-year stretch from 1976-79.



Houston was able to parlay that great success into membership in the Southwest Conference in 1976, and for 17 years Houston was sitting at college football’s big table - that is until the Southwest Conference imploded in 1994

---

I would like to revisit this and see where tech and Baylor end up once the BDF implodes. See if history repeats itself.

The writer implies that after they left the SWC, they were referred to as"Cougar High". They earned that moniker long before they joined and eventually left the Southwest Conference!

Pretty much confirms that the so-called "wunderkind" of ADs was clueless back then, and now.

As was reported during the tu AD search, Luck was vocal about expansion of the Big XII. I'd wager he proposed UofH as a viable candidate.

quote:

---

Pretty much confirms that the so-called "wunderkind" of ADs was clueless back then, and now.

As was reported during the tu AD search, Luck was vocal about expansion of the Big XII. I'd wager he proposed UofH as a viable candidate.

---

Luck speaks the truth. He knows that once UH gets invited to either the ACC or PAC the Big 12 will be marginalized even further...

Neither Dodds nor Powers were kindly disposed towards UofH. Powers was always more involved with getting tech to Tier One status.

UofH has fended on its own. And done quite well without tu's patronage. Far better than tech has.

What I get from this is that having WVU in your conference is like poison. For whatever reason, every conference that they join implodes and dies after a few years. I'm not saying that this spells doom and gloom for the bdf, but this spells gloom and doom for the bdf.

I bet coog high is waiting by the mailbox every day for that invite to show up!

quote:

---

Pretty much confirms that the so-called "wunderkind" of ADs was clueless back then, and now.

As was reported during the tu AD search, Luck was vocal about expansion of the Big XII. I'd wager he proposed UofH as a viable candidate.

---

He may have had a good point. UH would have been better than TCU from a TV standpoint. The Houston TV market is pretty big, and there is not as much of a bdf presence in it as there is in the DFW market. The DFW market is already in the heart of bdf territory, right between ou and tu and gaylor. Houston is out of reach and an A&M dominated market because of O&G and proximity to CS. We simply have more fans there than bdf schools. Adding UH would have made the market more competitive and the bdf could have established some kind of foothold there. It certainly wouldn't have helped our claim to the state when it came to SECN negotiations. Houston also wasn't in a bad spot football wise after Briles' and Sumlin's tenures there. Everyone knew TCU was a pretender, but the shine at the time was bright enough to blind the bdf to the lack of contribution they would make as an addition.

quote:

---

quote:

---

Pretty much confirms that the so-called "wunderkind" of ADs was clueless back then, and now.

As was reported during the tu AD search, Luck was vocal about expansion of the Big XII. I'd wager he proposed UofH as a viable candidate.

---

He may have had a good point. UH would have been better than TCU from a TV standpoint. The Houston TV market is pretty big, and there is not as much of a bdf presence in it as there is in the DFW market. The DFW market is already in the heart of bdf territory, right between ou and tu and gaylor. Houston is out of reach and an A&M dominated market because of O&G and proximity to CS. We simply have more fans there than bdf schools. Adding UH would have made the market more competitive and the bdf could have established some kind of foothold there. It certainly wouldn't have helped our claim to the state when it came to SECN negotiations. Houston also wasn't in a bad spot football wise after Briles' and Sumlin's tenures there. Everyone knew TCU was a pretender, but the shine at the time was bright enough to blind the bdf to the lack of contribution they would make as an addition.

---

Agree. I still think that the SEC would kept a strong foothold in Houston. There were/are a lot of SEC fans here in Houston due to O&G and the quality of football (prior to A&M joining.). Houston is in its nature a front running town. When UH has had success in any sport the city historically jumps on the bandwagon.

Yeah. It wouldn't be a bdf lockdown or anything, but it could only have benefitted the bdf. They are some stupid mother ****ers. It makes no sense to add a school in an area you already have a huge presence in and ignore a school in a huge market that is now a highly contested area on the outskirts of you geographical border.

This is where the SEC is smart. Missouri wasn't added for their football prowess. They were decent at football, but they delivered St. Louis and Kansas City.

[This message has been edited by ABATTBQ11 (edited 8/27/2014 10:07a).]

quote:

---

Yeah. It wouldn't be a bdf lockdown or anything, but it could only have benefitted the bdf. They are some stupid mother ****ers.

---

Sumlin's last game was UH vs Southern Miss. That game blew out UT vs Baylor (who had RG3 at the time) in TV ratings. We (UH) had the 11am slot. They had the 2:30 slot. That tells me something about the casual football fan in Houston.

Luck didn't realize his audience of Dodds, Powers and the tu BOR had such disdain for UofH.

That's why I said he was clueless.

"West Virginia was able to make a soft landing in the Big 12 Conference. Not only was it a stable situation for West Virginia’s athletic program with membership in a nationally respected conference with like-minded athletic departments and similar campus cultures"

'SIMILAR CAMPUS CULTURES'.... sips and mountaineers, twins separated at birth... bwahhhahahahahah

It speaks volumes to the bdf's stupidity. They had their shot, but it's gone now. Adding Houston probably wouldn't do much for them at this point because both have lost their luster.

WVU and TCU tanked when they got into the bdf, and no one can say they were upgrades. If anything, most people consider the bdf to be weaker now than before we and Missouri left. Colorado and Nebraska leaving was a hard blow, but us and Missouri was a kill shot. WVU and TCU are band aids on a sliced artery, and everyone views the bdf as a weak, lower tier conference. Decent teams, but lower tier compared to what else is out there. They're what the ACC used to be.

Houston was riding fairly high after two great coaches in a row. Unfortunately, being stuck in a mid major prevents them from getting someone who could continue their success. They were lucky to be a stepping stone for Briles and Sumlin before they landed gigs in power conferences. If they were in a power conference themselves, they may have been able to keep one of them and return to their 70's-80's SWC days. If the bdf had courted them and picked them up, they could have picked up a decent coach within 3-5 years and started to rebuild. Instead, it's back to continued and near permanent mediocrity for them and the opportunity has passed. There's no possibility of recruiting or coaching momentum, and that ship has sailed.

They could have capitalized on Houston's success and their own geographical expansion, which would have come with questions of success in a togher conference that TCU had but would have expanded their footprint without smacking of desperation like WVU (what business does a conference with schools in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have going after a school from West by God! Virginia if it's not a move of desperation and a marriage of convenience), but they chose not too because of tu's elitism and Cougar High not being good enough for them. Now that the bdf is looked down on by the other conferences and most fans, joining them wouldn't do **** for UH. Now that UH has returned to mediocrity and stalled out, adding them would look desperate on the BDF's part because what major conference adds a mediocre team from the American Conference? They had their shot, but once again, tu elitism ruined it for everyone.

Yeah maybe they can use that as a new after the Conference of Champions thing stops being funny... "The Big 12. We're all similar to West Virginia."

Also here's another quality quote

quote:

---

He told me, ‘Don we’re not getting in the ACC’ and I remember telling him, ‘Jim, are you sure you want to go to the Big 12?’ He said, ‘I want to go somewhere. Bad,’” said Nehlen.

---

That's like your sober friend asking "are you sure you want to go home with that fat, sweaty girl?" and replying "I want to go home with someone. Bad."

I want to go somewhere. Bad.
Mission accomplished, they are somewhere bad.

quote:

---

Luck didn't realize his audience of Dodds, Powers and the tu BOR had such disdain for UofH.

That's why I said he was clueless.

---

I was thinking that, but I thought I'd point it out anyway. Adding UH was the best thing they could have possibly done and might have saved them in the long run, but their elitism, arrogance, and holier than thou attitude killed their future and the future of everyone else in the conference.

Taking us not only got TV sets in Texas, but it made the SEC look like a magical conference where football is simply better. It was like the conference could take middle of the road teams from other leagues and turn them into powerhouses. Destroying ou in the Cotton Bowl ended any bdf narrative that the SEC was weak and the bdf powerful because we couldn't succeed there and made the bdf look like a bunch of underperformers at best and pretenders at worst. tu was so concerned about dominating the bdf that they never considered that they were acting like a team in a conference world. The modern conference is greater than the sum of its schools, and realignment was more about conferences battling it out than schools trying to get better deals. They lost the conference war with the SEC, B1G and ACC by trying to win the school battle with everyone in the bdf.

UH is better suited now than during the Briles/Sumlin years. Baseball is solid, we made a huge commitment to hoops, and our football situation is very bright (new stadium, great coach, great defense, on and on and on)

I do not want to be in the Big 12. I prefer ACC.

Don't overlook the huge amount of LSU alumni and t-shirt fans in Houston. My BinLaw is alumni and they show up for events all over town.

How nice is it to be in a conference that makes geographic sense, with quality opponents, and where the schools actually want to cooperate?

No way the BDF survives whatever ESPN decides once the lhn is finally curbstomped from its agony.

UH's future is bright, but at this point they don't have the national reputation the bdf needs when adding a team. Maybe in a few years, but not now.

I don't see the bdf surviving much longer after the GOR expires anyway. That is the handcuffs holding the conference together. When teams can bolt, I think they will. The bdf is too small and has too little exposure for schools to want to stay in. Their third tier rights are also worthless with the lhn negating the possibility of a conference network. If we're going to see 4 super conferences, it will be because the bdf split and teams went to the PAC, B1G, and maybe SEC. I have no idea how that will go down, but I suspect that tceh and osu/ou would go PAC, maybe along with tu, while the Kansas Twins and Iowa end up in the B1G. WVU may get caught in the crossfire, and the ACC could take TCU and or baylro. Oddly, TCU and gaylor seem like good ACC fits because of the number of private schools in the ACC and the ACC attempting to expand their brand and footprint. The SEC may try to poach someone from the ACC like Virginia Tech instead of biting off part of the bdf carcass. tu may also end up as an independent because of the lhn hanging around their neck.

[This message has been edited by ABATTBQ11 (edited 8/27/2014 11:54a).]

Unless I'm way off on my Aggie lore, I'm pretty sure we call Cougar High Cougar High because it was established (as a junior college) by HISD and was housed on the campus of a local high school.

More on Cougar High...my understanding growing up as a kid traveling to games in the early 80's (Dad's class of '69) - Houston originally was a commuter school i.e. no on campus housing much like a high school. Hence - "Cougar High"