When I was a fish (back in the days when the whole band went to all the Football games - home & away), we had two Corps Trips - Houston (Rice) and t.u. SMU had the death penalty at the time so TCU was the Corps trip my 2nd year along with Houston (Cougar High).
Now obviously, that was SWC days and we're in the SEC era now so schools are farther away, seating isn't as available because instead of playing to 70,000 seat stadiums that are 2/3rds empty, we're playing in 100,000 seat stadiums that are sold out.
Personally, I think that the Corps Trips were a great way to teach cadets how to "figure it out". The mission was defined, the cadets had little to no resources to accomplish the mission but they always did. In my outfit, maybe 6 out of roughly 25 fish had vehicles. Our first Corps Trip was Rice and maybe 20% of our buddies were from Houston. So, when we all showed up in Downtown Houston at the prescribed time for the parade, I was amazed. And again in Austin, Fort Worth, etc., etc.
There were always stories, hi-jinks and somebody always forgot a uniform part or whatever. But those events were one of the great learning points and maturation opportunities provided by being in the Corps. Sometimes you have to be forced to learn. And often you learn that there is more than one way to do it.
One of my favorite "learning opportunities" was our 2nd year when one of my buddies (who was a complete dewsh BTW) got rammed for stopping at a gas station and shopping in half Bs. Some Corps Staff guy happened to also stop at the same gas station. Since my buddy was a drummer, he thought the uniform rules didn't apply to him. As it turns out, he was wrong and found out the hard way.
Personally, I hear so much alleged focus on grades these days and I just wonder if maybe we haven't let up too much on the Corps Experience. Or maybe being in the Corps means something different today.
As I've mentioned on this board before, I have a cadet who just finished the Ratline at VMI. While that was a great accomplishment, the better accomplishment is staying in the University. At VMI, they lose a few "Rats" to - "this isn't for me", honor violations, finances, etc. but, they lose about 20% to academics. The reason I bring that up for comparison is that if we continued to have a Texas A&M Corps of Cadets that was just as challenging as ever but 20% of our cadets didn't make it academically, that wouldn't be something to be proud of either.
I think there's a balance in their somewhere. Hopefully the Corps Trips are something that doesn't get forgotten about after it doesn't happen for a year.