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Topic: SEC Champion 2025

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utee94

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #70 on: Today at 11:09:02 AM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 11:03:37 AM
I've often heard that, but what is true and what is simply rumors, who knows?  Surely the OU players at the time weren't that scared of Nebraska?  I mean OU had won the MNC not even ten years prior, especially around the 1994 time frame when the Big 12 first started to evolve. 

But we can talk about it until the cows come home, what's done is done. 
Well what we do know, is that somebody didn't want it bad enough to make it happen.  You're 100% correct when you say if they wanted it, there were multiple different ways to make it happen.

So the proof is in the pudding-- it didn't happen, which means that it wasn't fought for hard enough to make it happen.  

In contrast, both Texas and OU wanted that game to be annual, and maneuvered to make it so.
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Gigem

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #71 on: Today at 11:20:03 AM »
Quote from: utee94 on Today at 11:09:02 AM
Well what we do know, is that somebody didn't want it bad enough to make it happen.  You're 100% correct when you say if they wanted it, there were multiple different ways to make it happen.

So the proof is in the pudding-- it didn't happen, which means that it wasn't fought for hard enough to make it happen. 

In contrast, both Texas and OU wanted that game to be annual, and maneuvered to make it so.
Yep.  It must have been somewhat weird for the OU/Texas game to go in-conference for the first time in ~80 years or whatever it was.  I do faintly recall that maybe OU was part of the SWC briefly, but I may be mistaken, and there probably wasn't much of a rivalry then.  Hell, the SWC may be older than OU being a state.  
I never really knew much about CFB before the 1996 season, but it was my impression  later on that the OU/Nebraska rivalry was a big deal.  

OU and Texas really seemed kind of equal about the mid 90's, maybe that played a factor in it.  At any rate, the powers that be didn't want it bad enough so that's that.  
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jgvol

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #72 on: Today at 11:27:11 AM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 11:03:37 AM
I've often heard that, but what is true and what is simply rumors, who knows?  Surely the OU players at the time weren't that scared of Nebraska?  I mean OU had won the MNC not even ten years prior, especially around the 1994 time frame when the Big 12 first started to evolve. 

But we can talk about it until the cows come home, what's done is done. 

Everyone was scared of THAT Nebraska.  
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CWSooner

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #73 on: Today at 01:54:27 PM »
Quote from: MikeDeTiger on Today at 09:41:32 AM
So let me ask you:  Would you rather have had the SEC's old rotation when OU was in the Big 12 with Nebraska and Colorado?  This would've meant having one cross-division game locked in every year, in OU's case let's assume it would've been Nebraska.  The trade-off for playing Nebraska every year would've been that OU played all the other North teams home and away over a 5 year period instead of a 4 year period. 

Would you have made that tradeoff to keep Nebraska annual?  Or would you prefer what y'all had, with all six cross-division teams rotating on and off the schedule every 4 years? . . .

I had a long MB discussion about this with the late, great Hooky Hornstein. I figured out a 5-year cycle (probably just like the one you mentioned) and it would have worked fine. The problem was that nobody but Nebraska was particularly interested in keeping OU-Nebraska an annual affair. Texas didn't want a permanent inter-divisional opponent and, I'm sad to say, neither did OU. Nebraska was kicking Sooner butt at the time, and the short-sighted PTBs at OU took the easy way out and went along with Texas' PoV.

Nebraska, at the pinnacle of its on-field excellence, was the odd man out when the Big 12 was organized. There were several 11-1 decisions that went against the Huskers. The big one was probably the ban on playing partial qualifiers. Would we have had permanent inter-division rivals had OU sided with Nebraska? Maybe, but I think probably not.

To answer your question, had I been king of the Big 12 at its founding, I would have mandated that OU-Nebraska be an annual game. Even if it had to be an OOC game half the time. I would have told the weenies at OU to suck it up and put better teams on the field, because we're not going to drop the annual battle of the Big Reds.

OU fans 20 years or more younger than I am just remember the butt-kickings if they remember anything about OU-NU at all. They don't care one way or the other about the future OOC series with Nebraska that we have coming up in 2029-30. But I do care. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I can run into Fearless again.
« Last Edit: Today at 02:17:20 PM by CWSooner »
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CWSooner

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #74 on: Today at 02:16:18 PM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 11:20:03 AM
Yep.  It must have been somewhat weird for the OU/Texas game to go in-conference for the first time in ~80 years or whatever it was.  I do faintly recall that maybe OU was part of the SWC briefly, but I may be mistaken, and there probably wasn't much of a rivalry then.  Hell, the SWC may be older than OU being a state.

OU started football with a 1-game season as an independent in 1895, 12 years before statehood in 1907. The SWC was founded in 1914, and OU joined the following season. OU was a member of the SWC from 1915 through 1919, were co-champs in 1915 and champs in 1918. The SWC at that time was sort of like the SEC was for so much of its existence. The number of conference games was not set. OU never played more than 3 conference games a year in the SWC.

Quote
I never really knew much about CFB before the 1996 season, but it was my impression  later on that the OU/Nebraska rivalry was a big deal.

Yep. In the '70s and '80s, roughly the equal of the RRS in competitiveness, with a somewhat shorter history and with less hatred. And the conference winner in those years typically played in the Orange Bowl.

Quote
OU and Texas really seemed kind of equal about the mid 90's, maybe that played a factor in it.  At any rate, the powers that be didn't want it bad enough so that's that.

Not in the '90s. Nebraska won 3 MNCs in the '90s, while that was a bad decade for Sooner football. Mediocre from 1990 through 1995, terrible from 1996 through 1998, and salvaged with Bob Stoops' arrival for 1999.
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Gigem

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #75 on: Today at 02:40:06 PM »
Yeah, I meant that OU and Texas were about equal to each other. I don’t really recall Texas being much in the formative years of the Big 12, which was 1995-1996. 

Yes, I know Texas was the last SWC champion in 1995 but it seems like they got assassinated in the bowl by upstart VT. I do remember vividly how shocking it was that Texas won the first Big 12 CCG. 
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CWSooner

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #76 on: Today at 03:06:17 PM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 02:40:06 PM
Yeah, I meant that OU and Texas were about equal to each other. I don’t really recall Texas being much in the formative years of the Big 12, which was 1995-1996.

Yes, I know Texas was the last SWC champion in 1995 but it seems like they got assassinated in the bowl by upstart VT. I do remember vividly how shocking it was that Texas won the first Big 12 CCG.
Boy, I completely missed on your comparison. You posted "Texas" and I read "Nebraska." ~???

Texas was better than OU in the mid-'90s, but bad enough to get beaten by a John Blake-coached OU team. In 1997, I believe.

It took some doing to lose to any of John Blake's 3 Sooner teams. I think that John Blake was Barry Switzer's delayed payback to the OU PTBs for firing him after the 1988 season. These were the same PTBs who were content to let the OU-Nebraska game no longer be an annual rivalry. Maybe more than "content." Maybe "relieved and ecstatic."
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MikeDeTiger

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #77 on: Today at 03:22:19 PM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 02:40:06 PM
Yeah, I meant that OU and Texas were about equal to each other. I don’t really recall Texas being much in the formative years of the Big 12, which was 1995-1996.

Yes, I know Texas was the last SWC champion in 1995 but it seems like they got assassinated in the bowl by upstart VT. I do remember vividly how shocking it was that Texas won the first Big 12 CCG.


As a future SEC!  SEC!  SEC! team, I assure you they weren't up for it.  
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MikeDeTiger

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #78 on: Today at 03:24:03 PM »
Somebody should resurrect Shiner.  Ags are having the best season in my memory, and he's out sleeping in a gutter somewhere.  
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utee94

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #79 on: Today at 03:34:21 PM »
Quote from: MikeDeTiger on Today at 03:24:03 PM
Somebody should resurrect Shiner.  Ags are having the best season in my memory, and he's out sleeping in a gutter somewhere. 
Probably got rolled over in the garage by his vintage Corvette restoration project...
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Gigem

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #80 on: Today at 03:39:43 PM »
Quote from: utee94 on Today at 03:34:21 PM
Probably got rolled over in the garage by his vintage Corvette restoration project...
Shiner...and Bonfired.

I actually met Bonfired once, around 98/99 or maybe '00.  We had a beer in the Dixie Chicken.  I can't remember his first name, but I'll think of it eventually.  He remains the only person IRL on these boards I have interreacted with in person.  
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Gigem

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #81 on: Today at 03:40:56 PM »
I recall that Bonfired was a teacher, and he had already been graduated by the late 90's. Which means that if he was still teaching, he'd be close  to 30 years, or maybe more, and possibly retired by now.  My how time flys.  
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Gigem

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #82 on: Today at 03:41:56 PM »
Quote from: CWSooner on Today at 03:06:17 PM
Boy, I completely missed on your comparison. You posted "Texas" and I read "Nebraska." ~???

Texas was better than OU in the mid-'90s, but bad enough to get beaten by a John Blake-coached OU team. In 1997, I believe.

It took some doing to lose to any of John Blake's 3 Sooner teams. I think that John Blake was Barry Switzer's delayed payback to the OU PTBs for firing him after the 1988 season. These were the same PTBs who were content to let the OU-Nebraska game no longer be an annual rivalry. Maybe more than "content." Maybe "relieved and ecstatic."
A&M was pretty damn good in the early to mid-90's, but there was one season in there where OU whipped us badly in a non-conference game.  I think it was '94 or '95.  
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MikeDeTiger

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Re: SEC Champion 2025
« Reply #83 on: Today at 03:54:44 PM »
Quote from: Gigem on Today at 03:39:43 PM
Shiner...and Bonfired.

I actually met Bonfired once, around 98/99 or maybe '00.  We had a beer in the Dixie Chicken.  I can't remember his first name, but I'll think of it eventually.  He remains the only person IRL on these boards I have interreacted with in person. 


You're not missing much.  Most of these guys are schmucks in real life.  

I keed, I keed.  

Aren't you in Houston-ish?  Tell you what, if the Ags win it all I'll buy you a A&M shot glass commemorating the occasion and deliver it to you personally at a watering hole/fine-dining establishment of your choosing.  My Georgia buddy got me a cool one in 2019, and I returned the favor in 2021.  I don't actually drink shots from it, but it looks cool.  
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