Jun 15th, 2010
Texas reminds us of Eddie.
You may know him as Jimmy or Rex or Zeke or Hambone or Slick, but they all represent the same person. Eddie was the guy who made the choices for your clique of five of six junior-high boys. Either by force of his physical stature or his personal charisma or his knack with the women, Eddie set the agenda every day.
I love him, I love him, I love him. And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow. He'll always be my true love, my true love, my true love. For now until forever, forever, forever. . . . I will follow him, Follow him wherever he may go. . . and so on
Eddie suggests we all go down to the local hangout and smoke cigarettes, and the five of us respond, “Yeah, Eddie, that’s a good idea. I’ve been craving a butt for the last several hours, and I heard things are happening at the hangout.”
Then Eddie notes that smoking makes him cough and he’d rather go to City Center Park to play basketball and hustle those hicks that hang there for all their worth. To which we all respond, “Yeah, I’m trying to quit anyway to get some elevation on my sweet jumper. I need a little scratch. Let’s go.”
Halfway there, Eddie realizes he forgot his wallet and announces that the group of six 13-year-olds needs to turn around to go with him to get it. To which the other five say, “Sure, Eddie. Everybody’s got to have his wallet. If you want, Eddie, you can have my wallet, if you leave five bucks in it. No, you take the five bucks, too. You’ll need it.”
Texas is Eddie. CLICK HERE to get the idea.
When talk of conference expansion began, Texas gave off signals that it might not want to stay in the Big 12. So Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Colorado, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State said, “Yeah, Texas, that Big 12 is getting to be a bore. Let’s get outta this joint.”
Texas considers the Big Ten, but then suggests, after overtures from Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, that a move to the Pac-10 might be worthwhile, and the other five respond, “Ah, the West Coast. What a blast that would be, and they want us so bad, we could rule the thing.”
Then the Big 12 sweet talks Texas, offering it a larger share of the TV money, and Texas states that maybe the Big 12 is really the place to be, to which the other five say, “Yeah, I really wanted to stay home anyway. Those West Coat people are living on another planet. Don’t they look silly now. I’m staying right here with you, Texas old buddy, even if we have only 10 teams. They can’t drag me out of here.”
Texas has the power to change the college landscape more than any school, with the possible exception of Notre Dame. And now it appears Texas is going to wind up doing nothing other than stir up the hopes and fears of everyone around it and create a publicity whirlwind around the school.
Tomorrow, of course, Texas could say, “You know what? I think we should start our own conference, and I should get 90 percent of the revenue.” The other five would say, “Yeah, a new conference, now that sounds cool, and we could rule college football, especially if Texas gets some extra money. Isn’t that right, Texas? . . . Texas? . . . Yoohoo, Texas?”
