LHN, A&M, OU ….oh what a tangled web

Steve Cook is the managing member of Cook, Gola and Company, PLLC, certified public accountants with offices in San Antonio and Austin. www.cookgola.com

If you are like me, you have been following the Big 12 divestiture saga. The political posturing among these institutes of higher learning tops anything out of D.C. The entire chain of events is very interesting and a bit aggravating.
Both the University of Texas (my alma mater) and Texas A&M are above average schools. They both have unique heritages that have proven the test of time. They are, however, different. When I visit with people that are not direct descendents of the institutions, they just do not get the unique character of each institution. They are just two huge schools that cannot get along with each other. In reality, the schools coexist rather nicely. The schools were, however, chartered for different purposes. They were chartered to attract different groups of Texans. The combination of the two schools was designed to accommodate the broad cross section of Texas cultures.

So when A&M says that it wants to move to another athletic conference with schools more closely aligned with their core value, that really isn’t a stretch. At the same time, when UT says that it wants to align with the more academically oriented PAC 12/14, that isn’t a stretch either. The State of Texas is not a rural, one dimensional state. It is a multifaceted mammoth. There is plenty of room for growth from all sides.

From this outsider’s viewpoint, the LHN cracked the door for A&M to move East to join schools with a more agricultural and conservative basis. While I think that their excuse is rather weak given the fact that they could have participated in the network, I do accept that the move will benefit the school and as such is a solid business decision.

I also think that road trips to Phoenix, Los Angeles and Seattle are not all that bad. It sure beats Ames, Iowa and Lawrence, Kansas.
At any rate, OU is going to wait for A&M to announce their move. That will make the OU fans think that they are not UT’s step child. Then UT will follow since there will be no other option available. The politics will have worked out. I only wonder whether this was the “back room” plan from a year ago?
The big winners are Tech and Okie State. As for Baylor, who did you think you were fooling? Welcome to CUSA.

Gotta love politics.