What Rivalry?

Rivalries. They seem to be popping up in this conference like a Chucky Cheese Whack-a-Mole tournament. Each team in the North wants to be rivals with Nebraska and Colorado. Every team in the South believes it has a rivalry with Texas or Oklahoma. Naturally, the fans in Austin, Lincoln, Boulder and Norman all believe these cries for rivaldom are false. Nothing more than smaller schools trying to associate their program with the larger, more storied programs. There are border rivalries like Oklahoma against Texas and Kansas against Missouri. In state rivalries like Oklahoma State and Oklahoma or Texas against Texas A&M. Some are rivalries bred out nothing more than competition, like Nebraska against Oklahoma. Some are for bragging rights and typically are situations where the fans get together at tailgates; reminisce about teams and players from long since forgotten eras.

I’ve heard all about it over the past ten years. There are Kansas fans that think there’s a budding rivalry with Nebraska, despite the fact Nebraska’s danced on their heads for thirty-plus years. But because Kansas did them last year to the tune of a twenty five point victory in 2005, it’s a rivalry. The same goes for Baylor fans and their supposed rivalry with Texas A&M. Beating a team one time in twenty years does not make a rivalry. It creates the idea that your fan base just doesn’t get it.

Certainly the most prestigious rivalry of the Big 12 is the Red River Shootout. I’m no fan of either school, and it’s one of two times a year I root for the Horns. Tempered in tradition and played during the Texas State Fair in the storied Cotton Bowl, it’s a feast of the most pompous egos (and rightly so) in college football. Both are top ten in championships among active Division I schools. Both are top ten in all time winning percentages. It’s a border rivalry where the reward is the best schoolboy players in each state, and the punishment is a year of second place or lower. It’s a game where the two schools hate each other, but there’s a civility that’s common to the people that can afford the outrageous prices of neutral site tickets.

I watch the nature channel, not a lot, but a little bit. When you watch the pack animals fight, there’s always one that challenges the Alpha’s dominance, and occasionally comes away with more respect. Once the Alpha and his rival are done feasting though, there are scraps to be divided, and that’s when the real bloodletting begins. That’s the Texas Tech and Texas A&M rivalry.

Certainly, most Aggies out there won’t publicly call Texas Tech a rival. I respect the position. I don’t agree with it, but I can see where you’re coming from. To acknowledge that a sibling rivalry exists, you first have to acknowledge that someone’s your sibling. What’s lost on Aggies is that they perceive Texas Tech in the same way the Longhorns have always perceived them. It’s a little bit endearing. They’re the Clayton Bixby’s of college football.

I don’t mean to rain on other rivalries. Tech vs. A&M isn’t a classic must see game where the fate of the division is decided. It’s not often a matchup of undefeated teams that may later determine anything in the national scheme. What it does is consistently produce close games with wild endings and occasionally, a riot.

This week a level of pride is on the line for the Aggies. Simply put, they’re tired of losing to the Red Raiders. They’ve dropped eight of the last eleven. The period of 1984-1994 is the last time the Ags held a similar advantage. Tech’s run from 1963-1973 was comparable but the gap’s never gone much wider than that. Since 2001, when the Texas Tech faithful passed the goalposts up through the visiting bleachers and Aggies began punching each other and slinging binoculars around, the bad blood has become bitter, and it’s about more than football.

With Saturday fast approaching, the news coming out of the Red Raider camp is slow, while the Aggies are screaming from the hilltops. Dennis Franchione refuses to acknowledge it, but his livelihood is on the line this weekend. It will take more than a loss to Tech to toss him overboard, but not much. Despite the fact that this series is fairly even since Tech’s move to the Southwest conference (Tech leads 24-21), A&M feels like the Red Raiders are a team they should manhandle regularly.

It’s the same old story this weekend. The Air Raid against the Wrecking Crew, a high octane offense takes on the once formidable and physical defense. The only difference is how early in the season this game is taking place. This will make the second time in 20 years the schools will face off in September, with it being too early to tell what kind of teams are on the field. The Aggies strength of schedule is dead last in most rankings and the Raiders lost their only true test by throwing the ball into the ground three times and punting. Both teams are sitting right on the fringe of most top 25 polls, as voters are looking to this week to see who deserves to be there.

To be honest, I don’t have a clue how this game will turn out. I’ve witnessed several games at Kyle Field and I know it is an extraordinarily difficult place to play. Most Aggie fans are touting the 6th ranked pass defense in the country, but with Louisiana Lafayette showing up with a profound 2/12 seventeen yard day, it’s not hard to see how statistics can be overblown. Tech fans will point to Harrell’s single half last week, but Southeast Louisiana is widely respected as one of the worst assemblies of college athletes in the country. The proof will be on the field on Saturday.

Either way, I think you all know who I’ll be rooting for, and should they win, I hope to hear from as many Aggies as I’ve heard from leading up from the previews to this week.

By Big12-Fans Writer Brandon Reese

2006 Big 12 Football Preview

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