...and people wonder why I check out more and more every season. You got the Texas Attorney General threatening the Big 12 over a quarterback playing for Texas Tech. The Oklahoma AG jumps in too. Now the Big 12 files a federal lawsuit in Dallas to try and sanction Tech over this Brendan Sorsby situation. Twenty minute videos from Texas Tech officials defending themselves. This is where we are. Lawsuits and state politicians running college football instead of coaches and conference commissioners.
I remember when the biggest controversy in the old Southwest Conference was whether the SWC would survive the death penalty era. We had real problems back then. But at least the fights stayed inside the league offices and on the field. You never saw the damn Governor of Texas threatening to sue the conference over a player eligibility ruling. That would have been a laugh in the 1980s when we were battling Texas and Arkansas for the SWC crown. Bill Clements had better things to do than worry about who was taking snaps for the Red Raiders.
The whole thing is just a symptom of what this sport has become. Nobody trusts anybody. Every decision ends up in court. The portal, the NIL, the conference realignment that tore apart the old Big 12 we actually loved. We lost Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC and now we got the state of Texas suing the conference over a transfer quarterback. The irony would be funny if it wasnt so pathetic.
Coach Franchione used to tell us that the game was about blocking and tackling not lawyers and politicians. He was right. The 1998 Sun Bowl team didnt need attorneys general. They just went out and played football. Now we got preseason magazines coming out in June and instead of talking about who looks good in spring ball we are talking about federal court cases in Dallas. This is not why I fell in love with college football sitting in the old bleachers at Amon Carter.