Just saw that CBS Sports piece about Houston being the best value to win the Big 12 in 2026 and I had to read it twice. Houston? The same program that joined this league with us and has done nothing memorable? This is what happens when you let analytics and betting odds replace actual football knowledge. I remember when you earned respect in this conefrence by beating people in the trenches, not by having favorable futures odds in June.
Back in the late 90s when we were still in the WAC and nobody gave us a second look, we built teams the right way. Coach Franchione found kids at Texas high school scrimmages that nobody else wanted and turned them into All-Conference players. We had a quarterback in 1994 who threw for 300 yards against Texas A&M and he was a walk-on who worked the snack bar during offseason conditioning. That is how you build a program, not by playing the market like a stock portfolio.
Now everybody is looking at Houston because they caught lightning in a bottle with a few portal transfers and suddenly they are the smart money pick. The Big 12 championship is supposed to run through Fort Worth and nobody seems to remember that. We have got the culture and the coaching staff to compete with anybody in this league once the pads come on. These oddsmakers can put their money wherever they want but I will take our program building the old way over hype every single time.