Texas A&M accepts bid for Cotton Bowl

yep...that's what i'm hoping for!

 

I lesser Aggie team hung with Arkansas earlier in the year.

 

I'm just going to assume you are one of the Longhorn fans saying that the Big XII is down this year because Texas is down this year. Fact is that the Big XII has 5 teams in the top 20 of the BCS rankings so I would not really call that a down year.

That said, LSU and Bama are both Top 10 teams in my mind so I can easily see one of them taking it to the Ags if we are not able to move the ball on offense.

 

this ut visor cap fan says it's a down year because there weren't really any national championship contenders, but not as bad as some have made it out to be. and as ziggy said, they held tough with arkansas so i wouldn't count them out against either lsu or bama. definitely rooting for them against bama, but not sure about lsu considering one of my best friends is a tiger fan.

 

A&M would have been better off going to the Holiday bowl i think against ASU.. Playing against LSU and/or Bama will not end well for the Ags. Against Bama I think theyd go down by 3 maybe 4 tds...against LSU probably at least 2tds...would be better for recruiting to play and win a bowl game against a not so good ASU team.

 

I'm not a Longhorn fan, but I think the top tier teams in the SEC (Bama/Auburn/LSU/Arkansas are far superior to the top tier teams in the Big 12 (A&M,Nebraska,OU,OSU)

 

While I agree that at this point we are desperate for a bowl win, ANY bowl win, I think the possibility of beating an SEC powerhouse at the cotton bowl is far more rewarding, even if it carries the risk of yet another bowl loss.

As for losing by 3-4 TD's, you obviously haven't seen much of Deruyter's defense this year. We absolutely dominated for extended stretches. We had some random breakdowns every now and then, but the D has literally carried us to the 9-3 record. Don't forget that we shut down a prolific OU offense for an entire half... Same for Baylor in the second half (First half was just crazy. Several mental errors and no pressure on Griffin made him run all over us). And hadn't it been for Jerrod literally scoring for OSU (5 turn overs), they wouldn't have put up as many points on us as they did.

Point being, there is no way we give up that many points to either Bama or LSU. Offensively, neither of them can hold the jockstrap of any big 12 spread offense we faced this year. And our defense looked all-world at times against those prolific offenses.

The main concern unfortunately is Sherman's play calling on offense. He does just fine sometimes, but at other times the play calls are atrocious. On several occasions he likes to pull a Kubiak and get away from the run that's been carrying us the whole game, and that almost cost us several times during the season. He has really struggled being coach and OC at the same time, we really miss Cromwell. But with a month to prepare, I can only hope he can string together a decent offensive game plan that gives us a chance to win and doesn't make us rely on our D to bail us out.

All in all, it will be a competitive game, and I would love going to the game but with the ticket prices the way they are looking right now that is very highly unlikely.

 

I can definitely see that logic though I think on the Big XII as a whole, it has gotten stronger especially in the middle of the pack. I'll agree it did lose some strength at the top especially considering all teams lost at least 2 games. When Texas likely regains form next year, the current Big XII South teams will be a real force.

 

I can see that...But no conference comes close to being as dominate as the SEC West.

 

It has gotten stronger.. but it still has a ways to go to catch up to the SEC. The Pac-10 is also stronger right now. I'd say that the Big 12 is better than the Big Ten right now though.

 

I'm stoked for this game. While I would like to play LSU over Bama, it doesn't really matter too much to me. Regardless of the outcome, I'm still gonna be thrilled that we made it to the Cotton Bowl. This will have a huge impact on recruiting I think, so no matter what the score is at the end of the game, it's beneficial. Not to mention the experience it will give the young players in being in a big bowl game. Gig'Em!

 

That comparison is especially true when you consider 9-3 A&M among the "top tier" of the Big 12, and not the 10-2 team that annihilated them 30-9 in College Station. Of course, the Cotton Bowl forgot about that team too, so it's no biggie.

 

The Cotton bowl is interested in making $$$$$$. Aggies travel better than Mizzou fans ===> easy decision.

 

That's totally fine, and wasn't what I replied to. Just don't exclude Mizzou from the "top tier" of Big 12 teams while including A&M, a team with a worse record that we crushed in College Station. I understand good and well that bowls are about business - just don't let that analyze how you view on-field results.

By the way, I hope you guys annihilate LSU. Most of my anger isn't at the Aggies, but primarily at LSU... Missouri had an Orange Bowl bid practically sewn up until LSU lost to Arkansas, allowing Stanford into the top four (where the BCS has no choice but to take them).

Hopefully you can respect why Mizzou fans are upset... the Cotton Bowl can take the Ags over Mizzou for because they view it as better for business, yet the Orange Bowl isn't allowed to take Mizzou over Stanford, when they believe it would be better for business. Snakebit.

 

that game was played with our injured QB, we turned the corner by starting Ryan Tannerhill and he has won 6 straight, he makes smarter passes and doesn't turn the ball over

 

That's fine and good, but season results are season results. If you want to play the what-if game, Mizzou played that game without Aldon Smith, the most dominant defensive lineman in the Big 12.

10-2 is better than 9-3, especially when it's combined with a 30-9 win in the latter team's home. What's the defense's excuse, by the way? The "Wrecking Crew" that held OU and Texas under 20 and Nebraska to 6 couldn't keep Mizzou under 30... in three quarters!

All that said, I'm not trying to start anything - I respect A&M and know y'all have an excellent team and I congratulate you on the Cotton Bowl berth. Just know that we're going to be a bit upset if someone includes A&M in the "top tier" of Big 12 teams and not us.

 

Dude Mizzou was hands down the best team we played all year. In fact, I think we still lose if we re-played the game today, Tannehill and wrecking crew and all. Mizzou is legit.

What boggles my mind is your loss to tech. Biggest WTF of the year.

 

Gabbert played the worst game of his life against Tech. Not so much with turnovers, but accuracy - just couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Overthrew receivers by 5-plus yards, reluctant to run, no intermediate game. In a way, it was like the A&M loss to OSU - you can be better than the other team at every position on the field, but if your QB self-destructs, it's hard to beat anyone.

It also sucked from a timing standpoint. We had had three huge games in a row (at A&M, home for No. 1 OU, at Nebraska) the past three weeks and that mentally wears on you. It was Tech's homecoming in a night game that was basically their Super Bowl. Perfect storm for them.

What really sucks is that after we lost to Nebraska, I told all my Mizzou buddies not to worry - that NEB had a loss coming in College Station (which if we had won out, would've put us in Big 12 title game). And I was exactly right on that, but didn't count on the Tech loss. Appreciate the props, though.

 

Mizzou's 10-2 vs our 9-3 is not that different especially considering who both teams had to play during the season (ie Arkie in non-conf) Not saying Mizzou doesnt deserve Cotton (as do OSU and the conf champ loser) but it is not ridiculous that the Cotton took a hot A&M team regardless of the money. Somebody gets left out of the good bowls and it definitely sucks for Mizzou that they get sent all the way down to the Holiday against a bad Washington team.

 

Mizzou's out-of-conference is better than a lot of folks think - San Diego State and Miami-OH each ended up being good teams, and Illinois should finish 7-5 in the Big Ten. I understand they're not Arkansas, but to me, they're good enough that when you combine that with the head-to-head result, Mizzou had the better season. Not a night and day difference, but it's there. (This is also the fourth consecutive year in which Mizzou has gone to a lower bowl than they deserved by record, which adds to the outrage from Columbia.)

By the way, most indications have Mizzou going to the Insight now. Not a huge difference from the Holiday, but at least playing Michigan or Iowa is a tad better than playing a 6-6 Washington.