I'm a UT fan. I didn't go to UT. I was raised on UT. I applied to UT and I was accepted to UT. I also went to HS in San Marcos, and I spent a lot of time in Austin as a result. All of these strengthened whatever unofficial ties I feel that I have to UT. While I have been open about the personal confusion I feel with regard to college sports (cheering one school, attending another, etc.), those circumstances still make me a legit fan, and not a bandwagon fan. You said that you attend UT. Good for you. You are not a bandwagon UT fan, but a legit UT fan. But none of that has anything to do with why I called you out: Maybe you're from Chicago. Maybe your parents are from Chicago. Maybe you were raised to be a Bulls fan or maybe you picked them all on your own when you were a child because you were so fascinated with the guy that you couldn't comprehend cheering for someone else over your hometown team. I'm open-minded. I can cut a child some slack (but I'll place blame squarely with the parents) because I can understand how a childhood fascination can result in creating a life-long fan. I can accept all of that, if that is the case. But the point is that I don't know your individual circumstances, and when taken at face value, this admittance from you and the apparent assumption that "all of us" engaged in such tendencies is blatant bandwagoning of the highest caliber.
Anyone who roots for the best team is a bandwagoner and is a lower life form than a Jazz Fan as far as I'm concerned. All those Kobe lovers now, they were all rocking MJ's 23 back in the 90s, not Nick Van Exel or Eddie Jones. Loyalty. It means something.
So how many folks went to the UT/Rice game (I'm sure it was a sellout) and did the schools split 50/50?
I was there. It appeared to be a sellout, but I haven't seen it verified anywhere, and the crowd was probably 98% burnt orange.
Went to the game, it looked like a 80/20 split, pretty much a UT home game as Major posted. As a UT alumn, I would like to give props to the Rice fans who were surprisingly rowdy throughout the game (well at least the Rice section next to me).
Official attendance was just over 70K, not a sellout but it was the largest crowd ever in a Rice opener, 3rd largest overall.
Didn't read the thread, so apologies if I repeat someone else. Why UT doesn't play UH... Bleachergate is a popular excuse, and while it was dumb to agree to put up temporary stands, it was even dumber to schedule the series the year before Reliant opened, which would've been a great venue and game. I blame both administrations for not having much foresight on that one. But quite frankly, it boils down to risk-reward. UT gains nothing by playing UH, except for a chance to be royally embarrassed. They learned this lesson 40 years ago after sponsoring UH to be in the SWC. They won't make the same mistake again (until probation hit and the subsequent dissolution of the SWC, the series was a fairly competitive 7-11-1, in favor of UT, with each school taking turns crapping on each others title/bowl hopes in several different years). But now with Rice happily letting UT come and smash their faces in every year so they can play a game in Houston, UT has literally zero incentive to play UH anymore. Losing to A&M or OU sucks if you're a UT fan, but losing to UH probably sucks way worse. It's a class thing. They view A&M and OU and such as equals (at least as much as UT can reasonably be expected to do); UH, they view as inferior. Losing to them, or even allowing them to sit at the same table as you, basically does nothing but present an unnecessary risk at best, and at worst it gives UH credibility that would detract from UT's stranglehold on the state, both academically and athletically.
What about the Aggies vs UH? This would be a better question than UT vs UH. College Station is a skip away plus the giant Aggie Alumni population in Htown.
Sounds good in theory, except for the fact that college series are scheduled years in advance, and Rice was the superior football program to UH at the time the game was scheduled.
Even though that's not really the point I was making, it's not much of a stretch to think that if you schedule a game five-six years from now against UH or Rice, UH would be considered having a more realistic chance to win, regardless of what states the programs are currently in. Not really a knock on Rice. Just a fairly more historically/consistently competitive football program for UH. My point is moreso centered around UH being a bigger threat, academically, financially, athletically, etc to UT, than Rice. It's not about "they're too scared to play us" from a losing-the-game standpoint. It's moreso about "why should they play us?" Rice and UT don't really compete against each other in the same way, or for resources the way UT and UH do. Simply put, UT has far more to lose from playing UH than it does from playing Rice. And when you couple that with the actual chance of losing to UH being greater than the chance of losing to Rice, it's a no-brainer for UT.
Any links to that info? Cant find it with a quick search on google. The year the schedule was made so I can compare win losses and such. If it was the eighties during run and shoot Andre and Klingler that can't be right, I don't recall any Rice teams since then that were far and away better then UH. I believe the all-time record is Houston leads the series 24–9. Of course with the burnt orange sunglasses on it's common to mis-remember LOL.
Students have always gotten in free, they have certain sections reserved for the students. Who cares if they're selling the tickets or giving them away, as long as the seats are filled and the crowd is rocking.
I didn't know games were scheduled years before. So my guess of 5-7 years was pretty close. Last time I heard, UH was trying to schedule a game against LSU.
It's because UT wants to maximize profit.. and why not. Crappy schools get paid to come to Austin. I think FAU played here last year as well. More home games = more money for UT. Speaking about bandwagon fans, it's funny. 5 years ago, nobody would have brought up about "UT scared to play UH" crap. True fans huh?
It can vary. This offseason, UT scheduled games with BYU, Notre Dame and USC. Those games range from 2014 to 2020, I believe. So that would be 4 to 10 years or so.
honestly if these teams from this year played, UT would blow out UH and their cupcake schedule/system quarterback.
