It's an institutional issue. UH and UT had a contract before they agreed to play one another. UH had to offer a certain number of tickets. They pulled the plug on the bleachers and had the option to move to the Astrodome or Rice stadium and they decided they wanted a home game more than they wanted to honor the agreement. If UT was scared, they never would have agreed to that 3 year deal to begin with. How is it not understandable that UT would not want to sign another contract with an institution that violated the previous one? Oh come on. How is it not obvious that you are promoting a double standard. Are UTEP and Rice going to be throwing a UH a parade out of appreciation? You've vilified UT for turning their back on Texas teams when in reality UH is the only team they won't play because of the contract that UH violated in 01. UH is leaving behind 2 Texas teams to join a conference with only 1 other Texas Team. Texas, A&M, TTU, and Baylor all went to the big 12. A third of the conference was Texas teams. 15% of the Big East will be Texas teams. I don't understand why when I make the same argument it's a guilt trip.
An institutional issue? Erm, ok. That's nice and all, but absolutely nobody associated with "bleachergate" is here anymore. In fact, we're three administrations removed from that. And no, the dome was not an option (it was unfit to host a game by that time), and neither was Rice (they had a home game that weekend). It was a stupid idea to force UH to put up temp bleachers in the first place with Reliant opening a year later, and the smarter decision would've been to just delay the game instead of insisting that we accomodate extra UT tickets. It was a timing fail of pretty much epic proportions, last thing anybody wanted to see a couple of days after 9/11 was 5,000 football fans getting crushed to death in a bleacher collapse because of soaked topsoil. Believe me, nobody at UH was thrilled about having to put up extra bleachers, and we would have jumped at any chance to play the game at a larger venue in Houston, but there was simply none available. Either way, it's a really lame excuse for not playing us, and you know it. However hurt your peepees are from a few thousand tickets being voided, rub some dirt on it and put a helmet on. You're Texas, for god's sake, not some grudge holding drama queen divas. Because there are two different standards for two different situations?
Drama Queen? We aren't taking about not inviting timmy to your little birthday party because he called you names. If you do business with someone and they violate the contract, would you do business with them again? What's the point? It's not like they are missing out on anything. They can still get into houston playing Rice who hasn't screwed them over. 5,000 fans were screwed out of tickets they had purchased and UH had the option to make it right and they didn't. How is that spilled milk? Why wasn't the dome fit to host a game? It was still hosting events. It still hosted high school football. Rice didn't have a game that weekend. They had home games on September 8th and November 6th. BOTH VENUES WERE AVAILABLE.
I was thinking the game was the weekend of Sept 11th, my bad. Either way, it's a super lame excuse, and you know it. But I'm sure you'll keep bringing it up for another 20 years, or until Deloss keels over, so whatever. You are right that UT doesn't need to play UH, they have Rice to smack around (which is a far better reason to not play UH than bleachergate). But if you're going to run around saying you're better than us ("Who have you played?" etc) and how much you'd beat us by, etc, then I expect you to be open to, if not very much interested in, the idea of playing us. Regardless of whatever somebody did to you 10 years ago. Otherwise your criticism rings hollow. Is that fair to you? (note; when I say "you" I do not mean you specifically, I mean the people in this thread saying such things)
Its like your assuming us as Texas fans have the power to schedule a game. I would love to see Tx play UH especially now that yall are good, but unfortunately, we don't create the schedule.
Of course you don't. However, how do you think these things get started? It takes a some sort of groundswell of support. Things don't just happen spontaneously, there's always some sort of impetus. My point isn't to put the burden on you guys specifically to get a game scheduled, but if you're going to run smack, then I expect people to have an attitude like yours, rather than "remember bleachergate?" And perhaps maybe, one day, with enough guys like you around, somebody in a seat of power will schedule a UH-UT series. Then we can all sing songs and hold hands again.
Don't be silly. If enough people want it to happen, it will. Put the bug in enough people's ears and eventually it'll creep its way up to somebody with the power to make it happen. Why do you think certain teams always play each other? If nobody wanted those games to be played, they probably wouldn't be played. Hell, there's going to be enough pissed of football fans around the state of Texas to eventually force UT and A&M to play each other again. Remember the threat of actually writing that into law? Put enough pressure on the admins and stuff happens.
You mean the fans are begging Dodds to play Florida Atlantic? How do you suggest we successfully put the bug in people's ears? You seem to know the solutions
To be completely honest, I've just never thought of it as something I really want to see. I wasn't even a Texas fan when bleachergate happened, so I harbour no resentment over that.
But you're assuming Longhorn fans care that much about playing UH. If Texas fans were going to expend some effort to chase down an opponent, it wouldn't be them. It would be A&M or Florida or Ohio State or Michigan or whomever that is interesting to UT. UH seems to be the ones that really want to play UT - maybe their fans should start contacting legislators and try to get them to force the issue.
No, I'm not. I'm saying that if you want to run your mouth about how much better you are than us, then you should be willing to prove it.
If you want to act as if the desires of the alumni, students, and fans has zero impact on the actions of the administration, then that's not a place I'm willing to follow you to.
So you're saying the fans running their mouths that UT is better than UH today should start a campaign that might result in Texas playing UH in 10 or 15 years? Again, you assume that fans care a lot more than they do.
Again, if you care enough to yammer on about how much better you are than UH, and how badly you would beat them, and so on, then you (should) probably care enough to want to play them. Otherwise, why the hell would you bother talking about beating them? If you're not willing to play the team you think you're so much better than, then you should probably stfu, that's all. Thankfully most UT folk around here seem cool with the idea of playing UH, but there's a small, and unfortunately vocal minority, who don't want to. Their criticism and sniping is decidedly hollow and meaningless in my eyes. And no, I'm not heaping some kind of unfair burden on the UT fanbase. I know that it's not some kind of popular vote that runs the show. But I'm sure if enough Longhorns (especially donors) make noise about it, the schools will play each other again. (See UT v A&M, et al) The movement has to start somewhere, every little bit helps, even if its just some dudes on a basketball BBS kicking around hypotheticals.
Fair enough, but, I'm willing to bet that if enough people kept talking about it, the matchup would eventually happen. That's probably why the 01-03 series got scheduled in the first place, there was enough demand for it from both sides to make it happen. UH being relevant again is what has sparked this little flame to begin with, so, over time it could possibly catch on and become a much bigger movement. Maybe 10 years from now, maybe sooner, but either way, the momentum has to start building somewhere.
