UT is the #1 sports college!

according to this week's edition of Sports Illustrated!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2002/10/01/1_10/

I've never been prouder of my old school!

Here is an excerpt from the issue, an SI writer's experience at UT...



NO. 1 TEXAS
By Gene Menez, Sports Illustrated

For the record this was not my idea. One of the bigwigs at CNNSI.com told me to put together a quick piece on my years at the University of Texas so that people can learn why the magazine has selected the school as the No. 1 athletic program in the country. "Uh, well," I began hesitantly, "when I went to school, it wasn't exactly ..."

"Great," he said. "Have it in by Tuesday."

So I canceled a tee time and started sifting through my sad collection of dusty newspaper clips (I worked all four years at the school paper, The Daily Texan), media guides and press credentials in the hope I'd find something helpful. The search only confirmed what I had thought: My stay at Texas (1991-'95) was the worst time to attend school there.

The football team lost all four games to Texas A&M, went to one bowl game, lost to TCU and Rice, and earned a share of just one conference championship -- and that only because Texas A&M was on probation. (The team went to the Cotton Bowl the year before I arrived and to the Sugar Bowl the year after I left.) Coach Tom Penders and the men's basketball team, which I covered for the paper in 1994, reached the Elite Eight in 1990 and the Sweet 16 in 1991, but never got past the second round while I was there. Neither did coach Jody Conradt 's women's basketball squad, which always had advanced deep in the tournament before I arrived. The baseball team was solid but not special, going to the College World Series twice but never winning it all.

In short, being a Texas student and fan those four years was like being a fan of good music in the late '80s (U2 notwithstanding). No question things have improved significantly and the university deserves to be No. 1 in our very scientific analysis. But had the rankings been made while I was in school, I'm not sure Texas even would have qualified as "Others receiving votes."

Still, there are moments I'll never forget. On the eve of the Texas-Oklahoma football game in 1992, while reveling with hundreds of others at the Across the Street bar in Dallas, I saw a member of the UT golf team quickly maneuver his way toward a portable toilet. But instead of going inside, he ducked to the left and vomited next to it. His course management has improved greatly; he's now on the PGA Tour.

In the spring semester in 1993 I was in drama class completing the end-of-the-year course/teacher evaluation form when I looked to my right and saw one of the players from the football team trying to copy my responses. He thought it was a test.

During spring football practice in March 1992 three suspended players, who had been charged with misdemeanors stemming from a fight, unexpectedly returned to the team. After practice John Mackovic , three months into his tenure as coach, fielded questions from other reporters about why the players had been reinstated. I asked, "Were their charges dropped?" and Mackovic glared at me as if I had just moved his wine collection to a boiler room. He then turned to another reporter and said, about me, "This guy is going to go somewhere." It was only after a few months of witnessing Mackovic's contempt for the local media that I learned he did not mean that as a compliment.

Nonetheless, I wouldn't trade my four years of college for Vin Diesel 's black book. The education was first-class; Austin, by far the best city in Texas, rocked. And if I ever want to experience a winning, big-time college athletic program, there's always grad school.

Hook 'em.

Sports Illustrated reporter Gene Menez is a 1995 graduate of the University of Texas

 

really? is there a source for this? I had no idea we were ranked so high! that is fantastic news!

edit: never mind, i found it. Athlon ranks us as #5 in their preseason poll!

 

from the first paragraph of the article:

For the record this was not my idea. One of the bigwigs at CNNSI.com told me to put together a quick piece on my years at the University of Texas so that people can learn why the magazine has selected the school as the No. 1 athletic program in the country. "Uh, well," I began hesitantly, "when I went to school, it wasn't exactly ..."