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With us entering the SEC....

Earl Haffler

By Earl Haffler
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bolverk

bolverk 29399

Posted
Posted
On 4/7/2024 at 10:33 PM, Professor Chesney said:

Also, I don’t understand the flying point because it is not like the SEC is more geographically inconvenient than the big 12.  Have you ever driven to Lubbock?  It’s miserable and takes like 9 hours.  Baton Rouge, Fayetville and the Mississippi schools are all closer or comparable distances.

You must live in Houston for it to take you 9 hours to drive to Lubbock. From Austin and San Antonio, it's usually about a 6-hour drive. From DFW, it's a little over 5 hours.

From Houston, only College Station, Baton Rouge, Norman, and Fayetteville are closer than Lubbock. All other opponents Texas will have in the SEC are farther away from Houston. Starkville is 49 miles farther from Houston than Lubbock. Oxford (82 miles), Tuscaloosa (96 miles), and Auburn (167 miles). Every other SEC school is more than 300 miles farther from Houston than Lubbock.

That said, only Houston fans of Texas will not be significantly inconvenienced by car travel with this move to the SEC.

The average distance from each of Texas's major population centers to opposing schools of the Big 12 before the expansion (yes, this includes Ames and Morgantown): Austin (581 miles), San Antonio (652 miles), DFW (429 miles), and Houston (626 miles).

Now, the average distance from each metro to SEC opponents will be: Austin (724 miles), San Antonio (820 miles), DFW (640 miles), and Houston (667 miles).

So, on average, Austin fans will have to drive 143 miles further to get to an opposing school in the SEC. San Antonio (168 more miles), DFW (211), and Houston (only 41).

In fact, Ames fucking Iowa is closer to DFW, Austin, and San Antonio fans than Athens, Gainesville, Knoxville, Lexington, and Columbia. To make the distance to SEC schools comparable to Austin, San Antonio, and DFW fans, you have to only include the 9 closest schools. 

 

All of the above isn't a criticism of the SEC move, but you are fooling yourself if you think it'll be more convenient to travel to away games under the current division-less SEC. Hopefully, when the conference goes to 9 games, we'll get ousux, aggy, and piggy as our three permanent rivals to at least keep the schedule anchored to our region.

 

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redswingline

redswingline 1057

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 4/7/2024 at 10:33 PM, Professor Chesney said:

 Lamenting that you won’t get to travel to scenic big 12 towns like Lubbock, Ames, Manhattan, or Stillwater? 

 

 I never mentioned any of the towns you stated. Your reply is based on the fiction that you created in your own mind.

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Professor Chesney

Professor Chesney 479

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, redswingline said:

 I never mentioned any of the towns you stated. Your reply is based on the fiction that you created in your own mind.

By complaining that you’ll miss “a bunch” of away games each year, you’re implying you travel to the big XII towns where Texas actually played their away games.  I don’t see how that logical leap is so difficult to make?


@bolverk admittedly schooled me on driving geography so my initial point on convenience is weaker.  So I’ll just stop being poor and fly instead.

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Pimphand

Pimphand 5597

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Posted
On 4/6/2024 at 9:27 AM, Earl Haffler said:

...will you start following, hating, making fun of, SEC teams more than BIG12 teams?  For instance, will you be more interested in the success or failure of Auburn, Arky, Miss St, and Vandy  than Baylor, TCU, Tech and UH?

Or will proximity bias still tie you to regional teams rather than conference teams?

I live in Nashville so the Texas teams don't mean shit to me other than how they affect the success of TEXAS athletics and now they don't so I don't give a shit at all.

Thoughts?

All I care about is that we are more successful than all the "new" SEC teams (Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and to a much lesser extent South Carolina)

Now I also would like to be more successful than the traditional SEC powers (Alabama, Georgia, LSU, ...) but we haven't exactly set the Big 12 on fire with 4 football conference championships so I'm OK with baby steps first which is just beat the other n00bs to the prize and do so consistently.

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billfromlaketravis

billfromlaketravis 11359

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I think the travel is better than most think if you can tolerate SWA and rental car companies. 

piggy - drive or flight to Tulsa

aggy - drive

LSU - drive

Bama - flight to Birmingham 

Auburn - flight to Atlanta 

Georgia - flight to Atlanta 

Florida - flight to Orlando

South Carolina - flight to Charlotte

Mississippi schools - flight to Memphis 

Vandy and Tennessee - flight to Nashville

Misery - flight to KC or St Louis 

Kentucky - Louisville or Cincy 

OU - drive

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statsman

statsman 5425

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Posted

I went to a HS math tournament in Auburn back in 1979 (I was at Spencer HS in Columbus, GA). Gave me a sense of familiarity watching the 1983 UT-Auburn game on a 19” screen in ‘84. My only memory of that game was Jerry Gray stretching out to make an interception on the right sideline that was a better catch than any Longhorn has made in the last five years. Bo Jackson was just becoming a “thing”, so him doing fuck-all never really registered. 

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msucolt45

msucolt45 3989

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I went to a HS math tournament in Auburn back in 1979 (I was at Spencer HS in Columbus, GA). Gave me a sense of familiarity watching the 1983 UT-Auburn game on a 19” screen in ‘84. My only memory of that game was Jerry Gray stretching out to make an interception on the right sideline that was a better catch than any Longhorn has made in the last five years. Bo Jackson was just becoming a “thing”, so him doing fuck-all never really registered. 

I was at that game and as a youth my Dad would purchase a pennant for every opponent Texas played so I could hang it in my room. This game’s opponent had “War Eagle” on it, so I asked my Dad why, as they were the Tigers? All he said that day was that it was a long story and just watch the game vs Bo Jackson!

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62241

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I think the travel is better than most think if you can tolerate SWA and rental car companies. 

piggy - drive or flight to Tulsa

aggy - drive

LSU - drive

Bama - flight to Birmingham 

Auburn - flight to Atlanta 

Georgia - flight to Atlanta 

Florida - flight to Orlando

South Carolina - flight to Charlotte

Mississippi schools - flight to Memphis 

Vandy and Tennessee - flight to Nashville

Misery - flight to KC or St Louis 

Kentucky - Louisville or Cincy 

OU - drive

United has flights to/from Houston and Bentonville. It's extremely easy to get to an Arkansas game from Houston. 

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texifornia

texifornia 56519

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Posted
13 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I hope UK is a fun trip, low stress/auto win every 4 years. 
 

I think people will warm up to Auburn. It’s a classic SEC college town and it’s 100 miles from ATL. 

It struck me as the most generic B+ college town I've been to - which is terrific for football Saturdays, and nearby Columbus, Georgia has a sneaky amount to do (Aflac and Fort Benning are both there). 

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Park Gothic

Park Gothic 4976

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Posted
14 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I hope UK is a fun trip, low stress/auto win every 4 years. 
 

I think people will warm up to Auburn. It’s a classic SEC college town and it’s 100 miles from ATL. 

I lived in Louisville for a year. Went down to Lexington / Versailles as often as I could. That part of the country is beautiful, the fall weather is amazing, the the town itself is super fun. 

/csb But I had a buddy from Louisville come down to visit me in Houston this past season. He and his son were gifted some nice tickets to the Steelers' game against the Texans, which was the same weekend that we played Kansas. They came over to my house and watched the game with my family. His son is 11 and mine is only 5, so the boy didn't have much to do except watch football with the old men. Apparently he's a big football fan and we were talking about the move to the SEC, how weird Aggies are, etc. 

As I was talking to his dad, I noticed the boy seemed to be rooting for Kansas. I said "You know, coming from Kentucky I would not expect you to be such a big Kansas fan."

He said, "I'm not, it's just....you know."

"What, that they're playing Texas?"

"Well yeah, gotta root against Texas."

I looked at his father, shook my head, and said "In my own damn house." We had a pretty good chuckle about. 

So even random children from Kentucky are being raised to root against Texas. 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62241

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8 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:

I lived in Louisville for a year. Went down to Lexington / Versailles as often as I could. That part of the country is beautiful, the fall weather is amazing, the the town itself is super fun. 

/csb But I had a buddy from Louisville come down to visit me in Houston this past season. He and his son were gifted some nice tickets to the Steelers' game against the Texans, which was the same weekend that we played Kansas. They came over to my house and watched the game with my family. His son is 11 and mine is only 5, so the boy didn't have much to do except watch football with the old men. Apparently he's a big football fan and we were talking about the move to the SEC, how weird Aggies are, etc. 

As I was talking to his dad, I noticed the boy seemed to be rooting for Kansas. I said "You know, coming from Kentucky I would not expect you to be such a big Kansas fan."

He said, "I'm not, it's just....you know."

"What, that they're playing Texas?"

"Well yeah, gotta root against Texas."

I looked at his father, shook my head, and said "In my own damn house." We had a pretty good chuckle about. 

So even random children from Kentucky are being raised to root against Texas. 

I have a good friend who played at Kentucky during the Mumme/Leach years and he has some great stories. He also has excellent CFB and NFL connections because of a lot of folks around that program during that era went on do shit in coaching, sports journalism/media, and administration around the game. We're taking he and his wife, also a UK alum, to the game this year and they're getting us tickets together for next season. It's weird, there is a zero percent chance I will consider going to the Ohio State away game in 2025 and yet I can't wait to go to the Kentucky away game instead. I've never been to that area and folks who have rave about it.

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Park Gothic

Park Gothic 4976

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2 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I have a good friend who played at Kentucky during the Mumme/Leach years and he has some great stories. He also has excellent CFB and NFL connections because of a lot of folks around that program during that era went on do shit in coaching, sports journalism/media, and administration around the game. We're taking he and his wife, also a UK alum, to the game this year and they're getting us tickets together for next season. It's weird, there is a zero percent chance I will consider going to the Ohio State away game in 2025 and yet I can't wait to go to the Kentucky away game instead. I've never been to that area and folks who have rave about it.

I would try to make a long weekend of it, if you can. It's a really fun party of the country and there's more to do than just football. Especially if you make it up to Louisville, which is only an hour away. Keenland is great if you like the ponies.

Bardstown is dangerous for your liver. I have poor self control when it comes to "tastings" and I almost died the last time we made that trip.  

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Tex Pete

Tex Pete 20179

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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

I have a good friend who played at Kentucky during the Mumme/Leach years and he has some great stories. He also has excellent CFB and NFL connections because of a lot of folks around that program during that era went on do shit in coaching, sports journalism/media, and administration around the game. We're taking he and his wife, also a UK alum, to the game this year and they're getting us tickets together for next season. It's weird, there is a zero percent chance I will consider going to the Ohio State away game in 2025 and yet I can't wait to go to the Kentucky away game instead. I've never been to that area and folks who have rave about it.

Kentucky is beautiful and friendly. It's interesting because it is southern, but not nearly as football focused as the deep south.

There are a lot of rednecks, but also a lot of hoity-toities because of the horse racing culture and distilleries. 

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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10439

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

Kentucky is beautiful and friendly. It's interesting because it is southern, but not nearly as football focused as the deep south.

There are a lot of rednecks, but also a lot of hoity-toities because of the horse racing culture and distilleries. 

Like it's neighbor, Indiana, primarily a basketball state.

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Ignatius

Ignatius 4001

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Posted
On 4/12/2024 at 9:35 AM, closetojumping said:

United has flights to/from Houston and Bentonville. It's extremely easy to get to an Arkansas game from Houston. 

This is true; I made that flight for work way more fucking times than I wanted to….

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DanTheHorn

DanTheHorn 4901

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Posted (edited)

As we enter the SEC these plates represent the difference between us and aggy. They could not wait to put SEC stickers on their trucks. We want to muddhole the new competition. OWNSEC
 

IMG_1862.jpeg

Edited by DanTheHorn
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Lone Star Horn

Lone Star Horn 2010

Posted
Posted
On 4/11/2024 at 4:46 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

I think the travel is better than most think if you can tolerate SWA and rental car companies. 

piggy - drive or flight to Tulsa

aggy - drive

LSU - drive

Bama - flight to Birmingham 

Auburn - flight to Atlanta 

Georgia - flight to Atlanta 

Florida - flight to Orlando

South Carolina - flight to Charlotte

Mississippi schools - flight to Memphis 

Vandy and Tennessee - flight to Nashville

Misery - flight to KC or St Louis 

Kentucky - Louisville or Cincy 

OU - drive

I know that American and Delta both fly into Gainesville. If this is only for SWA flights, then fly into Jacksonville, and save about 50 miles of driving. 

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