Poor Little A&M

I know, I know…I shouldn’t be mean to A&M. I don’t have a dog in the fight (still mad at Texas because of how they treated Shaka Smart, Texas Tech isn’t enough of a factor for them to have a side to be on, Baylor needs to leave the school paper where it lies, TCU and SMU are annoying, Texas State and North Texas aren’t relevant enough in other people’s eyes to be in the fight even though I love them, I don’t know Houston well enough to jump on board even if they’re enticing at times), and if I did, I could do worse than the beautiful Reveille. But at the same time…you can’t be like this and expect to not get made fun of. You can’t go to the SEC, think you’ve somehow outpaced Texas’s shadow, do nothing aside from have Johnny Manziel and luck into an easy schedule during a pandemic year, and expect the SEC to keep that big mean bully from casting its shadow upon College Station again. If you’d come in and given the SEC a perennial national contender, you could talk, but you didn’t do that. You’ve never been a national contender. Not once. Not since…I don’t know, the Southwest Conference days? If then? You had nine years to build yourself into the premier football program in Texas, and yes, you’re the best program on the field right now, but you haven’t outbranded Texas. You lost. And now Texas is coming to push you around again, even if they won’t necessarily do it on the football field.

The worst part of A&M’s response (immediately complaining, demonstrating their powerlessness; then immediately scheduling a Board of Regents meeting to discuss the matter, demonstrating their saltiness) is how much it reinforced that they are Texas’s…erm…how do I say this appropriately…ok fine we’ll say “little brother” but it’s worse than that. It’s on another scale of magnitude. (Aggnitude!) If Texas A&M had a shred of self-worth, its collective response would’ve been, “Bring it on. You haven’t been good in more than a decade. We’re gonna kick your ass while you try to stay bowl-eligible.” Or to ignore it. Or to just talk about Oklahoma. Or to do something, anything, that cast some disrespect Texas’s way instead of doing what you did, which was to flop down on the supermarket floor and start pounding your fists on the ground while wailing the most ear-splitting wail a child of your stature can produce.

It’s getting to the point where it’s not even funny. It’s just sad. Texas A&M is sad. A big part of the fanbase? Not sad. Handling this in a reasonable manner. But it can’t just be part of the fanbase. It’s gotta be the whole thing. And more importantly, the school itself.