A Jersey Guy: CFB stronger than any issues
Dallas--It was as it always is at this time of year, a chance to show their true colors--that would be burnt orange, thank you, very much--and support for a program that was once again ready for another challenge on Saturday.
It was Texas-OU week in Dallas and at the Dallas home of Texas-ex Ken Capps a time for the annual front-yard, back yard party to kick off the weekend.
To show you how high Capps is in the Texas-Ex food chain, last year's honored guest was Bevo, the Texas mascot Longhorn.
There was food, there was drink, there was music, but mostly there was a support for Texas--and college football, no matter what.
If you haven't been paying close attention, CFB is in a siege mentality right now.
Conference expansion, transfer portal regulations which have created free agency in a once super controlled sport and the ongoing issue of Name, Image and Licensing, which has also opened the financially flood gates for the players has created a chaotic situation.
But as we see this weekend in Dallas, where the Texas-OU game will be held at the Terxas State fairgrounds and played in the historic Cotton Bowl, with a gathering of 250,000 inside and outside the stadium, and will see next week in South Bend, when USC takes on Notre Dame, as will see in a couple of weeks Jacksonville, Fla when Florida clashes with Georgia, and will see next month when Ohio State visits Michigan and Alabama visits Auburn, the SPORT of CFB overcomes all other issues.
Fans are fans of their school, no matter who wears the Uniform, how they arrived there and how well they are compensated
. Nor does their conference affiliation matter.
On Saturday, Texas and OU will meet as lame duck members of the Big 12. Next season they will be members of the Southeastern Conference.
There will be fans and bands and pageantry,
The fact that both teams are 5-0 for the first time in 14 years, adds to the sizzle, and it increases the intensity of the rivalry.
I first picked up on the Texas-OU rivalry 41 years ago when I came to the Dallas Morning News from New Jersey.
People in the Northeast, where college football is mostly regarded as a weekend diversion, have no concept of what the sport means in the Southeast and hot pockets in the Midwest, Southwest and West.
One of my first assignments was to spend Texas-OU week in Norman, Oklahoma, with Coach Barry Switzer and the Sooners.
That was also the era of OU linebacker Brian Bosworth, who grew up in Texas, but went to OU.
The Boz went on a rant about how he hated all things associated with Texas--the color orange, Texas coach Fred Akers and the city of Austin, which was the site of the Texas campus.
Akers response also made headlines: I can understand him hating, Texas and Me, but how can you hate the city of Austin.
A point well taken.
But Saturday's game is at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, with corny dogs, turkey legs and Texas-OU football as the main ingredients of a college football feast, played at an old fashioned stadium, without sky boxes and many other amenities, half filled with fans clad in orange and the other half clad in Crimson and Cream.
Let's hope that never changes.