Dallas or Arlington?
Here’s why Texas Tech can’t decide where between Duncanville and Lewisville it wants to play Oklahoma State in 2009: roots.
Let me explain. OSU says it will play Texas Tech somewhere in the D-FW Metroplex starting in 2009, it just doesn’t know where. Either Dallas’ Cotton Bowl or Arlington’s new Jerry World.
My vote is for Dallas. Jerry Jones is courting college games to play in his new Dallas Cowboys stadium, which opens in 2009 and already has landed an annual Arkansas-Texas A&M series. Now he wants OSU-Tech, and as our Mike Baldwin reported today, Cowboy athletic director Mike Holder is on the same page with Cowboy czar Jones. Arlington.
But Tech can’t seem to say no to the Cotton Bowl. For good reason. John Scovell was a Tech quarterback star in the 1960s who led an historic upset of Texas. Scovell’s three sons all walked-on at Tech, playing for Spike Dykes or Mike Leach, and John Scovell now is on the Cotton Bowl board and the Tech board of regents.
Wait. There’s more. John Scovell’s father was the legendary Field Scovell, known for decades as Mister Cotton Bowl. Field Scovell led the Cotton Bowl’s selection committee for many years and was one of the driving forces that made the New Year’s Day game a college football classic.
Think about those ties. It’s as if Josh Fields had three sons who went on to play at OSU, and Josh Fields’ dad had helped found the Myriad or something, and Josh Fields was on the OSU board of regents and a member of the OKC All Sports Association. And OSU was trying to decide whether to play a game in Tulsa (for more money) or Oklahoma City.
That’s the decision Tech is facing. So you can understand what’s going on.
I sort of like the compromise espoused by State Fair of Texas president Errol McKoy. Play at JerryWorld in 2009 and at the Cotton Bowl in 2010, then let people decide which they liked best.
Here’s how I think the vote would go. Players: Arlington. Fans: Dallas. The new stadium will be world-class (world-best?), and players, many of whom are D-FW products, will get a jolt playing on the home digs of Tony Romo and Marion Barber, rather than the field where Doak Walker trod. The amenities will be fabulous. But the fans, I believe, would vote for the Cotton Bowl, because of the state fair.
The OU-Texas game has shown us that there’s no atmosphere like a bloodsport football game hard by the Midway and the car show and the corny dog stands, with tens of thousands of people milling around. JerryWorld sits in a parking lot. The Cotton Bowl, during the fair, sits in an amusement park.
It’s apparent that Holder wants to go to Arlington, because that’s where the money is and that’s where the players would have the best experience. It’s apparent, too, that Tech AD Gerald Myers wants to go to JerryWorld, too. But he feels a strong pull to the Cotton Bowl.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
MOney, money, money!! Another case of the Boone Pickens money getting involved because he is a Texas resident, and loves to sit in the wonderful new suite of the Jones/taxpayer stadium. Previous writer is correct, why move this game? No real rivalry, no reason to take it out of Stillwater, except to please the money people and an excuse for you guys (sports writers and sport talk people) to take another trip to Dallas.
The Cotton Bowl would be the better venue, I think. Nothing at JerraWorld could replicate the atomosphere of the Texas State Fair.
I’m an OU fan, and I hope that the OU-Texas game is played at the Cotton Bowl until the end of time.
Some of us (OSU Alums, Supporters, Fans, etc.) are closer to Dallas and Arlington than Stillwater. One game a year in either stadium in North Texas is a good idea and I’m looking forward to attending. I wouldn’t mind alternating between the two sites for more than just two years.
I vote for the cotton bowl. I have been to 35 OU Texas games and would love to go and watch the cowboys there. I am dead set against Jerry’s world. That would be just another game. You can’t beat the atmoshere of the State Fair.
I can\’t remember being this optomistic about the Cowboys new season since the early 90s and we all know how that turned out!
no one attends osu-tech when it’s played on campus. why would they travel to dallas metroplex? it’s not even a rivalry. this is a case of two little brother programs trying to appear big time by playing a neutral site game, yaaaaaaaaaawn,