(01-21-2020 10:57 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-21-2020 09:44 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(01-21-2020 02:35 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-20-2020 08:13 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(01-20-2020 05:00 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  People still look at Texas politics through the lens of the early 90s when the B12 was formed.

But things have changed.

West Texas Populism is no longer a political force and Bob Bullock and Anne Richards aren’t in charge anymore. A UT grad lives in the governors mansion and the LTG is a Maryland Native who went to UMBC so he doesn’t care at all about Texas college football.

Given that truth, the idea that UT HAS to take a certain school with them to avoid political reprisals is simply not true anymore even if their fans are clinging to it as a last desperate hope (and why wouldn’t they? What other choice do they have?)

Truth is, if UT felt free to demand anyone tag along it would be Rice. A historic opponent with great academics and of course a free recruiting trip to Houston every other year against an opponent that will never beat them in anything except baseball and D&D.

Thanks for the insight.
BTW Rice and Wake Forest are about the same size.

False insight. Texas Tech and Baylor don't have the enormous power in the legislature they had back then, but Tech still is a major force. They control West Texas and I've read they have the largest alumni base in DFW, bigger than Texas or Texas A&M (who draw from around the state while Texas Tech is West Texas and DFW). Even 40+ years ago, my DFW HS had more students go to Tech than any other 4 year school.

Leaving Tech behind would just alienate too many people in the legislature. It would also tend to hurt Texas Tech's effort to improve its academic reputation. That is a goal of Texas for two reasons: 1) It creates more of a critical mass, helping everyone; and 2) If Texas Tech is more attractive to students, it decreases political pressure on Texas to expand its number of students to a figure they don't think is manageable.

Why doesn't Texas just limit enrollment to a certain number?

Texas has kept its enrollment to around 50,000 since the early 80s. Texas A&M had frozen theirs around 45,000 since the mid 90s. But Governor Perry was listening to a guy who wanted both to go to around 75,000. Texas fought it tooth and nail. A&M accepted it and jumped to around 55,000 in just 2 or 3 years. With Perry gone, the pressure isn't as bad, but its still there. Everyone wants to get into Texas or Texas A&M and most students can't.

That's a B1G sized school.
Carolina has about 18,000 UG students (which is about 40% more that when I graduated).