(03-01-2020 12:46 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 11:34 AM)texowl2 Wrote:  One of the biggest mistakes Rice made was to sponsor/agree with UH for the SWC. Their shady ways in recruiting et al. and winning 3 of the first post-admittance FB titles led to the scandals of the 80's (not to mention TAMU hiring Jackie and SMU's lack of institutional control led by THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS), which was a key aspect to the collapse of the SWC.

I have a hard time agreeing with this. The best thing that could have happened to Rice athletics would have been developing a truly intense, competitive rivalry with UH. We are the ones who failed to hold up our end of the bargain there.

The collapse of Rice athletics didn't happen because of UH, or SMU, or aTm, or the SWC. It happened because of RICE. We did it to ourselves by absolutely refusing to field competitive teams in any sport (other than the occasional one-off) for a period of about 20 years. From men's basketball in 1970, track in 1971, and tennis in 1970-72, to a women's cross country in 1994 (per Wikipedia; is anybody but me angry that RiceOwls.com no longer has easy links such information? Maybe we are just ashamed of our history), Rice did not win a single conference championship in any sport. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Unfortunately, that was the same 20 years when intercollegiate athletics evolved into a big business. We missed the boat--badly. Whether we can climb back into the boat or not is questionable, but clearly not easy.

Agree. The only glimmer of hope I see is in the possible breakup of the Big12. We could still end up in an AAC consisting of...
WEST.....................................EAST
SMU.......................................Navy
Tulsa......................................Temple
Rice........................................Marshall
Louisiana Tech......................ECU
Tulane....................................South Florida
Southern Mississippi............UAB

...providing that UH, Memphis, Cincinnati, and UCF go to a revamped Big12.