dy156

You do not know what you are talking about.

At the time, Baylor had higher attendance figures than any school in the southwest conference save UT and A&M. Baylor had a higher number of students than SMU, TCU, and Rice combined. Baylor's football coach at the time was extremely well respected, and is now the executive director of the College Football coaches association. If any individual had something to do with Baylor's inclusion into the big twelve, he certainly had more to do with it than either Ann Richards or Bob Bullock, then the Lt. Gov. of TX. The next to last year of the Southwest Conference's existence, Baylor shared the conference championship in football. From 1980-1994, when the decision was made, Baylor's record in football was 108-77-4. They won about 2/3rds of their games. The conference needed twelve teams for organizational reasons, and Baylor was a natural choice. Just because both the governor and lt. gov. of TX were from Baylor at the time, this rumor has persisted.

While we have problems in the two major sports, we have upgraded all of our facilities, and our other sports are extremely competitive. (baseball has consistently been in the top twenty and our track team competes for national championships -Anyone remember Michael Johnson?) TCU, North Texas, and all the other schools mentioned as replacements would likely face the same football setbacks as Baylor has seen, but would not have the resources to bounce back or compete in other areas.

As an alum, I am sick and tired of hearing everyone around the country bash Baylor. Yes, some extremely tragic things happened this summer, and it appears that our basketball program, headed by a formerly well regarded and successful coach at several other schools, was completely out of control. However, their actions should not reflect on the institution as a whole. Baylor has been forthcoming throughout the investigation, and did the honorable thing by requesting and obtaining a special NCAA exemption allowing its scholarship athletes to transfer without having to sit out a year. Yes, this is a dark hour for baylor, but we will be back. Following the death of Len Bias, Maryland's basketball program was in similar disarray, and they seem to have done okay recently. While our football team still has troubles ahead, the new coach has already made significant improvements, and the team should at least be competitive this year, despite almost no recruiting due to his late start.
Don't mess with a wounded Bear!

Okay, enough venting my frustration, but by the way, The_Dude, I recall watching Baylor beat UT 50-7 in Austin.