Cotton Bowl reveals how Texas & Ohio State should rule future of college football
Cotton Bowl officials expressed optimism on Wednesday evening that by Friday afternoon the weather conditions that have closed DFW will be favorable enough to proceed with the game as scheduled.
Had kickoff been Thursday night, that would have been a problem. Given this area’s rich history with horrible weather and big events at this time of year, there is still a chance that the Cotton Bowl will be postponed until Saturday.
ESPN and college football do not want to move this game, for many reasons, among them all involved parties do not want the Cotton Bowl going head-to-head against the NFL wild card weekend, which begins Saturday.
Alas, expect No. 5 Texas to play No. 8 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on Friday at AT&T Stadium in the national semifinal.
While we are at it, we can plan that these same two “schools” will be in this new era of college football’s playoffs for the foreseeable future. If not, someone should be fired.
Texas is the only team to be in college football’s “final four” for a second consecutive season, and Bevo should be in it again next season. And the season after that. And the season after that.
The same for Brutus, Phil Knight’s Oregon Ducks, and the Catholic church’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not so sure about Bama, the Sooners, or LSU’s Tigers.
Once the NCAA turned into the New York Jets in a courtroom, the rules changed and favored not just the rich but the stupid rich. Hell hath no fury like a 68-year-old jock sniffing oilman from Houston who loves his alma mater’s football team more than he does his wife, his second wife, and definitely this current wife.
While the specifics are still being negotiated between the NCAA and the many plaintiffs, we should expect college football will soon have a “salary cap,” as well as a component that will allow those that can to exceed the limit.
Few schools in the country can exceed the limit like Ohio State, and the University of Texas. Less sure about Bama, the Sooners or schools that aren’t in areas flush with dumb money.
How UT ever descended into an abyss of any real length, in this century, illustrates just how poorly run the operation was for far too long. With one of the biggest budgets of any athletic department in the nation, it takes real effort to screw this up.
From 2010 to 2022, Texas was consistently the single most disappointing name in college football, right next to Notre Dame. You will notice both of these schools are still in the playoffs.
From ‘10 to ‘22, UT had five losing seasons, was routinely kicked around by “cockroach” TCU, abused by Kansas State and Iowa State, and had one 10-win season.
It wasn’t for a lack of funds.
“For one, if (it’s just about having the most money) you don’t know what they will do with their money. Some people can mess up their money,” University of Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron said Wednesday afternoon at the UT media session.
“Counting, or tying the amount they have in their pockets doesn’t mean they will be successful. It’s a crazy business we live in now.”
College football may be the craziest of business model, right next to drug dealing.
Barron is on to something.
“Money is one thing but development is a whole other thing,” he said. “if you have the staff that can develop talent, that’s a big thing. If you put money and development together, then that is dangerous. From our standpoint, it’s dangerous because we have money and development.”
Only a handful of schools have the type of money Texas uses to throw on the fire. Ohio State is one. Notre Dame is another.
It wasn’t until current head coach Steve Sarkisian, and these new current “rules,” has Texas lived up to the name that it implies but so infrequently delivered. Texas is 25-4 in the last two seasons, which includes reaching the conference title game in its first year in the mighty SEC.
As UT will easily be able to spend the maximum amount to pay players, and then exceed that limit, there is no reason why this run won’t extend for a long time. All of that cash doesn’t mean that Texas will win national championships, but Bevo should be around them.
If not, someone has really screwed this up.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 11:16 AM.
