Posted on 12/02/2003 8:07:06 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
The Texas A&M football team has just finished a dreadful season, going 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12 conference, including a 77-0 humiliation at the University of Oklahoma. Texas A&M's athletic director, Bill Byrne, has a novel theory as to why his school is suffering athletically. He blames the Young Conservatives of Texas A&M, a student group, which held one of those "affirmative action bake sales":
"Free speech is not an issue for me, and differing political beliefs are not an issue for me, because I believe that reasonable people can disagree. But I'm disappointed over the national attention that Texas A&M University received recently because of a few individuals and their idea of a protest.
The Texas A&M Bake Sale plays right into the hands of those who recruit against us, in both athletics and in the general student population. They will use something like this to suggest that Texas A&M does not have a welcoming environment.
We all know that is not true. Unfortunately, a few individuals represented 45,000 students and an entire community in precisely the wrong light. My hope is that those of you who have a chance to influence public opinion will speak out against anything like this that discredits Texas A&M University. It causes me to redouble my efforts to do exactly that."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
That's rich! Sooners and Longhorns ran up the score? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We played our scout team most of the 4th quarter. Our Heisman candidate, Jason White, didn't play a down in the 2nd half. We only kept a few first teamers in their to provide some kind of stability for the scout team. Taking a knee on the 3 yard line of A&M so we didn't score more points is not running up the score -- actually I would have been embarrassed if I were an Aggie fan but then they had two lineman strutting around when they sacked our running back who had no intention of scoring so what would I expect. Like Stoops said -- A&M is in the Big 12 not some Division III football team. Didn't hear the Sooners whining when A&M ran up the score when John Blake was our coach. I certainly didn't whine, our team was pathetic at best! Now I wish we would have hung a 100 on them since we are getting criticized for playing a football game when the Aggies QUIT! I am not kidding when I said they quit midway through the 2nd quarter. You should have been there to see their players on the sidelines. They could have cared less. We never had receivers so uncovered as we did that day! Poor coaching -- no other answer because we have been told about the great recruiting classes of A&M and how they were going to win it all this year -- all they needed was a new coach and Fran was going to take them to the promised land. We lost at A&M and at Okie State last year and Bob Stoops made NO EXCUSES. Came right out and said he was outcoached and our players outplayed. Maybe Aggies could learn something. Both my kids were at the Red River Rivalry game in Dallas and both said the same thing -- the Texas/Sooner fans go back and forth before the game but there were no problems between the two schools -- a lot of good natured rivalry in the West End. Of course with as many cops as there are in the West End, problems would be few and far between. Now I wish the Longhorns had beat them more. We all know Baylor and you are right -- the Aggies didn't hesitate to go in there and run up the score on them. At least Baylor didn't quit in our game with them. We Sooner fans that are getting trashed for being poor sports stood up and gave the Aggie band a standing ovation during and after their performance. Guess that gets overlooked. OU went through 1 year of Captain Kangaroo and 4 years of John Blake where the most wins were 5 in a season -- we had the score run up numerous times on us but I didn't hear anyone whining. Now that we are winning, the Aggies are whining. Texas, Iowa State, Okie State, Baylor, Texas Tech, Colorado, and Missouri never said a word about our scoring but the Aggies do -- that's funny! And they talk about Longhorns and Sooner fans? All I can say is: Boomer Sooner and Hook 'Em Horns!
What killed me most about that game was the Aggie players dancing around like they won the game when they made some minor play in the 4th quarter. When you're losing 77-0, you've got no right to get excited over anything in the game.
A&M is very much resisting the PC crowd that has infested most other places. This is where the battle is so it gets more attention.
Here is the A&M YCT response to our Athletic Director's idiotic comment:
November 30, 2003
Dear Mr. Byrne:
The statewide organization of the Young Conservatives of Texas is contacting you in regard to your ?Wednesday Weekly? of November 26, 2003, in which you suggest that the Texas A&M chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (A&M YCT), ?plays into the hands of those who recruit against? Texas A&M with respect to athletics and the general student population.
With all due respect, we resent your shameless and feeble attempt to shift responsibility for Texas A&M?s lackluster athletic season from yourself to A&M YCT. At the University of Texas at Austin, our chapter there held a similar bake sale and has been at least as active as the Texas A&M chapter over the last few years. Interestingly, the University of Texas athletic programs continue to excel.
Mr. Byrne, we find it ironic that you are unable to appreciate the importance of YCT's activism for equal rights given that the field of athletics in which you are ostensibly an expert provides a textbook example of the benefits that come from making decisions based entirely on merit and without regard to race. Whether it is Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, Dat Nguyen, Tom Flores, or Yao Ming, we have seen that racial minorities do not need special treatment to excel in sports, but simply a fair shot to compete on an even playing field. The same applies to academics.
While some of the most high profile college sports have racial demographics that do not mirror the population, we trust you would agree that the "underrepresentation" of whites, Hispanics, Asians, and other groups in sports such as football and basketball and the corresponding "overrepresentation" of blacks is solely due to merit-based criteria, not racial discrimination. If race was used as a factor in the composition of sports teams, clearly the quality of play would suffer, in addition to the unfairness that would be visited upon those athletes discriminated against on account of their skin color.
Mr. Byrne, if A&M YCT stops hosting bake sales to protest racial preferential university policies, your athletic program will not consequently improve. The only effect would be that free speech would be suppressed. However, if you will stop focusing time and effort on a political organization and an activity that you know little about and start spending more time doing your job of building A&M athletics, then they may improve.
Sincerely,
David C. Rushing
State Chairman, Young Conservatives of Texas
Texas A&M University, Class of 2002
Christopher M. Allen
State Chairman Emeritus
George Bush School of Government, Class of 2004
Matthew J. Griffing, Esq.
Executive Director
Marc Levin, Esq.
General Counsel
Steven E. Watson
Vice Chairman for Finance
Randy Samuelson
Vice Chairman for Legislative Affairs
Mark McCaig
Vice Chairman for Communications
Texas A&M University, Class of 2005
Nayeem Mohammed
Vice Chairman for Internal Affairs
Jon Gimble
Vice Chairman for Special Events
Sarah Davis
Secretary
Texas A&M, Class of 2004
Matthew Maddox
Chairman, A&M YCT
Class of 2004
We all thought Bowen was bad but Gates is far worse. He is hard left on just about every issue and now his favorite topic is diversity. Just the other day in our student e-mail boxes, we got a letter from Gates about the importance of “diversity” and how some people (Obviously the YCT) are trying to trash the University.
“One of the core values associated with the Aggie spirit and culture is our strong sense of family and community. All members of the A&M community should feel welcomed, respected and accepted. During the last few weeks important conversations about diversity have taken place throughout the university in both formal and informal settings. While everyone has the right to freely express her or his opinions, such sentiments must be presented with a genuine sense of civility. The majority of conversations and interactions about diversity have embraced this value.
During this same time the positive efforts of countless individuals were blemished by the actions of individuals such as those who made disparaging remarks about a Hispanic American graduate student, about a group of ethnically diverse prospective students who were visiting the A&M campus, and about a new vice president and faculty member.
Individuals also have attempted to distort A&M's approach to diversity by knowingly misrepresenting it as somehow involving quotas and a lowering of standards. Such is most definitely not the case. Every student at Texas A&M must meet the same standards for admission; every Aggie here is here because of his or her individual merit and achievement. This will continue to be so. Diversity is part of our rich heritage as a public land grant institution – a university that is accessible to all in the state of Texas, and from far and wide, who meet our standards.
One of the most important Aggie traditions is respect for and loyalty to one another. Aggies do not disparage one another, even when they disagree. What sets us apart from other universities is a positive sense of family. We must all work to preserve this Aggie value that is central to what we have been, are, and will become. I am confident that this goal and the importance of a welcoming campus are shared by our Board of Regents, our faculty and staff, and the vast majority of our current and former students.
Robert M. Gates
President
Texas A&M University”
Texas A&M has had a liberal faculty and administration for a long longer than Gates’ tenure. This is what one of my (conservative) history professors told me a few years ago. After the 1996 Presidential election, a survey of various colleges and universities showed that the faculty of Texas A&M voted liberal in higher proportional numbers than did the faculty of U.C. Berkley.”
LOL! Yeah there is a resemblence, except Captain Kangaroo was likable.
Hmmm, it seems this clown may want to have a talk with his AD about that.
Yeah, unless you're a conservative. Then you're allowed to be attacked and vilified without mercy as is regularly done by the administration and the editors of the Battalion.
Why all the empty seats in KC during the fourth quarter?
The fraud that is OU Football exposed tonight - USC and LSU should meet for the championship
dateline: Texas Stadium | 12/6/03 | Jamail Holloway's fur coat at the Orange Bowl
Posted on 12/06/2003 10:28:52 PM CST by Diddle E. Squat
Congrats to K. State, Big 12 Champs. They spanked the pompous overrated Sooners 35-7 tonight in the Big 12 Championship game. Meanwhile USC and LSU continued to roll with big wins(52-28 and 34-13(with 3 minutes left, respectively.)
No way should OU be chosen by the BCS to play in the Sugar Bowl, the pollsters and computers should drop them hard to at least #3(Michigan is probably better, but they do have 2 losses.) What a fraud the BCS is, can anyone reasonable prove that OU is better than LSU and USC, both of who have dominated late in the season? Yet just like with Nebraska a few years ago, OU will probably back in based on bogus prior rankings, overrated hype, and a scam of a system.
OU didn't just lose, they got their butts whooped. If they had lost by just a few points, one could make a decent argument that perhaps they below in the mythical national championship game. But not after this lame performance, and the impressive play of USC and LSU in the last month. 2 teams are going up, 1 is going down. But once again, the BCS is probably going to show how utterly bogus it is. Besides, I'd say its 50-50 that right now Michigan could beat them all, just as with USC the year before.
Without a playoff, its all just figure skating.
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