If it were up to me, there would still be a Southwest Conference with 8 teams, and the Cotton Bowl would still be one of the Big Four bowl games played on New Year's Day, starting around 2 PM on CBS, with Lindsey Nelson doing the play-by-play.
Sigh. Where have you gone, John David Crow and Bobby Joe Conrad?
I am happy the Cotton Bowl is moving to Arlington. But I don't think they should become part of the BCS, where they can host actual national title games. If any bowl should become a part of the BCS system, it should be the Chick Fil A (formerly Peach) Bowl.
I first went to the Cotton Bowl to watch the Cowboys play in the late 60's. While old and in disrepair, I'll miss that stadium.
I'm with you on all that! The annual trek to Dallas the first weekend in October was always the *real* start of fall for me as a child.
It was a huge deal, whether coming from the south, living in Houston, or from the north, living in Oklahoma. Oh, or from across town, my SMU dorm room.
But as a kid, it was when I got my new winter coat each year at Neiman's and we ate out at the best restaurants and did everything with huge groups of friends from both sides of the river (but only the red side of the stadium, lol). It was a huge reunion and a ton of fun, for 4-5 days.
Sometimes it was the only time all year that I got to see a Broadway road show or some important exhibit, like King Tut or Catherine the Great's fabulous things.
I lost out every year on the "perfect attendance" award in my grade school years because of OU-TX weekend and my parents taking me out of school for at least 2 days. And my love for the "gathering" never wavered through 50 years - until I've recently been too sick and too broke to go.
Big 12? What's that, lol?