In the U.S. government,it is said that the Federal Reserve Chairman is the guy who “takes the punch bowl away, once the party gets started.” This is due to his responsibilities to raise interest rates once the economy takes off- (I guess we won’t have to worry about this any time soon) in order to keep inflation risks at bay. The Texas Longhorns were the college football version of that tremendous buzzkill last summer.

Once the fun started with teams jumping conferences, and the very realistic possibility of super-conferences forming, and therefore bringing us closer to a real postseason, UT was Captain Bringdown. Texas, which nearly left the Big 12 for the Pac-10 last year, instead stayed put and created its own television network.

The Longhorn Network (partnering with ESPN for 20 years, $300 million) ensured that Texas, the biggest/richest/most powerful Athletic Department in this scenario would keep the Big 12 alive for a little while longer. I understand why they did it, it was in their best interests, but man did that news disappoint me at the time. Texas would have been the biggest domino to fall, and it would have opened the floodgates to all sorts of conference moves/mergers. We could have had media coverage of college football all summer long, instead of boring ass baseball. Shame on you Texas!

You could have made the summer lull in sports news, a million times more interesting for all of us. I guess it’s karma that the Longhorns suffered a losing season for the first time in quite awhile.

But this year, look for them to be back in a bowl.

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