The Southwest Conference had a weekend in September. In Dallas, SMU had a record crowd on hand to greet the traitor Sonny Dykes, who had jumped ship to rival TCU, only to watch the Frogs win the Iron Skillet.
Texas A&M knocked off a top 10 Arkansas team in a weird, tense game that typifies their rivalry since it resumed. In Lubbock, the Red Raiders upset the Longhorns in front of their first sellout crowd of the season.
Despite attempts to kill it, the SWC will never die. Sometimes it's fun to play someone with a little extra hate on the line, as was the case on one Saturday in Texas where there were three games with three packed stadiums.
SMU was aligned in theWAC and CUSA before moving to the American and has played in four conferences since the SWC's demise. Despite their nomadic journeys, they have maintained a regional rivalry for more than a century.
Two weeks ago, when the drumbeat started for his return to Dallas, he said it made sense for teams that are close to each other to play each other. It makes sense for USC to be in the Big Ten because they are close to each other.
At a time when realignment is pulling at the fabric of college football's fabric, and making it harder for fans to get to, or even care about, games, Dykes' sarcasm comes at a time when fans can't get to, or even care about, games. Grantland Rice called the 1935 edition of the Iron Skillet the "game of the century", but there is no guarantee that it will continue past the current contract's end date.
As leagues go to more conference games and athletic budgets are determined by home games, Power 5 teams like TCU don't often make trips to Group of 5 schools so they might opt to ditch playing in Dallas every other year. The Bedlam rivalry between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will not continue when the Sooners move to the SEC.
This weekend's upset by Texas Tech could be Texas' last trip to Lubbock with the Longhorns moving to the SEC next year.
He said he would be booed by the crowd in the week before the game. SMU sold more than 35,000 tickets at a place that has struggled to attract large crowds. The middle of SMU's campus was packed with tailgaters as the stadium never filled in part due to the heat.
"The energy, the excitement, you just can't duplicate that," said a lawyer and SMU fan. They are not in the Big 12. The Southwest Conference does not have us in it. Our traditional rivals are no longer with us. It's difficult to get up for either of those schools. This rivalry is very close.
Chipper Haynes, a 2003 SMU graduate, lamented the possible demise of a game that's circled on his calendar every year at the tent selling red shirts with "TCU SUCKS" on them.
Haynes said it meant everything to them. Losing these huge rivalries is probably what breaks my heart the most. These shirts have been made for the last two decades. It's terrible that we might not play TCU because of realignment. Part of the spirit of college football is taken away.
In his news conference after the game, he said he knew the fans would be up for his return.
"I thought it was college football, that's for sure," he said. The game was well attended. Today, Kansas is sold out. The Texas A&M-Arkansas game sold out at JerryWorld because it was the largest crowd for the game in two years. It's so thrilling. It is good for the fans. It's not always easy to be the center of something. You have a job to do, though.
He said that he was happy to have the week behind him, but that he was able to concentrate on the game.
My age is 52 years old. If I can't do that, I need to go work for Ricky Chicken at Chicken Express.
When the Razorbacks left the SWC for the SEC, they played the A&M at Jerry Jones' house in Arlington, which was a neutral site game in 2009. Now that it has become a heated conference game, both schools are eager to get the series back on campus.
The SEC's proximity to Arkansas has made them dislike each other more than they had before the SWC ended. Arkansas had 24,265 undergraduate students who were Texans in 2011.
The father and daughter of a Texas A&M graduate and a freshman at the University of Arkansas walked the concourse with their differing loyalties on their shirts.
The Razorbacks ended the Texas A&M's nine-game winning streak in the series last year, and Shiflett wants it back. I need to be able to say something. The two of us are the only ones here. The rest of the family is somewhere else.
She couldn't handle the fact that the A's had the lead. She laughed and said she couldn't do it right now.
Even as a new person, he agreed that rivalries are fun. Arkansas fans booed Reveille when she was shown on Jerry Jones' giant video screen. One of the biggest cheers of the night came when the highlights from Texas' loss to Texas Tech were shown on the big screen.
In places like Texas, where rivalries have been going on for more than 100 years, there's more at stake than just wins and losses. The rivalry between Houston and Rice may not continue with Houston moving to the Big 12.
Drew Hogan said that he wanted to be the number one in Texas. You want to win the game for the bragging rights at dinner.
The flamboyant coach who was best known for beating SMU 95-21 while with Houston in 1989 was in attendance for the Aggies' win over his alma mater.
The attached rivalries that you've had in this state, playing my high school ball in Texas, coaching high school football in Texas, it means everything to me. This thing gets splintered and fragmented, it really hurts. It's crazy. Doesn't matter, doesn't care about football strength. It's all about the media market.
After the Big Ten gets USC and UCLA, there will be more tradition lost.
Some of the mega conferences will have fewer non conference games. There's still space for these games. This is what the fans want.
Tony Simulik, a Canadian who was drawn to college football's passion, is worried about the future.
Each year, Simulik goes to SEC country to watch big games. He came to Arlington in hopes of seeing the Razorbacks and the A's play in the stadium.
He likened it to cultural history. I think it's great. The fans, the chants, the singing, the activity It's worth the price of admission just to experience that in that stadium. The atmosphere is the main factor. The game is sometimes anticlimactic.
It was almost, but not quite, for the tens of thousands of fans who celebrated victories over rivals and wondered if they would be able to do it again.
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