lama wrote:not one to argue about sports but there is more to it then football. just saying other teams for baylor have done well. (admit that some of that was more recent but still you said athletic program and then seem to focus on our crap football team.)
I've argued this point many times with Baylor alums. And each side has its arguments. But Baylor's recent success in women's basketball notwithstanding, what else has that athletic program done that UH has NOT done? More importantly, what HAD Baylor done as of 1996 that UH had not done equally or better?
Circa 1996:
Football - UH had the third best record of all SWC teams (behind UT & A&M) during the years it was in the league (mid 1970s to 1995). Also had a Heisman Trophy winner (Andre Ware 1989) and a Lombardi Award winner (Wilson Whitley 1976).
Basketball - Phi Slamma Jamma? Three - count 'em THREE - players named to the NBA's Top 50 of all time (Olajuwon, Drexler, and Elvin Hayes) - multiple NCAA final 8 and Final 4 appearances in 1980s (though admittedly the program was down by 1995, but at least our players didn't kill each other)
Track & Field - could be called a wash as both programs are world class - Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell (UH) Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner (Baylor) are all Olympic gold medalists
Baseball - another wash, Baylor and UH have both been BETTER baseball teams since the last realignment. Neither was a pushover in SWC, but neither had blossomed yet
Most sports beyond this don't get enough explosure to matter in terms of conference realignment decision (let's face it, no one aligns a school with a conference because of a great tennis team or field hockey team), but ....
Golf - UH owns 16 (count 'em 16) NCAA NATIONAL championships in men's golf
Anyway, this argument is 15 years old now and water under the bridge for the most part. But it will give me a warm fuzzy to see Baylor finally get its comeuppance after the way they used politics to weasel into the Big 12 fifteen years ago. Baylor and Tech made the Big 12 over UH because there were more Baylor alums (and a few more Tech alums) than UH alums in the Texas legislature at the time
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