The History of the Southwest Conference: College Sports' Saloon
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- This summer has been the summer of realignment in college sports. With Houston, BYU, UCF, and Cincinnati joining the Big 12, followed by Oregon and Washington announcing they would join USC and UCLA in the Big 10 and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah jumping ship to the Big 12, nobody was quite surprised to see Cal, Stanford, and SMU jump to the ACC. We're all just so used to it by now.
But this isn't the first time massive change has happened in college sports, even in the state of Texas. With Rice moving to the American and SMU announcing their jump to the ACC, every member of the former Southwest Conference---Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, Rice, SMU, Arkansas, and even schools like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Southwestern, and Phillips University---has moved conferences at least once since its creation in 1915. While it stood for just over 80 years, its legacy isn't that of great athletics or all-century teams, but that of under-the-table deals and men in suits too busy either paying players or bragging about their successes to move forward as a group. And it cost them their conference. Turns out everything is bigger in Texas---except television payouts in 1990.
Join me as I provide a quick run-through of the Southwest's history and the history of its major players, all crammed into under 20 minutes. As always, if there's more to the story than what I'd said in the video, or if I worded something wrong (or if I was just flat out wrong) be sure to point it out in the comments below.
All video and audio is utilized under Fair Use, under the pretext of education.
Source Credits:
WholeHogSports
TSHAonline
ESPN
Sports Illustrated
Some screencaps taken from Sports Illustrated and Wikipedia
Jesus this is terrible.
In what way?
@@bosserman444I would assume he isn’t happy with how his favorite team is portrayed.
I saw this comment before I watched and was like, how? Now I see it lol. So many political dog whistles that he just hates America and wants everyone to be sorry for something they never did 😂 bro yes it was white people who moved to Texas you aren’t breaking news by including the word “white” you’re just interjection your politics into a sports documentary.
@@AJ-vm8ftthat team being Tennessee?
What a butthurt little Susie 😂
A small detail I absolutely love and appreciate is that you use retro logos to represent different eras and the evolutions of the schools.
This channel has been my favorite new find on YT. I’m eager for an ACC history. I’m from Maryland and still inadvertently refer to the Terps as an ACC team.
Everyone else thinks of them as an ACC team too
@@TimothyFitcheven though yall have been in the Big 10 for awhile now
Makes my third shift job much less boring
@@TimothyFitch😊
Yea bc Maryland is an ACC team. Not Big 10
The 1994 Southwest Conference Football Season which featured a five-way tie for first place and Rice beating Texas for the first time in 28 years
Thought about including some of the weird bits of the conference like that, but decided to do quick hitters instead.
And A&M with an unbeaten season that didn't get much celebration due to a post-season ban. A real bummer, I would have liked to see how they played into the bowl picture that year.
Teams keep moving on the day that these videos are released just to mess with Dalukes
It's an annoying pattern tbh
I need more of these. I prefer the other group of 5 conferences or other defunct conferences, but power 5 conferences work as well.
With all the realignment going on, makes ya wander if this realignment will cause SEC to become just the Souther Conference and split into the SWC and the SEC
I've told people that this is their plan. Sixteen schools is too big. The SEC will split within a decade after Texas and Oklahomas first season. But remember, the rule is you must have twelve schools to have a conference title game. The two will split into eight each and will have to pull four more scools each. You can kind of make up your own mind on the way it will split and which schools each new conference will make offers to.
Maybe the SoCon can come back to the FBS level and be the south’s premier conference
Need that history of the SEC
And of the SoCon which was the mother conference to the SEC and ACC to a degree
The legacy of the SWC lives on in the South west classic played between A&M and Arkansas every season.
And hopefully it continues that way next year. I want Arkansas playing A&M every year, nor Mississippi State.
Our rivals are t.u, LSU, and Arkansas.
Love the Minecraft music
2:16 - 1865, not 1856
Juneteenth was actually June 19th 1867 two years after the end of slavery did Texas ended it.
Easy to hate the best 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Ah, a Texas hater. SEC SEC SEC!
I don't hate Texas. Great college in a great city with a phenomenal food scene that produces some of the finest young men and women at our country's disposal. Their sports teams are consistently competetive and have beaten my Wildcats for like six or seven years in a row in football.
I strongly dislike their athletic boosters, which is a sentiment that most Texas fans I've spoken to also share
TCU and Baylor were rivals looooooong before the SWC breakup.
That goes back to the locations of the schools... what happened in the early 90s just amplified the hate between the two.
Cross town rivals haha
You could say they were rivals long before the SWC.
Funny story, Eric Dickerson's Gold Trans Am was given to him by A&M boosters, but he changed his mind, went to SMU & kept the car, but what could A&M do?
People at SMU even called it the Trans A&M 😂
I think it’s hilarious that Texas is referred to as the “conference killer”, and how their deal with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network is glared upon as “selfish, egotistical, and obnoxious” by most outside of Austin, yet each and everyone one of you knows damn well, that had ESPN (the sports magnate media outlet owned by Disney) came to your Alma matter or favorite college athletic program and offered them the same deal, a deal to make a new sports network dedicated entirely to your college’s athletics, no other athletic program would pass on the opportunity. Each and every one of those other universities would agree to that same deal in a heartbeat.
I lived in AR from 76-91, so I can vouch for much of what you say-but you mentioned that the Hogs never had a major scandal. True, but that doesn't mean that they were "clean"-being the only DI school in the state, boosters knew where the line was; and Frank Broyles made SURE they knew. Frank also knew where the bodies were buried with the Texas schools-so he was able to send word down that if any school tried to drop the dime on the Hogs, he wouldn't hesitate to retaliate
Every Southwest school has skeletons in their closet. Arkansas just didn't have a *major* scandal.
Arkansas, Baylor, and Rice were the only schools not to get hit with NCAA sanctions. The other six were all on probation all at the same time - which, in those days, meant being banned from TV. With most the conference banned from TV, recruits couldn't watch the games and went elsewhere. This led to the decline of the SWC and its breakup when its bigger members wanted more TV exposure.
Arkansas never had the resources to cheat plus Frank Broyles had too much integrity to do so
@@michaelmerck7576 Arkansas had/has the resources to cheat (Walmart, Tyson Chicken, Hunt Trucking-etc)-but you're partially correct. Frank was able to rein in the boosters JUST ENOUGH in order not to have the Hogs get dinged. It drove the Texas schools nuts that the Hogs were "clean"-but publicly they were...
I say this not because I have an ax to grind-but I saw stuff that raised my brow a time or two...
Went to church with the Broiles’ kids in Fayetteville in the 60s … & Frank Broiles would have pushed the envelope, like the others.
Ive always wanted to watch a documentary on the history of college football and you’ve basically done that with this series, thank you sir
Hey man, I love these documentaries. I love the care and attention you put into each in topic you cover.
In that respect, could you please do a doc on the Sun Belt Conference? They don't have much information or exposure in the D1 sphere as others do from what I can tell
I would love that as well. Arkansas State is right down the road from my house. But I don't know anything about the conference itself
I need to clarify some things, since it's become apparent that I didn't word it distinctly enough, and that's on me as the video maker. Sorry!
SMU didn't buy Eric Dickerson the gold Trans am. It's well known that was a gift from Texas A&M to entice him to play for the Aggies. My intentions were to make it known that a high schooler with a Trans Am probably wasn't receiving a nonzero amount of dollars to play for a school, and that whoever he ended up playing for had dropped him a bag. Now that I'm reading some comments, the way I word it makes it seem like SMU gave him the car. That's not true. They gave him more money than the car was worth, apparently.
I also cut out a part in my script where I mention that Phillips University doesn't exist anymore. After a brief foray overseas with a satellite branch in Japan, the college lost accreditization and filed for bankruptcy. Kind of a neat little nugget there, unless you worked for Phillips U.
Also CJK5H.
I've also been made aware that I've been advertised on Reddit. Not sure how I feel about that, but welcome anyway. Try not to start any flame wars in my comments and it'll all be cool with me! As always be sure to point out any times I word something wrong or timelines get mixed up. I go through a ton of articles and videos for this and organizing it all can be a pain sometimes, so the extra clarification and help is always appreciated!
As a Phillips alumni I appreciate your mention of our brief stint in the conference. One minor correction: it was never called Phillips College. Also, I had never before heard that Phillips had lost its accreditation before filing bankruptcy. What was your source for this?
That UH logo at the beginning killed me.
Didn’t Dickerson say he got his gold Trans-Am from the A&M boosters in his memoir?
The "Trans A&M"!
Saw that on the SMU 30for30 Pony Express
He did. A&M bought Dickerson the Trans AM and I don’t understand why people think SMU bought it for him. A&M was by far the most egregious in the SWC for paying players.
10:00 Fun fact.
SMU didn’t pay for the Gold Trans Am.
Texas A&M did.
Even now i still forget that Houston ucf Cincinnati and byu are in the big 12 and have them in their old conferences in the cfb mobile game😂
Baylor and TCU rivalry goes back to the early 1900’s when they both resided in Waco
They should have been called the "All-Texas conference" with Arkansas as an outlier. The REAL Southwest conference is what's coming to the Big 12 once Utah, Arizona, and Colorado schools join, regionally-speaking. Oh wait---there's Iowa State, West Virginia, Cincy, UCF. Boy--I wished regions still meant things to people!!
You gotta remember that throughout most of the 20th century hardly anyone lived in the actual geographical southwest of the United States
Texas and its population centers *were* the southwestern corner of the US population during the founding of the conference in 1915
@@FireboltPrime Probably the most glaring example to this day is New Mexico. They NEVER had a population big enough to have Division 1A sports. They remain the same cultural backwater they were in 1915
Welp Smu just barely didn’t get into the ACC in time to make this initial map lol
I'm legit kind of scared of the pattern at this point. Like I need to stop talking about modern teams
@@lukeontheplainsyou can make it up to us when you do the ACC video 😉😉😉
Late 80s early 90s, The SWC was (very much) a shell of it's former self. Going 2-9 in it's last Cotton Bowl (Conf. Tie-in) appearances. While also ending with *7 straight* losses....
1995. Cotton Bowl (USC) 55 (Texas Tech) 14
1994. Cotton Bowl (Notre Dame) 24 (Texas A&M) 21
1993. Cotton Bowl (Notre Dame) 28 (Texas A&M) 3
1992. Cotton Bowl (Florida St) 10 (Texas A&M) 3
1991. Cotton Bowl (Miami) 46 (Texas) 3
1990. Cotton Bowl (Tennessee) 31 (Arkansas) 27
1989. Cotton Bowl (UCLA) 17 (Arkansas) 3....
The SWC conference produced great "National Championship" teams and was (unique) in it's own right..because 8 of the 9 teams resided in Texas, So the atmosphere of seeing where your local football star was going to comment to and winning against your (in state) rival, which usually ended with getting the SWC Crown and Cotton Bowl bid..Truly gave *one* bragging rights throughout the state and proclaiming your school as "State Champs" was a very unique thing on the college level, at that time..The SEC flourishing still today deserves 👏....
The SWC tho, lasting as long as it did, with the way it was structured was impressive because it really couldn't happen work today and it will never be like that again. The Big 12 complimented the former SWC & former Big 8 really well..But money 💰 🤑 💸 is ruining regional rivalries and long traditions 😢.
The same NCAA who gave SMU the death penalty has done infinitely more damage to “the sanctity of collegiate athletics” in the past few years than SMU could have in several lifetimes.
But now that SMU is going to the ACC and buying players is fair game, things are about to get real good.
SMU football's death penalty messed everyone's money up and that was all the impetus that outlier Arkansas needed to get off that sinking ship. With the way TV contracts were looking back then, having only the Lone Star State represented wouldn't be enough.
I've really enjoyed your videos since finding your channel, and it's clear that you're developing your skills and style each upload. Keep it up!
Awesome video, Lucas! I loved your video about the Southwest Conference. It was everything I hoped it would be, informative and educational -- AND very entertaining, too! You have an excellent sense of humor, buddy! Keep up the great work!
Texas’ conception was in 1836, where it stood as a lone nation for 9 years until Polk annexed Texas in 1845 as a state into the Union.
Texas was not annexed. Texas joined the US via treaty. There's a difference.
Arkansas won a "declared" title? By BEATING the team that was contending for it?! Are you fucking kidding?! They EARNED that title.
I'm not even an Arkansas fan, but FFS... if you BEAT the team that is next in line to be champion, you don't get "declared" the national title, you OUTRIGHT EARNED IT!
You can tell this dude is a millennial. He feels the need to throw race into almost all his videos.
Was it proven Anne Richards didn’t push to include Baylor? Houston would have made way more sense, especially in that era…
I looked at three different articles about Baylor being added over Houston and the reasonings for it. Only one mentioned Richards, and it made a point to note that Richards didn't really care because she was busy with other legislature things. So not only did she have no impact at all in the decision, she likely wouldn't have even been much of a factor if she was involved in those convos. Some people just need to point fingers though
@@lukeontheplainsgreat video. However Baylor securing their spot in the SWC didn’t negate UH their spot, UH never had a spot. UH had fallen into extremely hard times in both football and basketball plus they were never really acceptable to UT and A&M anyways.
I'm a UH fan. There were three main reasons we didn't get in. The first and most important want instability and poor university leadership. We had an interim president who fumbled the bag in just about every regard athletically. Second, we didn't have the political connections. Third, we were still recovering from penalties from recruiting violations.
In the most recent round of realignment now Houston has phenomenal leadership in President Khator, political connections that fought for Houston to be added to the Big 12, and no penalties or violations thank God.
@@GoodnessandTruthYou’re absolutely right. We can blame politics and politicians, but the truth is that after Andre Ware and David Klingler years (and 3 year mini death penalty) our once glorious football program fell into a unrecoverable state of disrepair and the university administration was utterly inept politically and operationally. Dr Khator has turned everything around at UH across the board athletically and academically. She will someday have her own statue next to Coach Yeoman on the Plaza.
@@GoodnessandTruthUH fan here too. I just want to ask, do you think Holgerson is the right coach for this program? I’m having doubts. I feel he’s too inconsistent. He’s getting paid a ton of money too. The loss against Rice was just so bad (even though we came back to tie it and force OT). Now we’re going to play some real teams and I just can’t help but feel we are going to get destroyed.
Bullock was a Tech (undergrad) AND Baylor Law grad. Bullock and Richards were absolutely involved in getting Baylor in the Big 12 over UH.
Go Coogs! As a recent grad, definitely agree that that’s not something we ever forgot
I'm looking forward to tu's continuing decline once they enter the SEC. They may be making more money but they'll very rarely, if ever, make a push for another national championship.
Great video! Love your channel. Only a couple issues. In your statement about dunking being unsportsmanlike, there was indeed an era when dunking was considered unsportsmanlike. However it was not in the mid 80s during the reign of Phi-Slamma-Jamma. On your comment about Eric Dickerson’s car, that car came from Texas A&M boosters and was never returned after he went to SMU.
Go hogs
Kinda strange how the Southwest Classic between Arkansas and Texas A&M was never mentioned.
I hope the SEC preserves this rivalry as an annual rivalry.
When that was established, the Hogs and A&M were in different conferences-SEC and Big XII-their SWC connection has zero to do with the current game. Now that they're both in the SEC, I believe that TCU should be the new opponent at JerryWorld
I’d love to see a video of the history of the Big West football conference. In many ways it was the precursor to what the WAC became post the MWC splitoff, and yet it is basically unknown today.
4:54 Arkansas stayed in SWC till after 1991-92 season not 1989
“Texas is a conference killer”.
1989 Arkansas leaves SWC, Texas stays
2010: Nebraska and Colorado leave Big XII, Texas stays
2011: A&M and Mizzou leave Big XII, Texas stays. Hmmmmm
And then when Texas and OU leave together everybody blames Texas and ignores the fact that OU left too. No hate for them.
You also left out that A&M got hit with serious probation twice in the 80s and 90s that resulted in Bowl bans and being unable to win the conference yet point out that Texas received penalties though not nearly as serious or as often.
And who started this trend? Arkansas.
And whose exclusive TV deal exacerbated it? Not re Dame.
Yet when Texas gets an exclusive TV deal decades later, people bitch. A&M turned down a chance to go in on a TV deal together, then whined when Texas got one for themselves. Typical Aggie pettiness.
Listen, I don’t think for a minute UT is blameless or doesn’t deserve some of their bad rep, but they also make an easy scapegoat for everybody else and it’s annoying. They didn’t start this game (looking at you $EC) they just learned to play it better than most.
A lot of scandals in the SWC, but man, I miss it as a Texan.
Death penalty for SMU kills the SWC
Very good video. As an Ole Miss and SEC fan, the old Southwest Conference was a bit before my time and I’ve heard and read a lot of stories about it. I do have a question for any Arkansas fans out there out of curiosity. What was the official reason why Arkansas came to the SEC? I’ve heard rumors and stories and also have my own theories about it for a really long time but have never heard what really pushed Arkansas out or how long they had been planning to join the SEC.
As a Hog fan since 1977, I remember there being two main reasons. Competetion in the Southwest Conference had become stagnant and Frank Broyles knew changes were coming regardless. He also wanted changes. The second is, at the time the Southeast Conference was the only conference that shared bowl game revenue between all schools in the SEC. With Alabama, Florida LSU, Georgia and others you're guaranteed money every year.
Houston’s exclusions out of the big 8 was by design. UT and A&M wanted access to all the athletes from the states largest state. They’d have to fight against UH if they also joined the big 8. Baylors inclusion in the conference is absolutely crazy when you compare it to Houston’s athletic history.
SMU was so disgusted by the collapse of the SWC that they vowed to never play any Texas (or Arkansas) team again
The drama that ruined the Southwest was brought into the Big 12 and inevitably cause turmoil there too. Conference chaos is bad for football.
The Southwest Confrence story should be a mini series especially during the 80s cause the constant backstabbing
I’ve always found the NCAA’s decision to penalize SMU as an institution rather than individual coaches/administrators interesting. what if there was some kid who’s dream it was to play at SMU and he couldn’t go because there was no scholarship when there otherwise would’ve been? now he’s penalized to no fault of his own
A&M and Baylor are both older than t.u. by the way.
Baylor is the first still active college in Texas, having formed in 1845 in Independence, TX (halfway between Brenham (home of Blue Bell Ice Cream) and College Station) as a private institution. Texas A&M was started in 1876 as Texas' first public school.
Indeed. Baylor is the oldest private school and moved to Waco when Independence lost the county seat election to Brenham. Meanwhile, TCU moved from Waco to Fort Worth.
So, in an alternate universe...
1. Baylor is in Independence/Washington County (near Texas A&M's current location).
2. TCU is in Waco (Baylor's current location)
3. Texas A&M is in Fort Worth (TCU's current location).
Oldest FBS schools in Texas:
1. Baylor (1845)
2. TCU (1873)
3. Texas A&M (1876)
4. Texas (1883)
The funniest part about the Eric Dickerson car is that SMU didn't even buy it for him. It was A&M who bought it as a bribe for him to go if he verbally committed, they signed it over to him and then he decommitted and signed with SMU.
The University of Houston wasn't founded until 1927 and didn't field a football team until 1946, but was on the 1915 map when the narrator discussed UT AD Bellmont inviting schools to join the new conference. Same applies to Texas Tech whose logo also was on the 1915 map, but wasn't established until 1923.
Wild. I was just watching your channel yesterday wondering if there would be a SWC one!
Houston was in a rut at the time the SWC fell apart. People forget that the program was really down and Baylor wasnt under any sanctions at the time.
Now i feel a&m's pain these mofos have drugged us into their ego trip all while a&m is just trying to be left alone. But as usual here comes UT. Sadd😅😅😅
Well done!
Was hoping someone out there was working on a history of conferences, so imagine my delight to find this channel!
6:11 thank you for saying the real reason they did that so tired of people lying about the intentions of that
This was a elite conference back in the day. I'll always love The Southwest Conference 😉👌💯
If Texans really loved football they would've stopped watching the Longhorns
Can confirm that we Houston fans are cool with literally every other school in the state except for the cow college in Austin and the Waco sex cult
arkansas was always forgotten even though they were a huge amount of success for the swc. Too bad the oklahoma schools didnt stick around.
Arkansas played in the SWC until 1991. Not 89. Never mind you said that later on.
Love ya videos brotha keep it up. My favorite part starts at 16:40 😮😮😮
BOOMER.
dude what smu did in the 80's is literally nil it would be normal nowadays
Major inaccuracy A&M was established as the flagship program in 1876. It still today receives the most funding for research and overall grants, and the majority of its colleges lead the state in education.
Yet they still suck
Finally... after asking twice... it's beautiful
I always wondered why they were called the Southwest conference, even though it was mostly Texas schools? Unfortunately the video doesn't really get into that, but I remember when I started watching college football as a kid back in the early 90s I remember hearing about a Southwest conference, but didn't know which teams were part of it. Back then I assumed it had teams from Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, maybe Arizona and a Colorado school. It wasn't until many years later I found out it was predominantly Texas schools.
I wondered that too while I was making the Border Conference video. Couldn't find anything on it, but my guess is that since it's mainly focused in Texas, and Texas is a Southwestern state, that they just kept the name.
@@lukeontheplains even though Texas is not the only state in the southwest part of our country. I'll try to see if I can find an answer.
Nevertheless, very good video, this might be the only history of the SWC video on RUclips so far, so it's great you made one.
The southwest in terms of population back in the 1910s and 20s was Texas. New Mexico, and Arizona had very small populations back then. The HBCU conference SWAC (Southwestern Athletic Conference) was also started around that time made up of HBCUs from Texas.
@@abelreyna8781 that makes sense. And some of those states like Arizona and Nevada saw population booms during the 50s and 60s, by that time the SWC was already decades old.
Texas has always been considered a Southwestern state. Its Bell System company was Southwestern Bell, but its headquarters was in St. Louis and its territory included Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas except for El Paso. El Paso was served by Mountain Bell, but was switched to Southwestern Bell before the Bell System breakup, and Southwestern became a stand-alone Baby Bell. In another matter, Phillips University (in Enid, OK) no longer exists.
17:20 so that’s where all the big 12 defenses go
Poor Rice the one non power school
That’s why we say: “We’re Texas”
now the sec has 4 original members of the swc
Know it won't happen but would love to see a similar documentary about cfb in the Border- and Western Athletic Conferences - precisely bc those conferences were home to many overlooked and/or not cared about universities and athletic progrums. East-of-El-Paso-bias in college athletics remains a 'thing' as of July '24. Thank u for these really well done, thoroughly researched documentaries.
UT is a public Ivy?😂😂😂😂😂
Thanks sincerely, this is an excellent, honest history of the SouthWest Conference. Lettered at Texas, grew up in Austin, Fayetteville, Arkansas & College Station. One note: Texas athletes & fans have always had great, private affection for Arkansas, A&M, Tech, etc. & always wanted to continue in some conference with these states’ historically accomplished Universities. …
& don’t put those Horns down … cause Texas is back!
Great video. Loved seeing the old footage.
SMU is now the ACC
Did the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates steal the SW University Logo from 1916? Is there any historical photos of this logo...really interesting if so.
Do the SEC next.
I always thought I was the only one nerdy enough about conferences and their history to enjoy these videos, but it seems I was wrong! These are so interesting.
Only bad thing is they make me wish for a return to the days of regional conferences and all the rivalries that are now dead .. but hopefully, eventually, everything settles down and we can build some new, forever ones.
TU is such a diva
Damn right its artistic freedom!
i suggested this also first coment
Great content bro, keep up the quality and the stories and your gonna blow up! Making my way through tall your videos, just started today.
Hell yeah.
Now that SMU is part of ACC the history SMU would make for very entertaining content
These videos are fantastic!!
Arkansas was 2nd best in the SWC. Easy. WPS
Didn’t Eric Dickerson say that when he went to the NFL he took a pay cut?
Turning it off within the first 3 minutes because of all the historical inaccuracy
Very nice, son
So texas and oklahoma joining the sec now was inevitable
Dude, your conference championships is painfully wrong.
🤘🏼🤘🏼
The more things change, the more they stay the same. 🤦🏻♂️
Explicitly calling out the University of Texas as a conference-killer is a first in a public forum, but not in the minds of many college sports fans. The two major conferences that have emerged as the strongest, namely the Big 10 and the Southeastern, have this (among other things) in common: both still have their constant core of 10 members in tact. That means there is a conference-wide strength that is unifying. That means that Texas won't be ale to pull off its political and financial power plays in the SEC like it did in the Southwest Conference and the Big 12. The film opened with a clip of Connie Alexander introducing a show on the SWC. After the death of Kern Tips, Alexander became the top play-by-play announcer on the Humble Oil and Refining Company (later Exxon) radio broadcasts of SWC football games. SWC member schools had no radio broadcasts of their own for football. Rather, the Houston-headquartered Humble (later Exxon) company arranged for the broadcasts as part of their public relations department. The oil company bought blocks of time on Saturdays in the fall on radio stations across Texas and Arkansas. Then there would be a play-by-play announcer and a "sidekick" (to give the stats, scores of other games, etc.) for each conference game and each non-conference game involving an SWC team. There was a hierarchy of announcers, like the TV networks that televise the Sunday afternoon NFL games have. For example, Kern Tips was always assigned to what was considered the best matchup for a given week and Alexander had the second spot; then when Tips died, Alexander was made the top announcer. Texas eventually threw the monkey wrench into this arrangement, believing that having their own broadcast, their games would reach more of their alumni and of their fans. The dissolution of the Exxon broadcasts in the early 1980s occurred at about the same time as SMU was headed for the death penalty and Arkansas was making waves about wanting to bolt.
TV money not Texas killed the SWC and Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Miami's bitch leaving killed the Big 12
W vid