Since some of you liked my last post for context, here is some more history for you to chew on.
Texas & Texas A&M are both land grant universities that were provided for by The Republic of Texas in the early 1800s. In 1876 the Constitution for the State of Texas chartered the beginning of UT and further state legislation in 1871 resulted in what would eventually become Texas A&M. UT was established as a “first class” university and A&M was initially a Agricultural & Mechanical extension of UT. A two million acre land endowment of barren wasteland was established in 19 counties in west Texas to support UT. And guess what….around 1900 oil and gas production began on this land. Initially the interest earned by the investments of the oil money all went to UT but in 1931 the Texas State Legislature split the income 2/3 to UT and 1/3 to A&M - and it has remained that way ever since.
Point being that UT has received preferential treatment since its initial formation. Since UT is located in Austin they have been able to influence lawmakers to enable them to keep their stranglehold on state funds - and he who controls the gold makes the rules. That somewhat explains the arrogance around all that is the University of Texas. As times have changed the attitude of superiority at UT has not changed. They actually believe they are better and deserve more than their fellow institutions and conference partners. Hence the downfall of a couple of premier conferences.
I may have not explained everything correctly to the letter of the law. If that’s the case maybe there is a Texasmom23 that would delight in correcting me. But I think you get the gist of it.
