You know, there are plenty of candidates for biggest jerk in college athletics. We’ve discussed our share of them here, that’s for sure. But I’m keeping my eye on Texas’ athletic director these days. Patterson’s always had plenty of potential, but he’s really stepped up his game lately. I mean, how else do you explain somebody who thinks scheduling a game in Dubai is more important than the rivalry with Texas A&M?
What’s really special about that is Patterson’s not dissing TAMU merely out of a sense of arrogant petulance like DeLoss Dodds did. Naw, it’s just good bidness.
“There’s a lot of great tradition with Texas A&M. At some point in time, does it make some business sense, some branding sense to play again? I don’t know,” Patterson said. “It’s not at the top of my list. I’m really more focused on how we grow the footprint of the department.”
… Patterson reportedly has expressed interest in playing a nonconference football game in Mexico City. Another possibility Patterson acknowledged Tuesday could be a future sporting event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“We have a lot of folks in the oil and gas industry,” Patterson said. “Houston is the center of the world in terms of the gas industry. A lot of those alums spend time in the Middle East, and Dubai is a place that wants to use sports to help put itself on the map. So we’ll have some conversations, and we’ll see where they lead.”
This, we are assured, “… should be done in a fashion that grows the profile and the interest of the university of a broad scale internationally.” Because?
This is the distillation of everything that’s sucked about college football in the last decade. Note the complete absence of the word “fans” in his master plan. But podnah, Steve Patterson’s gonna do what he can to make sure them oil and gas fellas have a great venue to pursue a couple of Mideast energy deals. That’s why we love college athletics!
There’s something else missing from Patterson’s inspiring vision.
Stupid kids. Don’t you know employees never play in Mexico City? Leave the bidness to bidnessmen.
Patterson’s inspiring vision sounds like he would rather spend a gazillion bucks to haul the Horns to Dubai than play TAMU any time soon…however, wait for an update when Charlie gets the Horns on track.
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This isn’t the NFL playing a regular season game in London or MLB opening the season in Australia. Those are professional leagues with highly paid players promoting a business interest in new markets.
No, what we’re talking about here is a public university proposing to take “amateur” student-athletes all the way to the Middle Freaking East to play a football game to please rich millionaires and billionaires (and also sell some Longhorn hats and shirts in a new market).
Someone should tell this Patterson guy that he’s supposed to be playing up the purity of the game and the student athlete experience right now, because, you know… current climate. I mean, seriously? You want to drag a football team halfway around the globe in the middle of their season? Is it really that important to you to get the Longhorn Network on some sultan’s satellite package? I don’t know about the rest of college sports, but I think it’s time Texas’ players start getting pay checks.
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I had the exact same thought. If talking about going to the middle east to play a game doesn’t undermine every argument the NCAA is trying to put forward right now, I don’t know what does. Even Emmert should be reading that and saying “Damn, dude, you’re really tone deaf”.
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I don’t get how anyone can read stuff like this out of those running the show, yet wonder why kids are wanting to find avenues to protect their own interests, and if need be, get what they deserve for helping make such a fat cash pie.
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+1
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Maybe Dubai is a good fit for the NCAA.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-a-morally-bankrupt-dictatorship-built-by-slave-labour-1828754.html
or Patterson is ahead of the curve and is very good at spotting future sport trends.
http://gulfnews.com/sport/other-sports/top-class-badminton-bound-for-dubai-1.1312938
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Eeeexactly. When people talk about paid players or unions signaling the transformation of college football into a bottom-line-obsessed business, my response is always that it already done happened, and glorified accountants like Patterson were the ones at the wheel. This already is a business, and the entry-level employees are just trying to get something better than minimum wage.
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Did he really just say this?
“We need to serve our supporters in Houston. Therefore, we could play…
A) “our traditional rival, located halfway between Austin and Houston”
or
B) “a cupcake, at a neutral site 8,162 miles from Houston”
“Clearly B.”
Wow. When that makes sense, your foundational assumptions might need a bit of recalculation.
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Senator, you need to get a column in the AJC. No one is doing a better job at highlighting what’s wrong with college sports anywhere.
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Morty….this is worth a read if you haven’t already. Sounds like he hasn’t changed much.
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2013/12/canzano_steve_patterson_and_te.html
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One step ahead of you there, Jack. It’s linked in my post.
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Got it…I missed that.
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Quote Lewis “I don’t believe I’da said that.”. The college administrations are really really tone deaf. The NCAA is fighting for its life and guys like Patterson are killing it in the court of public opinion.
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Who says hypocrisy can only be found in religion any more? Oh wait, college football is a religion!
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+1
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No doubt, comments like this make you wonder what in the Sam Hill is a going on here.
I read it as “yes, we are scared to play A&M” and would think any self respecting Texas fan would call him on it.
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Even though Steve Patterson does not have time for the fans, he does have time to be the poster boy for Jack Nicholson
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Well alrighty then.
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Surely this was said on April 1 and wasn’t meant to be serious.
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For travel and TV purposes, this would likely be an August / pre-Labor Day game. The average high temperature in Abu Dubai in August is 108…so I can see why Texas would want to play there and avoid the heat in Austin.
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Forget the Dubai thing. Anybody who wonders out loud if playing one of the most storied rivalries in college football makes “branding sense” is an asshole of exponential proportions and deserves to be kicked in the nuts by a circus midget.
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