OU-Texas is the epitome of what a rivalry should be. Pure Hatred can be a thing of beauty when it comes to college football, and I would advise anyone who has never witnessed this game in person to make the trip to Dallas to behold this spectacle of raw emotion. This game has much at stake for the winner in terms of bragging rights, recruiting, and now recently it is for the conference championship race.
This game begins and ends with the fans who gather for one weekend of the year for one purpose, and that is to beat the other team (humiliate them if possible). The unique feature of this game is that it is played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas every year at the same time of the Texas State Fair. This makes it a neutral site for both teams even though it is still in Texas. The tickets for the game are split down the middle, with the South end being dominated in Crimson, and the North end being dominated in Burnt Orange. This eliminates a home team advantage for either team. However, sometimes a poor soul must sit in the middle of the other team's fans due to buying a ticket off of another fan. This usually makes for an interesting view of the game because of the tension that does exist between these two enemies. It is not beyond these two groups of people to fight in the middle of the stands, or to take it out into the fair for that matter. It does make a victory that much sweeter to be able to watch your opponent's faces when they know they've been beaten.
Another big part to this game is that it is crucial to recruiting in the two states. Texas has long been known as a great recruiting hotbed for talented prep players, who are usually in attendance for this game. The winner will always have a decisive advantage in recruiting for the next year, because let's face it... Nobody who grows up watching this game wants to be on the losing end of it. Many kids grow up dreaming of walking down the famous Cotton Bowl Ramp and leading their team to victory.
As of recent, this game has been elevated to mean even more than just bragging rights and recruiting. Thanks to the BIG XII being formed this makes the game a conference game with South Division, Conference and possibly National Title implications (in the future it will). This makes the game essential to win if a coach wants to keep his job. It also makes the blood boil that much more between two groups of people who never liked each other anyways.
As if this isn't enough to draw interest from all people on this earth, this game has some major history to it. Some pretty big names have played, and coached in this game and have all walked away stunned at how much of a war-like atmosphere surrounds it. I believe former OU coach Barry Switzer said it best when he talked about this game, "I mean, Man, when you take a team down that ramp to play Texas, you better damn well feel the emotion. When you hit the floor of the Cotton Bowl, there's electricity, and if you don't feel it, you ought to go have your saliva checked." This truly is a game that has had many stars born, miraculous comebacks, and it has been known to have Butkus Award winners tackling Heisman Trophy winners, with Lou Groza winners kicking game winning field goals. You know when you have people like Earl Cambell and Darrel Royal on one side with Billy Sims and Barry Switzer on the other that it's gonna be one hell of a game. Throw out the stats and records, because this one ALWAYS is.
P.S. TUCK FEXAS!!!
