User:Johntex/UT rival evidence

Johntex's 12 Reasons Texas a&m is a bigger rival for The Unviersity of Texas than the sooners.

If you ask, "what football game has had higher ranked teams over the last few years", then yes, that would be the UT/ou game. But that is one sport over a few years. A rivaly is about much more than that. An encyclopedia article needs to talk the long-view. We already state in the article that the ou rivalry in football has gained prominence in recent years while saying that the atm rivalry is the biggest overall. I think that is the right line to maintain. Johntex\talk 01:33, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) UT is atm's oldest rivaly.
 * 2) atm is UT's oldest rivaly.
 * 3) The UT/atm fight songs explicitly mention the other team.
 * 4) Texas and atm still close their regular seasons against each other.
 * 5) When UT wins a football game, the top of the tower gets lit burnt orange - but when UT beats atm at football, the entire tower gets illuminated. This is not so for ou (quoting Katefan0 on this one).
 * 6) atm has kidnapped and branded the UT mascot. I've never heard of ou kidnapping or branding Bevo or of UT capturing that little toy wagon.
 * 7) Off the sports field, UT/atm are also in a very real competition for state funding.
 * 8) They are also competing for high school students in a way that an out of state school is not. Although ou does come to Texas for recruiting, UT rarely bothers setting foot into that state to the north.
 * 9) If you start-up EA Sports NCAA football, play as Texas, and select "Rivalry Game", the default comes up that you are playing against atm. The other options you can select are ou, Baylor, and Texas Tech.  This is true in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Xbox versions, which I have selflessly researched to contribute to this article.
 * 10) If you Google "UT" +"biggest rival" you get more hits with "A&M" than "OU".
 * 11) Texas vs ou has one game people really get excited about - the Red River Shootout. I would argue that is as much about the special nature of the game on a neutral field, the trappings of the state fair, etc. Texas vs atm has the year-long Lone Star Showdown. Texas and ou have not made any such agreement to extend the rivalry throughout the entire year.
 * 12) A Sports Illustrated poll on What is the state of Texas' biggest sports rivalry? shows a majority of respondees say it is Texas vs Texas A&M (56%), Texas-Oklahoma (15%), Cowboys-Texans (7%) ...