Lonely in the Lone Star State
Four-game Tech series aside, effort to renew old SWC rivalries mostly unsuccessful so far
The University of Houston married into the family as the final member of the Southwest Conference.
Early on, the Cougars did not endear themselves to the other eight schools, winning SWC football titles in three of the first four years after joining in 1976.
When the SWC breakup occurred after the 1995 season, the Cougars might as well have been the distant cousin nobody talks to.
Arkansas was the first to leave the league in 1991.
In 1994, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech accepted invitations to merge with Big Eight Conference
members and form the Big 12.
Rice, SMU and TCU joined the Western Athletic Conference.
Houston found refuge in the newly created Conference USA.
In the 23 years since, reunions have been hard to come by for Houston, a fact not lost on older alumni who eagerly await the opportunity to once again play the state’s flagship schools, Texas and Texas A&M.
Chris Pezman, UH’s vice president of intercollegiate athletics and child of the SWC as a former Cougars player, is working behind the scenes to try to bring the onetime rivals back together.
“We want to play everybody in the state. It just makes sense,” Pezman said this week as the Cougars prepare to face Texas Tech in Lubbock on Saturday. “The geography of it, the ability for our fans to get in the car and drive up and watch a game, it’s a no-brainer from our standpoint.”
It’s been a while
UH last played Arkansas in 1991, and last played Baylor and Texas A&M in 1995. The Longhorns and UH played three straight seasons at the turn of the millennium, but have not met since 2002. (Many believe the Bleacher Gate fiasco at the 2001 game at Robertson Stadium is largely responsible for the 16-year gap).
UH has played TCU five times since the breakup, many of those meetings coming after the Horned Frogs left the WAC and spent four years in C-USA.
The Cougars now play SMU every year as members of the American Athletic Conference, while there are ongoing talks for the Bayou Bucket game with Rice to return annually after a one-year break next year.
Texas Tech and UH are in the middle of a four-game, homeand-home series that will resume in 2021 and 2022.
“Trust me, we reach out to those schools on a regular basis just to gauge interest and try and make it happen,” Pezman said.
While an open date on future schedules is paramount, Pezman said there needs to be “a willing partner on the other side.” UH has connections at two of the schools, with former athletic directors Mack Rhoades and Hunter Yurachek now in the same positions at Baylor and Arkansas, respectively.
Pezman would also like to find a way to continue playing Oklahoma; the two schools have a two-year agreement that includes the 2019 opener in Norman.
The line of communication to Austin could also reopen with a new athletic administration in place, led by former Rice and TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte, and former UH coach Tom Herman.
When Herman left for UH in 2016, UH officials offered a home-and-home football and basketball series in exchange for the money owed as part of Herman’s buyout. The Longhorns declined and paid the full $2.5 million buyout.
Worth pursuing
Pezman said the chance to renew what he calls in-state “natural rivalries” is not only worth pursuing but worth shuffling any future nonconference games to make it happen.
“If one of these (in-state schools) becomes available, we’re going to do whatever we can to move things around and make it happen,” he said.
Even if eight years down the road, can Pezman imagine the reaction from UH fans if the Longhorns, Aggies or any other former SWC members land on a future schedule?
“I couldn’t print enough tickets,” he said. “The significance to our fanbase is very real. It’s very present, and something we are very mindful of and we try and work towards.
“We won’t stop until we make it happen.”