The Anchor’s Desk with Scott Reister: Burnt Orange The Color Of Choice Among College Fans

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a new regular feature on Midwest Sports Fans called “The Anchor’s Desk,” which features KNDU-TV (TriCities and Yakima,WA) Sports Director Scott Reister. Scott is a native of Texas whose love for sports spans the nation. He will be a great addition to our writing team, and I think you will enjoy his unique perspective.

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by Scott Reister

RICHLAND, Wash. – Three years ago, I packed up the family and moved from Texas to the state of Washington, taking with me all the burnt orange sweatshirts, t-shirts, fleeces, hats, and footballs I owned. Would I be an outsider in a strange new world of Huskies and Cougars? Hardly.

It felt like I never left the Forty Acres.

Texas apparel was everywhere. At the mall. At Wal-Mart. On men, women, and children. On my baby (I dressed her as a UT cheerleader for the OU game). These days, wherever you are, University of Texas gear seems more popular than the local college.

I’ve been told a store in Colorado (home of the Big 12-rival Buffaloes) had Texas jerseys on display in the front windows, while the Colorado jerseys were hanging on the back wall.
Turns out that “Hook ‘Em” has evolved in to an 800-pound gorilla. What gives?

Well, the first (and most obvious) reason is their recent success in just about every major sport.

“When you have athletic success, it provides you with a great opportunity to capitalize on the excitement around that success,” said Craig Westemeier, Assistant Athletics Director for Trademark Licensing. “We’ve been fortunate to maintain that.”

I’ll say. In the 2004-2005 school year, the year before Texas beat USC for the championship, the university pulled in $4 million in royalties.

After Vince Young’s heroics, that number increased to $8.2 million dollars, a whopping 103% increase. That year, Texas became the top-selling institution among colleges represented by the Collegiate Licensing Company. The Horns have been tops on the list ever since with $7.5 million in ‘06-’07, and $8 million in ‘07-‘08. Notre Dame, the highest-ranked Midwest school, ranked 5th. (For the complete list click here.)

“That year was a springboard into the national spotlight,” said Westemeier of the championship year. “It allowed people to see us and say ‘Wow, I like that.’”

Since then, it’s been the perfect convergence of favorable factors.

“We have a large state, a large student population, one of the largest alumni bases (450,000 living alumni), a great logo with the Longhorn, athletic success, and academic success,” said Westemeier.

Forget Mack Brown — even pop culture has spurred the Horns’ rise to apparel dominance.
“A few years ago burnt orange became a hot fashion color,” said Westemeier. “We saw it happen around ‘04-‘05. Burnt orange and purple were the new colors. For a few years it was light blue and that really helped out North Carolina.”

Recession? Not here. UT is hopeful its brand will continue to sell.

“The college product is hot right now. Most schools are seeing growth. People will still spend just for their affinity to the schools.”

And each time you swipe, the rich get richer.

“We have a ten percent royalty fee,” said Westemeier. “For example, if a T-shirt wholesales for $5, and retails for $12, we get 50 cents from every shirt sold.”

Factor in the hats, luggage, pool cues, and baby gear (I have plenty), it adds up fast. The $8 million Texas raked in last year goes back into the athletic department, with a percentage going to the academic side.

When you’re hot, you’re hot. And right now, UT is the “it” thing to wear. So while it may pain my Aggie brother, all those burnt orange shirts are here to stay…at least until A&M’s maroon becomes the next fall color.

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Scott Reister is a featured contributor to Midwest Sports Fans, as well as Dallas Sports Fans.

He is a Sports Anchor for the NBC affiliate in the Tri-Cities and Spokane, WA. To learn more about Scott, visit the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Local Sports page on KNDU.com.

To contact Scott: sreister@hotmail.com

After the 2008 Year of the Sooners, it is Time for a Playoff in College Football

(Photo Art by Midwest Sports Fans.)

First off, I want to congratulate Sam Bradford on winning the Heisman Trophy. He put up some of the most ridiculous numbers college football has ever seen this year, and led the Oklahoma Sooners to five straight 60-point outings to close out the season. That is remarkable.

And I want to congratulate the Oklahoma Sooners on becoming Big 12 Champs and being selected to play the Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship game. The Sooners are on quite a roll right now and the Oklahoma-Florida matchup to determine the champion should be exciting.

But what the hell did the University of Texas do to become the toilet of college football in 2008? All they did was go 11-1, beat Oklahoma, and have a QB set the NCAA record for completion percentage. With all that said, let’s count the ways that Texas has been shit on this season:

1 — Despite having an identical 11-1 record with Oklahoma, and owning the head-to-head tie-breaker with the Sooners, Texas was left home during the Big 12 Championship while Oklahoma played Missouri.

2 — Again, despite having the same record as Oklahoma and beating them, Texas experienced their one loss a few weeks later in the season and fell behind Oklahoma in the polls and BCS standings. This is what gave Oklahoma the right to play in the Big 12 Championship game and make it to the BCS National Championship game…despite the ugly fact that a team with an identical record, and that they lost to, will have to watch the championship game from home.

3 — Colt McCoy was sensational in his head-to-head matchup against Sam Bradford. He made the plays to win his school’s biggest game of the year. Sam Bradford did not. The #1 and #2 vote-getters in the Heisman balloting met on the same field, and the the guy who lost and played worse ended up winning the award for Most Oustanding Player in America.

If I were a Texas fan, I’d be feeling a little salty right now. If I were an Oklahoma fan, I’d be thanking my lucky stars that the 2008 Sooners somehow defied the most basic logic that is supposed to govern sports: nothing is more important than what happens on the field.

Oh wait — this is college football we are talking about, the sport where logic is nowhere to be found.

I am having a hard time coming up with a more egregious set of circumstances to end a season and determine a national champion than what has happened this year. And if the Illogical Quagmire of 2008 cannot galvanize change and inspire a movement towards a playoff, I’m not sure what will. If you have the same record as another team, but you beat them on the field of play, you should take priority and be rewarded. That did not happen this year, and Texas got royally screwed because of it.

And if choosing the winner of an individual honor requires the splitting of hairs, as this year’s Heisman Trophy voting clearly did (based on the fact that the difference between #1 and #3 was smaller than the typical difference between #1 and #2), then beating the other candidate head-to-head should carry some pretty serious weight. Obviously it did not in this case, as Sam Bradford came out ahead of Colt McCoy.

And here’s the really sad thing: I know a lot of people are reading this and chomping at the bit to get the comments and tell me I’m an idiot for arguing about Texas and ignoring Texas Tech. Well guess what? That is even more proof for my point!

Texas Tech beat Texas who beat Oklahoma who beat Texas Tech. And yet, the big argument at the end of the season was between Texas and Oklahoma, with Texas Tech all but forgotten. Sure, Oklahoma wiped the floor with Texas Tech. And I would rank them 3rd out of those three on my own personal ballot. But who cares!? Does the old saying, “That’s why they play games” mean anything in college football?

Apparently not.

Not only was Texas Tech shut out of the Big 12 championship game, shut out of the BCS, and shut out of even getting an invite to the Heisman ceremony (despite having the #4 and #5 vote-getters in Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree), but they weren’t even in the conversation! How ridiculous is that?

Unfortunately, that is college football.

I love college football. I grew up going to games every Saturday, and I love nothing more than watching, debating, and reading about college football all Fall long. But I love college basketball more, and for one extremely important reason: champions are determined on the court, and not through media politicking or in a computer.

Oklahoma had a historic season in many ways in 2008. One feat that should definitely go down in the record books is that they recorded the first loss in the history of college football that, apparently, was not a loss.

In the absence of a playoff, when two teams with identical records do not play eachother, subjective opinions must be solicited to attempt to determine who is better. This has always been a part of college football, and there is no way around it to a certain degree. But when teams play eachother on the field, that game has to mean something. In this case, Oklahoma may as well have just won that game 45-35 instead of what actually happened. Oklahoma was treated like a 12-0 team, while Texas was dealt the fate of a team that went 10-2 and lost to the Sooners.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget about Texas Tech.

My head is starting to hurt just writing this, because it is such a sad and ridiculous circle of idiocy. The only thing standing between college football and a playoff is excuses. College basketball does it. The other college football divisions do it. And somehow, a better method simply has to be implemented to determine champions.

One of the most popular arguments bandied about in opposition of a playoff is that a playoff would lessen the importance of the regular season, that what makes college football different is that a game in October is just as meaningful as a game in January. Well to all of the people who make that argument, I present the 2008 college football season as the quintessential counter-argument that you simply cannot refute.

How meaningful is the college football regular season when Texas can beat Oklahoma, yet Oklahoma goes to the Big 12 championship, the national championship, and the Oklahoma QB beats out the Texas QB for the Heisman?

How meaningful is the college football regular season when Texas Tech can beat Texas, and their arguments are not even taken seriously, for the most part because they do not have the same prestige as Texas and Oklahoma?

It doesn’t seem all that meaningful to me. Not after this season.

What do you think?

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So congratulations to Oklahoma. 2008 truly has been the Year of the Sooners, because somehow Oklahoma was able to defy sports logic and completely erase the typical consequences of losing. And this is not a knock on Oklahoma, their coaches, or their players — they have an amazing team. And it is hard to argue that they are not deserving of a spot in the championship game. The problem is that it is not hard to argue for Texas or Texas Tech either.

So the knock is not on Oklahoma, but rather on the idiotic system of college football over which the Sooners have no control.

I just hope that 2008 was a step backwards that can ultimately lead to a giant leap forward — in the form of a playoff. All of this illogical BS has gone on for far too long in college football and it is time for what happens on the field to matter more than what happens on a ballot.

Discussion Questions for Comments Section:

1. Do you think that Texas and Texas Tech got screwed in 2008?
2. Do you want to see a playoff in college football? Why or why not?

Looking forward to everyone’s responses on this topic. And let’s just hope that one of these days, logic can actually become a part of college football.