FanPost

Let's Make a Deal

So it’s Sunday, the morning after Baylor’s drubbing by Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The paper still lays out in the yard. I normally have it read by now, but I don’t want to see it, especially the sports section. Many have posted their thoughts on the game at our wonderful Our Daily Bears blog site. As expected, they run the full gamut - from disappointment and disgust to encouragement and enlightenment. We’re fans, and that’s what we do. To the credit of our fan base, I have not read a single comment calling for anyone to be fired or benched. References to heavy drinking have been minimal and even the use of profanity has been kept mostly at bay. Not anywhere near the melt down I’ve seen on other sites after a big loss.

So to put things in perspective, let’s try another angle. I know I am dating myself, but does anyone remember the television hit series Let’s Make a Deal? I never watched the remake from recent years. I am talking about the one with Monty Hall from the 1970’s. But either will do. That’s the show where you could win something, then opt to trade it for something else that you thought might be better. Let’s play with our Baylor football team.

Let’s say we’ve just won the Baylor football team and its 9-1 record, with last night’s loss to OSU. We’ve won The Great Coach Art Briles with his salary, 10 year contract extension, and his entire staff. We’ve won the new stadium under construction on the Brazos River. We’ve won the Baylor fan base and the #23 ranked recruiting class for 2014, according to Rivals.com We have Bryce and Lache, Antwan and Ahmad. All of it. Monty is asking if we would like to trade for another Big 12 football program right now, today. Any of them. But just like on the game show, this is permanent. We’re not trading for the next two months to then get Baylor back, this is forever

You want OSU? Gundy seems to have his stuff together and Chelf looked like a world beater last night. You swappin’ Briles and Petty for them? They have a nice stadium where our players would get to come out of a chute onto the field. Right now they recruit at the #25 class and have an identical record of 9-1 with a better shot at the Big 12 Championship than we. You also trade ODB for CRFF. You also get the Sports Illustrated story and whatever that brings, or does not bring, to the program. Wanna trade?

How about Texas? We’re talking a bear for a longhorn. You get 90,000 fans every home Saturday and that awesome burnt orange. You get money and tradition, and lots of it. You also get their 6-1 conference record, with their own chance to still win the Big 12, and McCoy and Ash. You get Mack, at least for now - who knows who you get next year. You get a top 10 recruiting class for next year. You get to say "We’re Texas" all you want.

Oklahoma perhaps? You get a 6-2 conference record, Stoops and Stoops, and the Crimson and Cream. You get Bell and Knight. We’re trading the sic’em sign for the index finger. We’re trading the Baylor Line and the Baylor fight song for the one they play, over and over and over. We’re swapping the Golden Wave Band for The Pride. We trade RGIII and his Heisman for the FIVE Heismans they’ve got. You can no longer say "sic’em", you’ve got "boomer sooner" now.

TCU or WVU? Patterson or Holgerson? Maybe you prefer purple or blue over the green. Their future in the Big 12 may be bright, but right now they are both an identical 6-11 in conference play in the Big 12. Maybe we could trade for the Red Raiders, pick up a hot coach, and have that impressive black horse race across our field. Tempting, huh? Raiders right now recruit at #34. We all love Bill Snyder. Maybe we should become the Wildcats. Of course he can’t coach forever, so who knows what happens when he leaves.

No offense to Kansas and Iowa State, I really do like them both, but I’ll assume you don’t want that trade right now.

So what did you come up with? Me? I’m sticking with the Baylor Bears. I’ll keep Petty and Norwood and Lackey and Linwood, as sorry as they all looked last night. I’ll stick with Phil Bennet, even though yesterday he had no answers. I’ll keep what Baylor football is today, which is pretty darn good, and the potential they have for the next several years, over the unknowns of the other programs. I’m keeping Briles because he has already practically performed a miracle to get us where we are, and because I trust we are only scratching the surface for where this team will go. I like Briles’ style, both on and off the field, and the fact that he is committed to us, and we to him.

I’ll stick with the green and gold, though sometimes we wear mostly black. Sorry, not trading Lady or Joy for Beevo or Pistol Pete. Not trading our new stadium for anything, even if it seats half of what Texas’ does. I like our band the way it is and the sic’em sign as well – keeping those too. DEFINITELY not trading ODB for any other blog. Our blog and fans are the best, period.

Silly exercise? Maybe. But the bottom line is I suspect most of us, no matter how frustrated we are at times like today, wouldn’t trade our team and all that it brings, both good and bad, if we could. Now, I guess I’ll go get the darn paper . . . .

Fanposts on ODB are user-submitted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions/views of OurDailyBears.com, SB Nation.com, or any of the writers, editors, or contributors here.

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