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August 23, 2009To tell you the truth, I really cannot answer this question, but it strikes me as extremely odd that an Oklahoma team would play the first game that counts for something in the new Cowboys Stadium—extremely odd.
Not just any Oklahoma team either: It's the Oklahoma Sooners, without any doubt the most hated college football team in all of Texas.
Texas doesn't just pride itself on football—football is part of their identity. You hear it all the time: In Texas, football is a religion.
Dallas is the prototypical Texas city, where the Texas stereotypes are actually lived day in and day out. Millionaire oil tycoons and CEOs of corporate giants play golf with ranchers that usually wear 10-gallon hats. The city is burned into the American psyche thanks to the TV show that had the country asking each other, "Who shot JR?" for well over a decade after it ended.
We all understand why the game is in Dallas: money. Jerry Jones will certainly make money off the deal, and no doubt OU and BYU will both have a much bigger take than they would playing as a visiting team to one another's campuses. So financially, the game makes sense, of course.
But why Oklahoma, the biggest rival of the state as far as college football goes? Especially after what happened last season, where the Sooners were picked over both Texas and Tech in a three-way Big 12 South Division tie that eventually sent the Sooners to the National Championship game.
Could Jerry not have gotten a Texas school to open the stadium? There are eight bowl subdivision schools in Texas that I can think of right off the top of my head.
Of course, Texas is the only draw as big as OU, but my guess is that a game with Tech or A&M to start the season would sell out as well, or at least come close.
Dallas does have a lot of OU fans and has been called South or Baja Oklahoma by some of the other major cities in Texas. OU recruits the Dallas area as well if not better than anyone, including the Longhorns, but this is the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, and if you're a fan of Texas football, that is a better reason not to allow them to open the stadium.
If the Cowboys have a few horrible seasons to start out in the new stadium, will we be talking about the Sooner Curse?
Like I said, I do not know, but having the Oklahoma Sooners open up the 1.2-billion-dollar mecca of Texas football sure seems odd to me.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...boys-stadium-an-insult-to-texas-football#poll
