Transcript Staff Writer
University of Oklahoma President David Boren said the OU-Texas football series has a greater chance than ever of becoming a home-and-home series.
Boren said the city of Dallas' unwillingness to improve the Cotton Bowl, coupled with recent football stadium renovations at both universities, are turning the tide toward the Longhorns coming soon to Norman.
The game will remain at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, on the State Fair of Texas grounds, at least until 2008.
"I wouldn't say yet that it's likely," Boren said of a home-and-home switch, "but I would say it's looming as a much greater possibility than people would have thought a few years ago. My mind is open on it, very open on it. We've given Dallas every opportunity, and I think Dallas has really missed the boat."
If the series does move, Boren can envision a home-home-and-neutral site rotation or simply a straight home-and-home. The games should continue to draw many thousands of fans from both schools, he said, which means bringing 20,000 or more fans of the visiting team to the host school.
Bringing that many Longhorn fans to Owen Field shouldn't be a problem, Boren reasons, because the Texas game never has been part of the season ticket package. And bumping up the visitors' ticket total would keep some flavor from the Cotton Bowl's 50-50 split and "make it a meaningful series."
The president also sees a burnt orange invasion as an important chance of showing off the campus.
"I'll put it this way: I would put OU, our stadium and our campus up against the University of Texas any day," Boren said. "Their campus is quite urban; it's not as beautiful as ours. I think that having a whole lot of Texans come up here, I welcome the comparison. In other words, I think it'll help us recruit students."
Boren wants former students, along with possible future Sooners, to use the OU-Texas game as an opportunity to visit the campus. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has at least 25,000 OU alumni, Boren said, and some of them only attend OU games when they're conveniently in Dallas.
Administrators from OU and Texas signed a five-year extension with the city of Dallas in March 2004 to keep contest at the Cotton Bowl, provided the city waived the $94,000 rental fee and added seats to the stadium. Both officials and fans from both schools continue to grumble about the aging stadium's fading condition.
The game reportedly adds up to $20 million to the Dallas-area economy, money supporters of a home-and-home series say could be coming instead to Norman every other year. Now more than ever, voices like that of longtime home-and-home proponent E.Z. Million are being heard.
"In the past, people just said that would never happen," Boren said of leaving the Cotton Bowl. "But clearly, the city of Dallas has fumbled the ball.
"They've missed the opportunity to really upgrade the Cotton Bowl, they've missed the opportunity to build a new stadium and adding it to fair park instead of letting it go to Arlington, and also, both OU and Texas have greatly, in the last few years, expanded their stadiums."
James S. Tyree 366-3539 jtyree@normantranscript.com
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