Cuss the College Football Playoff committee members all you want, and Notre Dame will, but you can\u2019t say they don\u2019t have a sense of humor. Not only did they suddenly remember that Miami beat the Fighting Irish, they arranged a first-round game at Kyle Field with the only other team that did the same this year. The \u201cIrish Eyes Are Crying\u201d Bowl? Maybe not. But if seventh-ranked Texas A&M loses Saturday on top of its loss to Texas, the Aggies will be crying plenty.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what makes their first-round CFP game against 10th-ranked Miami so important, or else a loss renders an 11-win season moot. Look, don\u2019t get me wrong, winning 10-plus games is still a really big deal, even accounting for inflation. Only one other time this century has A&M won as many as 10, and that was at the height of Johnny Football. Mike Elko has already delivered three wins over his inaugural season. The Aggies appear on the cusp of their greatest era since R.C. Slocum\u2019s prime. Sure, Texas won in Austin, but the Aggies have a home game this weekend, and the Longhorns are spending the holidays with Mickey. You can\u2019t spell \u201cCitrus\u201d without UT, right? Maroon is the new black, no?<\/p>\n
Try selling it to the faithful, whose angst is getting on Elko\u2019s nerves. Battered Aggie Syndrome isn\u2019t just a character on SEC Shorts, the epic YouTube comedy team. BAS is real. Might be insensitive, but it\u2019s been a recognized condition around Aggieland for years. You could find \u201cBAS\u201d all over TexAgs message boards last spring, when the condition was at an all-time high after a football season in which Texas made the CFP semis in its SEC debut while the Aggies went 8-5. A headline in The Battalion, the campus newspaper, asked in March, \u201cWebMD, what is Battered Aggie Syndrome?\u201d Several volunteers offered their descriptions. \u201cAggie sports are a living example of why you should never, ever get your hopes up,\u201d an A&M student told The Battalion. \u201cYou know you\u2019re going to be let down. BAS truly is inevitable. It always wins.\u201d Yikes.<\/p>\n
Elko has seen and heard it all, and he\u2019s had it up to his hoodie. Even referenced BAS directly at one point this fall. Came up at an alumni event in Houston after the Aggies\u2019 win in South Bend. A woman described BAS in a question to Elko and wanted to know, notwithstanding the achievement against the Irish, how they could believe, as ESPN paraphrased it, \u201cthe bottom\u2019s not going to drop out any day again.\u201d \u201cGreat question,\u201d Elko replied. \u201cThat\u2019s a tremendous buildup for me to touch on… Let\u2019s start with this: I\u2019m sorry, but I have nothing to do with the majority of it, so I want to make sure that that\u2019s made loud and clear to everybody in the audience.\u201d Elko isn\u2019t nearly as magnanimous with reporters. He\u2019s bristled at questions about the Aggies\u2019 past all season, no doubt because he\u2019s tired of hearing references everywhere else.<\/p>\n
A pressbox culture primer: The reason we ask is because that\u2019s what we do. We put stuff in perspective. Programs and athletic departments know this, which is why releases regularly cite achievements as \u201cthe first time since… \u201d Quantifies just how good or bad or historic something is. Nothing sinister in any of it. Unless, of course, your history is against you. As you may know, A&M hasn\u2019t won a national title in football since 1939 or worn so much as a conference crown since 1998. For Texas Tech or TCU or Baylor or Houston, it wouldn\u2019t be an indictment. But, for a school with A&M\u2019s resources, including annual football revenue regularly among the nation\u2019s top three, it gives credence to descriptions like \u201cunderachievers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem isn\u2019t so much that the Aggies haven\u2019t won it all since World War II. Only one team wins a year. Handicaps the field, you might say. You also need luck to win a national title. Problem is, A&M has so rarely even put itself in a position where a little luck could matter. A dumpster full of rabbit feet and horseshoes and four-leaf clovers couldn\u2019t bail you out if you\u2019re losing four games a year. Funny thing is, it seems to me that if anyone is going to buck the Aggies\u2019 history, it\u2019s Elko. He\u2019s smart, tough, a coach\u2019s coach. He\u2019s winning at a rate (76%) exceeded over the last hundred years at A&M only by the likes of D.X. Bible. Now there\u2019s some good history.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another kind: He\u2019s put together winning streaks of seven and 11 games in his first two years, and it\u2019s only fed the condition. Instead of each successive win ratcheting up hope, the feeling seems to be it\u2019ll only make the fall more painful. Frankly, I could see Saturday\u2019s game going either way. The Aggies have some first-rate talent, but so do the Hurricanes. Two good defenses. Carson Beck will throw a back-breaking interception, but so will Marcel Reed. Both have 10 picks. For my money, the difference will be the 100,000 plus who make the pressbox shake, rattle and roll. That\u2019s the thing about the Aggies. They may expect the worst, but they show up. Maybe they\u2019ll even keep their eyes open.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the upcoming game between Texas A&M and Miami is crucial for the Aggies, and a loss could render their 11-win season moot. The team’s history of underachieving and the existence of Battered Aggie Syndrome have created a sense of angst among the faithful. However, with Elko at the helm, there is a glimmer of hope that the team can buck its history and achieve greatness.<\/p>\n
Q: What is Battered Aggie Syndrome?
\nA: Battered Aggie Syndrome (BAS) is a condition that refers to the feeling of inevitable disappointment and letdown that Aggie fans experience due to the team’s history of underachieving.
\nQ: Who is Mike Elko, and what is his significance to the team?
\nA: Mike Elko is the coach of the Texas A&M football team, and he has already delivered three wins over his inaugural season. He is seen as a potential game-changer for the team, and his winning rate is exceeded only by the likes of D.X. Bible.
\nQ: What is the significance of the upcoming game against Miami?
\nA: The game is crucial for the Aggies, as a loss could render their 11-win season moot. The team’s history and the existence of BAS have created a sense of angst among the faithful, and a win could be a significant step towards overcoming these challenges.
\nQ: What is the pressbox culture primer, and what does it have to do with the team’s history?
\nA: The pressbox culture primer refers to the practice of putting things in perspective by citing achievements as \u201cthe first time since…\u201d. This practice is relevant to the team’s history because it highlights the fact that A&M hasn’t won a national title in football since 1939 or worn a conference crown since 1998.
\nQ: How can the Aggies overcome their history and achieve greatness?
\nA: With Elko at the helm, there is a glimmer of hope that the team can buck its history and achieve greatness. The team’s winning streaks and Elko’s coaching abilities are positive signs, and the support of the fans can also make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the College Football Playoff Cuss the College Football Playoff committee members all you want, and Notre Dame will, but you can\u2019t say they don\u2019t have a sense of humor. Not only did they suddenly remember that Miami beat the Fighting Irish, they arranged a first-round game at Kyle Field with the only other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/SLDSFXBSCVHR3J7ND4S7O6OUXY.jpg?auth=bb4ff4c459bb80635bb117b11f62e025b9db64042f45d3098e25cd9a80f814a0&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&focal=3334,2028","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19295,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19292\/revisions\/19295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}