Chip Brown at Orangebloods.com, on the subject of inviting teams to replace aTm in the Big 12-3:

"One Big 12 administrator said there continues to be interest in gauging Arkansas' potential interest in joining the Big 12"

Can we all, PLEASE, itemize below the 10,000 reasons why this is stupid?

I'll start:

Why would Arkansas want to replace a team in a conference who's disadvantages were so great that Texas A&M is willing to give up  their annual TV payout, a multimillion dollar penalty, their most treasured rival and significant booster / legislative support in order to join our conference?

Beat that! Yyou have my toothless permission to cast as many scatological stones at Texas and The Big 12-3 as you like.

Editor's note: We're pleased to share this eyewitness report from HoginAiken, who attended Saturday's glorious game in person. He has many great observations to share...big thanks to him for taking the time to write this up. Enjoy!

Full disclosure:

I’m a Uof A graduate who lives in SC and works for the University. I have taken advantage of my employee perks and have held season tickets for 6 of the past 8 years, mainly sitting with my cousin and extended family members. I miss seeing the Hogs when playing on TV, but I’d prefer a live SEC game to a TV game any day. South Carolina has earned a place in my heart and I root for them in all but one game a year. Every other year, the congenial fans in my section tolerate my Arkansas fandom and kindly call me a "turncoat". But I cheer enthusiastically and fanatically for my Razorbacks. Following the gamecocks has led to a true appreciation for a passionate and beleaguered fan base. Imagine that, by the end of his tenure at Arkansas, Houston (spit) Nutt had earned more Bowl victories for Arkansas than South Carolina had achieved in their ENTIRE history. And yet, up until this year, 80,000+ showed up for every home game.

It was cold – at least for SC.

In Fayetteville you get used to chilly evening games but not in Columbia, SC. I know the fans were unprepared and uncomfortable in the cold. Their fans, in a combination of discomfort and frustration, were streaming out after the dueling interceptions and resulting Arkansas touchdown in the 3rd quarter.

Arkansas Fans

Hog fans were there but in much fewer numbers than other visiting SEC teams. This makes sense. The distance is just too far for most Razorback fans to travel. I made the trip from South Carolina to Fayetteville to witness DMac’s supercrushing of Carolina back in, what was it, 2007? My family members and I who made the trip will never take another road trip together again after driving 14 hours from Fayetteville to SC on the Sunday after. It plain sucked. This is too bad because I think the rivalry would be much improved if the teams could figure out a way to travel to each other’s stadiums in a timely and affordable fashion.

The Hog fans present were wonderful and, outside of one truly jeering and rude fellow, were passionate yet neighborly. Believe me when I say that I have witnessed the behavior of many visiting SEC fanbases to Williams Brice when the visitor blew out the ‘Cocks. The big three of the east (Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida) were horrid but were exceeded only by LSU’s nut-bar crazies in rude and vile taunting behavior. Alabama’s fans, which showed up in great number this year, were either gracious from habit or humbled by defeat. It was the South Carolina fans, by the way, that shook their hands on the way out and wished the ‘Bama fans success - and hoped for a rematch in Atlanta.

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Yes Friends, UGA VII is not unique in his role or death as a mascot.

According to Wickipedia, Yale University's "Handsome Dan XIV" also died of a heart attack way back in 1996. saying " unfortunately, he also showed the undesirable effects of inbreeding so often seen with such a rarefied family tree, possessing a temperament so hyperexcitable that he died in office from a heart attack "

I am loathe to stoop to such tawdry and lowbrow comments like: "Symbol of Georgia? Inbred? ... NEVER!" Nor will I draw any parallels between Marc Richt and the term "hyperexcitable". I'll just sit back and observe that the sort of selective breeding done to those poor animals in order to shorten their faces, broaden their shoulders, and narrow their waist is stupid and cruel. Why doesn't the University of Georgia take a progressive step and select an UGA that has been bred in a healthy and sustainable manner - and provide an example for all of the morons who are out buying inbred bulldog puppies from the puppy mill in order to "root" for their team?

Let the flaming begin! And here's a link to a decent article about what inbreeding has done to this once noble breed of dogs:

Bullishly inhumane by design? On bulldog breeding and welfare

Posted per advice of John Expat

 A late Hog-fan weigh-in on the game:

I haven’t checked around the ‘sphere for individual reactions and comments on the game yet as I spent the weekend hosting house guests who were thankfully college FB fans and were as eager as I was to watch the myriad quality (at least in entertainment value) games this weekend. They were barely taken back by my liberal use of "outdoor voice" and floral language during the game, and for that I compliment them. I was in a house full of Carolina and Bama fans and as the second half of the ARK/FLA game progressed, their polite indifference to my blatant homerism shifted. Much like the crowd of evil Russians who witnessed the legendary Balboa/Drago fight in the 1980’s, they slowly realized that the underdog had more than a puncher’s chance at victory AND that nothing contrasts against the injustice of a predetermined outcome under an authoritarian system better than the simple man battling with all of his guts in support of a universal good.

Slowly, they too were coming out of their chairs, pointing out open receivers, bemoaning blown coverages – imprecise routes and stone-handed incompletions. When the dreaded "bad calls" of the fourth quarter occurred (and no one has mentioned the no-call on the obvious backfield holding on, I believe, the play after the now-infamous personal foul) they, my house guests, were not just metaphorically chanting "Rocky" for the underdog Razorbacks but were ready to, again metaphorically, overthrow the Politburo and burn the Stalinist referees at the steak.

Were the calls the difference maker in what will, in all likelihood, not be a game long discussed by either fan base? I don’t think so. Florida would probably have scored on that drive because the defense had played their hearts out, the tank was dry and, as was pointed out by others, the offense had just left too many opportunities behind that would have seriously changed the complexion of the game. But, just as Rocky 4 moviegoers in the 80’s walked out of that movie convinced of Balboa’s moral superiority and of the overall righteousness of the "American Way", football fans across the nation came away from the Florida/Arkansas game with a new perspective on the assumed and anointed "Nation Champion Florida Gators". No longer do they posses the moral authority of a team led by a Christ-like figure. No longer is their talent level assumed to be beyond reproach. No longer are the Gators viewed through the Rose Bowl-colored glasses of football pundits, analysts, color-commentators, and network lackeys. No friends, they are now the Enemy. (And believe me the #1 BCS ranking has done nothing to help their revised image as the overinflated darlings of the establishment!)

The nation will embrace Mark Ingram and his weeble-wobble-like inability to be tackled. They will cheer Iowa and other plucky non-conference BCS-busters. Hell, they might even start to like Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan and other traditional villains. But what they will no longer do is support Florida. Their image is tarnished. I even heard some positive comments on the coaching prowess and surprising commitment shown by Coach Petrino to the U of Arkansas.

Beware Florida. Someone’s gonna make a speech soon to "tear down your wall" of presumed infallibility – Heck, they may even put it on a plaque! – and the world may cheer as the evil empire falls.