In Chip Brown's DMN article, you'll note that not only is UT doing another home-and-home with Arkansas, but threre is talk about making it an annual match-up in Dallas after the 2009 season, which conveniently coincides with the end of Texas' contractual obligation to play OU at the Cotton Bowl.

I'm not a Cotton Bowl apologist, but I hate the idea of taking the TX/OU game back to Austin and Norman.

If the only gripe about the TX/OU game was the the condition of the Cotton Bowl, you'd think they could just move the game to the Dallas Cowboy's new stadium in Arlington though it wouldn't have the backdrop of the State Fair. Then again, Jerry Jones is an Arkansas alum, so maybe he's fueling the fire to get an annual game with the Hogs going.

People have also made the contention that keeping OU out of Dallas would hurt their recruiting ability in the state of Texas. So that may be a motivating factor as well.

This could be just a power play by Texas to get the Cotton Bowl to play ball, but it sounds more and more like Deloss is setting the ground work to end the TX/OU series in Dallas and try and appease the Dallas alums at the same time.

Regardless, I don't remember anyone putting Arkansas on their non-con wish list and given the fact that OU is scheduling some really big non-con games in the next ten years, I think this a lateral move at best.

There is no doubting that Texas and Arkansas have a lot of history and that an Arkansas match-up has more appeal than a lot of other potential non-con games with old SW conference foes, but Horns/Hogs is not a replacement for TX/OU. It just isn't. And though Arkansas' program may rebound from the previous year's lows, the Hogs stand to benefit a lot more than the Horns in an annual match-up deal. Plus, Deloss will be even less motivated to set up big Non-Con games with Arkansas already on the schedule every year.

I think we've just seen the first nail in the coffin and the end of the TX/OU series in Dallas.

My obvious bias against the Razorbacks aside, I think this is a bad move and not one UT fans should be embracing.

In that light, this game makes sense for the transition to a Dallas-less Horns schedule.

As for TX/OU in Dallas, the tradition is good but the Cotton Bowl blows.  Also, tradition sometimes fades and is replaced by something better.  For example, I grew up thinking of the second to last Thursday in November as an even split between Thanksgiving and the A&M game (no wonder Thanksgiving was always such a piss-poor holiday in my house during the 80's).  Now that I'm older, I'm much happier to have a reason to kick back and drink beer on that Friday as well (and an excuse to take an extra day off from work).  I'm sure alternating between Austin and Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Us Land will work out fine.