While it's true that Florida State, Miami, Colorado, and Missouri (Missouri a traditional power???) are currently struggling, all followers of college football realize that every school either is or has struggled. In the 70s it was fairly inconcievable to most of us that Nebraska or Alabama would ever slip, but slip they did; Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma...they've all known their valleys and they've always managed to claw their way once again to the top of the hill. But it is questionable whether or not OSU will be able to do more than buy a few good seasons, a la Kansas State. The Wildcats, an interesting story under Bill Snyder, have still to prove that his experiment will be a lasting story of success. Did Snyder instill enough of a winning tradition to offset the century of dismal achievement in Manhattan? Doubtful. And T. Boone and company will discover that their funds cannot buy a successful tradition; their cash would have been better spent for cancer research.

It's interesting. They've undoubtedly got some talent on campus. Question is, will they be able to harvest it and make it productive like they haven't been able to do since Pat Jones was aboard.

Kel: That was a nice spiral!

Picker,
Since you went to the OSU spring game, can you tell us how much Holder charged for those tickets. I guess being the spring game, they were only $100 or so.
The real question at OSU is are there 65,000 millionaires who can fill that Taj Mahal on Saturdays.

I've been an 'observer' of Oklahoma sports for the better part of half a century and I was delighted to learn that OSU is indeed 'building something' ... I just hope they know how to use the proper tools. And who among those of us who've lived in the Sooner state haven't heard the old song-and-dance about OSU having the 4th winningest program in terms of national championships? Anyone else out there smirking besides me? This is only relevant if you happen to follow golf, badminton, swimming, skeet-shooting, baseball, or quoits. Bottom line? Success in these other areas hasn't been much of a help to OSU between the hashmarks 'lo this past century or so. And while there is no question that the deep-pocketed Mr. Pickens is pouring Weimar Germany-scaled funds into the OSU athletic program (like water into the sand)...the question is, what will the returns be like? The suspicion is that the Cowboys long, painful history of football underachievement is not a problem that can be solved with money alone...or talent (remember Jimmy Johnson and Pat Jones?)...or with talent...(yes, there've been a few talented players in Stillwater through the ages). But the bottom line remains that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear (to coin a phrase). Mr. Observer has stated that he wants to be around to witness the football team's success; my response to that is to say that I hope he is a very young and very patient person.