Are We Too Isolated in Texas?

On Monday night the Kansas Jayhawks played the Baylor Bears in men's basketball in Waco.  Although the Bears had a solid record and a talented team, the game was not even close.  Kansas rolled to a twenty point win after taking a 21 point advantage at the half.  A new Baylor record home crowd of over 10,500 was on hand at the Ferrell Center for the mis match.

Kansas has a very good team to be sure.  But most of us who have covered college basketball in Texas thought Baylor was among the top 25 teams in the country.  We also have high regard for Texas and Texas A&M.  After Monday night I am not so sure we don't do too much "in state" thinking and have a hard time with the big picture.

Nebraska is leaving the Big 12 in part because they felt the inclusion of the Texas schools shifted the power balance.  Politically that may have been true since the HQ moved from Kansas City to Dallas and four of the twelve schools are based in Texas.   But it may be overstating the case when one considers the athletic balance.  Sure, Texas and Texas A&M will always be challengers in the major sports.  Baylor is #1 in the nation in women's basketball and (until Monday night) one of the stronger teams in the men's game as well.
But let us Texas residents not forget who plays very well outside the borders of this big state.

Kansas is good enough to contend for a national title again. They have already won three times. Kansas State is rock solid, too.  Oklahoma State has also won two national basketball titles.  Nebraska with seven  and Oklahoma with five  have won national football championships.

In fact in the two major college sports--football and basketball--there are more national honors for the non-Texan schools than for the four inside the borders. Texas has four national championships in football and Texas A&M one.  Texas El Paso of Conference USA (then Texas Western) is still the only men's basketball team in Texas to have a NCAA championship banner.

This is not to denigrate all that the schools in Texas try to do or have done in the past.  It is simply to point out that perhaps our emphasis on what goes on inside the borders needs to be broadened.  These other schools and teams in other states are pretty good.  Beating a Texas based school is not always an upset.
College sports is a nation-wide passion.  There are lots of very good and often even better teams that don't play with Austin as their capital.  Kansas certainly showed Baylor that with emphasis on Monday.