No Championship For the Texas Longhorns

The designation for a 2008 Big 12 championship, with an asterisk, is being taken down from the wall in Texas’ football meeting room. Initially reported Sunday after the Longhorns’ spring game, school officials said coach Mack Brown has ordered its removal.

But Brown’s assistant coaches will keep a combined $44,000 in bonus pay from the 2008 season, triggered by clauses in their contracts that called for the bonuses to be paid if the Longhorns won a Big 12 football championship.

In Tuesday’s editions of the Austin American-Statesman, school president William Powers, Jr. said it was “the right decision” to approve the bonus money for assistant coaches and support staff members — ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 per person — because the 12-1 team was denied the opportunity to play for a Big 12 title under league tiebreaking procedures rather than a lack of on-field success. Brown did not receive a bonus under the Big 12 championship clause in his contract.

Texas shared the South Division title with Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Under league tiebreakers, OU advanced and defeated Missouri, the North Division representative, to claim the 2008 title.

by http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/1304162.html

Texas Longhorns claim the Big 12 Football Championship

Trying to defuse a controversy over claiming a Big 12 championship they didn’t win, the Texas Longhorns removed “2008*” from a wall listing their Big 12 titles, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.

Texas spokesman John Bianco told the Statesman that Longhorns coach Mack Brown was unaware 2008 with an asterisk had been posted on a wall inside the Moncrief-Neuhaus training facility.

"Obviously there was a lot of discussion about the two teams playing for the Big 12 title being two teams we'd beaten," Bianco said Monday. "The kidding around became a misunderstanding as an instruction to post it on the wall (of the meeting room). It was clearly not the intent of Mack to post it."

Following Monday’s spring practice, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was asked what he thought about Texas claiming the 2008 Big 12 championship on its wall with an asterisk.

“It doesn’t much matter to me at all, I don’t much care,” Stoops said. “I know there isn’t (an asterisk) on ours. And I know where the trophy is. I’m not worried about anyone else and what they’ve got.”

Last season, OU edged out Texas and Texas Tech for the South title in a tiebreaker determined by the BCS Standings, despite ardent protests from Brown and the Texas fan base.

The Longhorns claimed that because they defeated OU head-to-head, they deserved to go to the Big 12 title game — despite the fact they also lost to Texas Tech, which created the three-way tie among the one-loss Big 12 teams.

On the last week of the regular season, Texas fans even paid for a flyover in Stillwater before the Bedlam game to remind voters of Texas’ 45-35 win over OU in the Cotton Bowl.

Nevertheless, the Sooners ended up ranked higher than Texas and Texas Tech in the BCS and went on to beat Missouri in Kansas City, Mo., to win their third-consecutive Big 12 championship.

That victory, however, is still not being acknowledged by some in Austin, apparently.

Said one school official to the Statesman when asked about the asterisk, “We beat both (OU and North Division winner Missouri). I thought that (championship game in Kansas City) was for the runner-up spot.”

Moreover, even though OU officially won the Big 12, Texas president William Powers Jr. announced Monday his university would pay out $44,000 total to its assistant coaches in bonuses that are called for when the Longhorns win the Big 12 championship.

The team's two coordinators, strength coach and director of football operations will each receive $5,000. The others will each get a payment $3,000.

"I think this was the right decision," Powers told the Statesman. "A flip of a coin basically deprived them of the ability to earn that part of their compensation."

Brown, however, did not receive a South title or Big 12 championship bonus, which together would’ve totaled $150,000.

Red River football: Texas claims Big 12 championship with an *
By Jake Trotter
Published: April 5, 2009