COLLEGE FOOTBALL ’90 : Pain Deep in Heart of Texas : College football: The loss of Arkansas to the Southeastern Conference has Texas and Texas A&M; looking elsewhere and leaves the Southwest Conference a very worried one-state league.

For many Texans, Southwest Conference football isn’t merely another slice of cable television life. It is part of their heritage.

It is an echo of the past, a reminder of a time before professional sports had arrived and the attention and passion of a region were focused on the likes of Davey O’Brien and Sammy Baugh, Doak Walker and Bobby Layne.

It is, as SWC Commissioner Fred Jacoby points out, “76 years of history and tradition,” and it could be history in the not-too-distant future.

The current movement toward forming “super-conferences” geared toward TV markets has already pinched the SWC once and threatens to do so again.

The announcement Aug. 1 that the University of Arkansas, a charter member of the SWC, would move to the Southeastern Conference after the 1990-91 academic year has left the SWC with eight members, all in Texas, and heightened speculation that the University of Texas and Texas A&M;, the conference’s two largest schools, also will pull out.

A&M; and Texas, moving together, would be a valuable piece of any super-conference puzzle. With their huge bases of alumni support, the two schools can effectively deliver the top-10 TV markets of Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth to whichever conference they align with.

They can also, by moving, bring about the demise of the SWC.

“Anything could happen, but you’ve got to have the state schools,” said Baylor Coach Grant Teaff, who has been outspoken in efforts to keep the SWC intact. “Arkansas can be replaced, but Texas and A&M; cannot be replaced. I don’t know everything. But from a practical standpoint, they are the obvious key.”

That the SWC could go the way of the corner savings and loan is a hard notion for many Texans to accept.

Said Greg Vaughn, 28, a Texas Tech graduate who is manager of public affairs for the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce: “I’ve grown up in this state. I’ve grown up with the Southwest Conference. It just seems wild.”

Even so, it is a possibility that has reverberated throughout the state in recent weeks.

Texas and Texas A&M; officials reportedly have had informal discussions with representatives of the SEC and the Pacific 10, which was briefly considering expansion but has decided against it, at least for the time being.

The Dallas Times Herald, quoting unidentified sources, has reported that an offer is on the table for both A&M; and Texas to join the SEC.

The presidents of both schools announced late last week that Texas and Texas A&M; would remain in the SWC and were “committed to doing everything possible to strengthen the conference and make it successful.”

But the joint statement by William Cunningham of Texas and William Mobley of Texas A&M; left open the possibility of expansion of the SWC or alliance with other non-SWC schools or the schools’ departure.

So, the SWC remains, for the time being at least, in limbo, and there are those who think the statement by Cunningham and Mobley was merely a ploy to buy time.

State Sen. Bob Glasgow, whose State Affairs Committee is scheduled to investigate the SWC beginning Sept. 8, said, “The problem is, I think what they’re saying to you is, ‘We’re not leaving now. ‘ But I know they’re still having meetings.”

In July, SWC presidents authorized a Texas-based consulting firm to prepare a report on the future of the conference. That report is expected to be ready by Sept. 7, when the presidents are scheduled to meet again.

One member of the A&M; Board of Regents, Ross Margraves Jr. of Houston, has told the Times Herald that he favors a move to the SEC, and that he would be “extremely disappointed” if the board did not make a decision on the matter soon after its next scheduled meeting in September.

Speaking of the report that is being prepared for the SWC presidents, Margraves has said: “Do you really think there is anything in that report that could keep Texas and Texas A&M; in the Southwest Conference? I’d be greatly surprised if there was anything substantial in that report.”

Margraves and his colleagues apparently have already had their fill of data that show the SWC lagging behind other conferences in football attendance and national TV appearances, important factors in the money game.

SWC schools were paid an average of $700,000 last year from bowl, NCAA tournament and TV revenue. Those sources of revenue gave SEC schools an average of $1.6 million and Pac-10 schools an average of $1.25 million.

“I’ll be very frank with you,” said A&M; regent Billy Clayton, a former speaker of the Texas House who is now a political consultant in Austin. “Arkansas, A&M; and the University of Texas have supported the Southwest Conference financially to a greater extent than any of the other schools. So with Arkansas going out, there’s much more of a burden on A&M; and the University of Texas.

“Can we maintain a viable conference by passing more money on to the other schools, the share they would have gotten from Arkansas being in (the conference), and maintain the type of program we (A&M; and Texas) want? I think we’ve got to talk about the bottom line.”

The SWC’s predicament can be traced somewhat to the turmoil that surrounded the conference in the ‘80s, when six of the nine schools were put on probation by the NCAA for rules violations in their football programs. NCAA sanctions limited SWC bowl and TV exposure and ultimately heightened an exodus of Texas high school talent to schools in other conferences.

But the conference is primarily a victim of its own quirkiness.

Eight of the nine SWC schools are in one state, crowding a marketplace that, in the last 30 years, has taken on seven NFL, NBA and major league baseball franchises.

Four schools--Baylor, Rice, SMU and TCU--are private institutions with enrollments of 10,000 or fewer and alumni networks that are considerably smaller than those at A&M; and Texas. And one of the conference’s large public universities, the University of Houston, is oriented toward urban commuters and has never generated much local support, even when it has had outstanding teams.

In explaining his school’s decision to shift to the SEC, Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles spoke of a general malaise in the SWC.

“We began noticing it about seven or eight years ago,” he said. “It wasn’t just the recruiting scandals. Attendance was withering away, to the point that we now have 50% empty seats conference-wide. When they played here, Rice would bring 400 people, (Texas) Tech maybe 1,000. Tennessee sometimes takes 15,000 on the road, and the SEC average is 10,000. There is an emotion there that is lacking in the SWC.”

“I still love the excitement of playing a conference foe,” said Wales Madden Jr., an Amarillo lawyer and former member of both Texas’ Board of Regents and athletics council. “But, at the same time, I know that the enthusiasm is not what it used to be.

“It’s kind of like Texas Tech playing West Texas State. Only Tech can lose in that deal. Unless they beat West Texas, they’ve got a lot of problems. You’re supposed to beat TCU and Baylor and Rice. You don’t always do it, but they focus on Texas as their primary opponent, their primary game of the year. That gets a little old.”

Madden has said that he expects Texas to join another conference by the end of the year.

Such talk can only leave Teaff, whose team beat Texas in Austin last season, 50-7, and other SWC loyalists shaking their heads.

After all, Texas supporters might get a little more excited if the Longhorns, who have gone 5-6 and 4-7 the last two seasons, started winning again.

And perhaps the Aggies might be somewhat less worried about their cash flow if they hadn’t had to pay $684,000 to buy out Jackie Sherrill’s contract when he resigned as coach and athletic director in 1988 amid allegations that he had sent “hush money” to a former player who had threatened to reveal possible NCAA infractions. But, times being what they are, those who would be left out in the cold without A&M; and Texas in the SWC are gritting their teeth andtrying to find ways to accommodate the two schools.

“Arkansas just left, boom!” said Teaff, who after 18 years at Baylor is the dean of SWC coaches. “They never asked for anything or said, ‘Hey, here’s the way we could go to keep this conference together.’ What I want is the University of Texas and Texas A&M; to tell us what they need.”

The Cunningham-Mobley statement last week might have done that. Among other things needed, the presidents said, were the addition of non-conference football games and possible conference expansion or alliances with non-SWC institutions “which substantially enhance televised coverage of football games.”

Even before their statement, there was talk of reducing the SWC round-robin schedule by one or two games a year to allow schools to play additional high-profile opponents; and of forming some sort of alliance with the Big Eight.

Jacoby said last week that the presidents’ suggestions were “very do-able.”

“We’re addressing those already and some of the improvements, we’re working on,” he said.

Teaff, for one, believes the SWC can solve its problems.

“You don’t have to go all over the world and have these (new conference) alignments to attract TV, attract extra money and get the recognition for your school,” Teaff said.

“The problem with most of these people . . . Well, look at Broyles. He went 19 years (as Arkansas’ coach), and he never left the state of Arkansas to play anybody. You just look at the record he built up. He didn’t do it by going out and playing nationally recognized schools and programs.”

Four SWC teams finished the 1989 season ranked in the top 25. Houston quarterback Andre Ware won the Heisman Trophy. Perhaps best of all, certified letters from the NCAA went elsewhere for a change.

“Of course, people will still put the label on us, ‘the scandal-ridden Southwest Conference,’ ” Jacoby said recently. “But the fact is, as we sit here, our programs are in much better shape than those in the Big Ten or the ACC or the Southeastern Conference.

“In the Big Ten, you’ve got Illinois ready to lose a program (basketball, which might receive the NCAA’s ‘death penalty’). Go down to the SEC and you’ve got Florida. They probably should lose a program, but they probably won’t because the NCAA saw the devastating effect that had on SMU. You’ve got Kentucky (basketball) over there. Then go to the ACC. You’ve got Maryland, North Carolina State, Clemson (on probation). . . .

“Put everything together, and (the 1989-90 academic year) was the best year we’ve had. To me, we were on the rise, especially with all our sanctions just about over. Then we’re hit with this blitzkrieg, this expansion hysteria.

“I just feel there are going to be some decisions made that are going to be wrong because they will be made in such haste. And here’s the NCAA looking at cost reduction and academic integrity. You start raiding schools from other conferences, how much integrity is involved in that? We may be forced to extend an invitation to a school in another conference. I don’t want to do it, but, as a means of survival, we might have to.”

The speaker of the Texas House, Gib Lewis of Fort Worth, has said he opposes a move to another conference by A&M; and Texas and has vowed “to do everything in my power to prevent it from happening.”

Lewis, who attended TCU, and other state lawmakers have asked House and Senate committees to study the issue.

Lewis had said he would form a special House study group on the SWC, but now says, “I don’t see any reason” for the group to meet.

Two lawmakers, one a former Texas Tech football player, have drawn up a bill that calls for a public institution that leaves the SWC for a new conference without the approval of the SWC’s other members to give the state half of all broadcast revenue received by the school.

Said one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Rob Junell of San Angelo, a linebacker at Texas Tech in the late ‘60s: “As someone said to me, ‘Don’t you have better things to do?’ Of course I do. My personal feeling is there should be some restructuring in the conference (to accommodate A&M; and Texas), and this bill might provide some leverage.”

But Clayton and others believe the legislature can’t dictate which way A&M; and Texas go because the schools’ athletic programs are self-supporting and don’t receive state funds.

And, as Madden noted: “Texas A&M; and the University of Texas, they are not without influence in the legislature.”

So are 76 years of history and tradition fading fast?

“It’s never too late until the deal is done,” Madden said.

“But I’d say that, realistically, enough people are talking about a new schedule, a new conference, new opponents, and that’s going to be hard to overcome.”