A Source of Frustration

There is a constant source of frustration for Matt and I, and hopefully for Aggie fans everywhere. To us, and maybe it is merely because we are on the Aggie side, it seems that Texas A & M has to work that much harder than many other teams in order to garner respect. This is by no means a post devoted to the idea that A & M is superior to all other teams, but it is a post devoted to the idea that Aggies do not get as much respect or credit as I feel we deserve.

To prove my point, watch any nationally covered A & M vs. Whomever sporting event. More often than not, when you listed to the commentators, there is less talk about how wonderful the Aggies are doing and more talk about how terrible the other team is doing. For Matt and I, it feels like there is an automatic assumption that in order for our team to be doing well, other teams have to be performing poorly. This is probably consistent across the board, but Matt and I mainly notice it during football and men's basketball. Listen for it yourself, tell us if we are crazy.

Additionally, there is an automatic stigma in society that Texas A & M is terrible at sports. Looking at sports in general we are consistently competitive in all sports (excluding football more recently, to be discussed later) and have numerous Big XII championships to boast as well as some National Championships. I fully recognize that this is Texas and football is king, but we have to give the other athletes that work hard on our campus some credit. As far as football is concerned, it seems we have fallen on some hard times. Our team's performance is erratic at best, but things seem to be looking up. While this season was barely a winning season, we were more than competitive in the BIG game vs t.u.. Many people were saying "Beat that Texas A & M", when they probably should have been saying "We better step up our game next year". The number 3 ranked team in the nation was almost toppled by a completely unranked team composed almost entirely of freshman. We have some work to do Ags, but we might be singing a different tune in the next few years.

Speaking of singing tunes, regardless of our standing in the eyes of others, the most comforting aspect of being an Aggie is the fact that we will always stand together to sing our fight song and to watch the best band in the nation...

Regardless of how our team does, whenever possible, you can find us in the stands and if we are not there in person, we are part of the Spirit of the 12th Man. Whoop!