Just how big of favorites are we in the track events? Does it basically just come down to needing one of softball or baseball?

I'm no track expert, but that is never something you can predict. First t.u. has a lot of talent and will compete well anyway. Second, you have the X factor of all the other teams. Say Ags are a favorite to place two in a certain event, and none for 'sips. Now, there are 10 other teams that have a chance to strike gold and have great performances, knocking your two out or dropping them to lower place finishes.

Likewise, you can do things like drop a baton, stumble on a hurdle, scratch on a jump. a lot of variables. So many individuals in so many events, always have the chance many can have an off day.

We are clear favorites in women's track and it would take a monumental choke job for us not to win. The men should win but it is not a guarantee. If we have a bad meet we should be no worse than second and there should be no way that Texas beats us regardless of whether our men win the conference title.

Men's golf officially gets the point!

My guess at the odds of each is Women's Track (95% chance), Men's track (75% likely), Baseball (50%), and Softball (35%).

That puts our odds right now slightly north of 50/50. If we win softball they jump to 86% and if we lose softball they drop down to 36%.

This was taken from a longhorn's message board, but I tend to agree with it.

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I just think it's ridiculous that football, basketball, and baseball count for a total of 3 points, yet track is worth 4. Stupid. Give men's and women's indoor and outdoor half a point each.

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Although now that I think about it - football, baseball/softball, m&w basketball = 5, not 3.

I've heard/seen so many t-sips complaining about how the big 3 mens sports should be worth more. It drives me crazy, what I love about this trophy is it gives each sport a chance to help you and doesn't just emphasis the big 3 like almost everything else in NCAA athletics. Just b/c there are two different seasons in track doesn't mean they should be worth less. If anything the t-sips should be lucky they even got one point for men's indoor track considering we beat them in a head-to-head meet and the rules say we should get the point for that.

1 They weren't arguing for giving extra points to football during the '06-'07 and '07-'08 seasons when we won those games.

2. Men's basketball has been a push for the last 5 years. No advantage to extra points there.

3. They won men's indoor track, so they want to reduce the number of points for that?

4. With the use of a well placed * they can win the darn LSS in their own minds anytime they want, so why sweat the rules for determining a winner?

technically, track is worth 6 points because you have mens and womens X-Country as well.

Also, there is no way that you can score the A&M-tu dual meet as the indoor track point. Most teams are not competing with their full strengh squad at these meets and almost all of the kids are training through them. These are not races anyone is training to win. The teams are prepping their runners/throwers to peak for Confence and Nationals.

Big XII is where the point should be earned.

Well with the announcement of indoor and outdoor dual meets for both the men and women against the sips I am a big fan of seeing them both for the lss point......Will help track to build publicity really build the excitement for the meets, put something extra on the line

I feel that saying track is worth 6 points because of cross-country is way inaccurate. As somebody who ran both cross-country and track they are completely different when it comes to competition and mindset. Track meets include so many more events that require different skills and technique that unless you are the #1 or #2 cross-country program in the nation you will most likely not have more than one person who can score points in a large meet and even then it is only in the 5k or 10k. Therefore, the team makeup is entirely different between track and cross-country. They also don't seem to relate too much when it comes to scoring points as A&M men won the cross-country point but lost the indoor and A&M women lost the cross-country point but won the indoor so saying domination in one leads to domination in all of them clearly is false.

I definitely can agree with the argument that dual meets should not count because of preparing for conference/national meets and whatnot; but, if that's how the lss wants to do it then they need to change the rule that states "The winner of regular season head-to-head Game earns the point for its University...If the Universities do not compete in head-to-head regular season competition, the University that places higher at the Big 12 Conference Championship will earn the point" because as it stands right now we should have gotten that point because it was a regular season head-to-head competition.

They are the same athletes using the same scholarships.

Guys who run XC should be potential scorers in the

5000M
10000M
3000M Steeple
1500M
800M

Of course track and XC are different sports, and you have to account for the sprint and throws crews in the points, but for the distance events it is the same coaches, athletes, and scholarships.

People in the 10k/5k almost never are top in the 1600, 1500, 800 or whatever. Those are dominated by middle distance sprinters. The longer ones by the better endurance runners.

The years I ran at A&M, guys from the XC team scored in the Conference championship in all of those event listed. Of course they were different guys in each event, but they all also ran XC.

Aggies win 6-1 in Austin to take the much needed softball 0.5

Ags should should retain the trophy this year. The Ags should take men's and women's track with baseball being a toss up. Winning baseball gives us the outright win while losing baseball would lead to a tie and the amazing tiebreaker of who won it last year.

WOW! Major props to the women for that stunning and outstanding performance. Also, once again, to men's tennis. Those pts were critical.

Talk about a late surge, we have now...

upset (sorta) t.u. in men's tennis

waxed them in women's golf
waxed them in men's golf

upset/waxed them in softball on their home field.

not a bad way to finish the year- let's close them out with baseball and track.

Nice job by the ladies in Austin last night!

http://forums.hornfans.com/php/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=othersports&Number=5941650&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=
horns fans are recognizing our superiority...

It should be a done deal. I can't imagine either track team melting down and losing to Texas. If that is the case then we retain the trophy.

Baseball needs to take this thing. I want the outright win!!!!

Does anyone else notice that other sports boards don't refer to us with an article, and in the singular? Obviously, they have their cute little "****" joke, but everyone refers to us as "****" rather than "the ****s".

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 5/3/2009 12:10p).]

I do think that too much weight is on track. Perhaps indoors and outdoors should count 1/2 each as you do in basketball, volleyball, etc. Cross country is its own sport and deserves its own point.

If you start doing that, you open up a can of worms for manipulation of the LSS. The point was to measure the entire athletic department in each sport where a national title is awarded. Since indoor and outdoor have separate national titles, they should each have their own point.

No argument there. My feeling is that the big 3 sports are wrongly under emphasized. While you can say each sport deserves the same amount of points that is not the way most feel about it. I know very few who would not take a football win over Texas versus wins in men's golf and women's tennis or whatever combination of non-revenue sports. Track is the sport that is over-represented in this format. I know there will be no change in this and can't say that I care all that much but I also won't pretend that all wins are equal in this. Quite honestly I would take a win in football and a loss in the Lone Star showdown every year, especially if we kept it close.

I think it's stupid to say this sport or that sport should be weighted more. The cup point system is very straightforward, very objective. It measures all scholarship sports with a national championship where both schools compete.

Which sports are more important and which should be weighted how is something you can discuss on your own dime- something like that really doesnt make sense. the LSS was just to measure the two schools in all sports; the boasting for particular sports can take place just as it always has- that's outside the scope of the LSS.

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I whole heartedly agree. Any one person's opinion on what sports they perfer should have no bearing on how these athletic departments are graded.


Although even as an olympic sports guy, I would probably take a football and basketball win each year as long as the other sports were respectable.

I agree, this competition is about how he stack up across the entire athletic department.

I think football is more imporant to both schools (financially, # fans, average level of passion per fan, etc), but that is outside the scope of the LSS.

I am a fan of the LSS, pretty much exactly as it is. That doesn't mean I like golf more than basketball. It just means I like the LSS the way it is, as one aspect of the athletic departments goals.

Glad we look like we will win or retain for the 2nd time in 5 competitions, when many (maybe most) thought we'd never win this.

but, but didn't Texas Monthly proclaim DeLoss Dodds to run the best program in the COUNTRY?!

Good job to the Aggie staff & athletes.

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Let's not kid ourselves, Texas sports are becoming an abomination. We have football cornered for now...which is great. But I am also a fan of the minor sports and the past few years have been like nothing I've seen. For *ggy to resurrect dead programs is amazing. For UT to see some of its sports fall off the map is inexcusable. Heads need to roll...NOW. *ggy is at least going to tie us this year and it's not a fluke. We need to make sure we don't lose to them in this thing again by cleaning some house.

What's worse is that these are not *ggy programs that are going to fade away after a brief rise...they went out and poured money into facilities and great coaches. Ask yourself: what kind of return on investment are we getting? We're outspending them and still getting beaten.

As for the rest of the points...*ggy T&F are going to sweep us. The women are ridiculous favorites to win the national title and the men "only" mild favorites. Their teams' Penn Relay performance was amazing.

The best thing we can hope for is a tie, if *ggy has a hitting breakdown in baseball, which they tend to do. Their pitching is going to be great regardless.

Bottom line is that we have now officially been passed by *ggy sports. This was our year to reclaim the title and we should have at least doubled up a&m on points given how young most of their teams are. Top to bottom I can not think of ONE a&m team that is getting any younger next year. This spells DISASTER for us.

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The LSS is a contest between A&M and tu.

Each sport already has its own contest head to head between the schools.

The LSS stands alone, as it should, for overall athletic excellence.

It means a lot to say we are equal or better than tu, a larger school with more money. It also says we aren't just a big 3 sports school. Nationally that has credibility very different than winning football games.

So keep the point system as is. Just imagine if football gets going in the right direction!

I don't think Texas is outspending us in all the minor sports. Track and Field is one area where we are clearly outspending them and the results are there to show the worth of the investment. You might be able to add tennis to that as well with our facilities, etc. The spending gap in the minor sports is not what it was 5 years ago when that statement would have been true. The only areas we are clearly being outspent would be volleyball and baseball. We should win the Lone Star Series again and it is not an upset. I would like to go back and start winning football.

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but, but didn't Texas Monthly proclaim DeLoss Dodds to run the best program in the COUNTRY?!

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You mean tu monthly? And the problem with that is tu monthly would have to get their head out of Austin's ass in order to realize their are other athletic programs in the state besides tu's.