DeLoss Dodds is tired of being accused of bullying the others. Besides having a worse name than a lead character in some young adult detective novel, Dodds also fights another war: negative PR for the Texas Longhorns. As the Longhorns’ athletic director, Dodds says the perception is all wrong about the Longhorns’ role in the midst of the Big 12 upheaval that’s taken place in the last two years.
“We have stuck our neck out to save the Big 12, and we’re not a bully,” Dodds recently told the Missourian. “We didn’t cause it. Our goal has been, and continues to be, to keep something together for the Big 12 and that’s what we’re going to do, good Lord willing.”
Dodds goes on to say that Big 12 fans from Kansas City have written him blaming him for bullying everyone else in the conference. Texas A&M fans have also gotten ahold of him and blamed him for making them leave the conference. It’s a no-win situation for Dodds as he realizes Texas simply makes more money than anyone else due to ESPN’s offer of $15 million per year for the Longhorns network.
Yet despite all of the departures, the addition of TCU and West Virginia means the conference is still standing after all of this time. And even if Texas has been bullying some, it hasn’t scared away the others. Despite the negative PR, Texas still has its conference home intact and others have been happy to join the ride. Once the dust settles on the conference merry-go-round, Dodds will likely stop getting such hate mail.