Morning Hangover: UT laughing all the way to the bank

The Morning Hangover gets you caught up on sports stories that pertain to the Austin area, every weekday morning. And it don’t stop.

John Maher of the Austin American-Statesman – “If the BCS awarded a championship for making money from football, the University of Texas would win in a walk. ‘We used to be No. 2 behind Ohio State. Now we’ve jumped out to a pretty good lead,’ said Ed Goble, UT’s associate athletic director for business. According to data the schools filed with the federal government, the top five money makers in college football also included Southeastern Conference powers Florida, Georgia and Alabama, which will face Texas on Jan. 7 in the BCS national title game. The data showed that while the country was in the midst of a lingering and deep recession, revenues generated by the Longhorns football program increased by 20 percent in 2008, rising by $14.6 million to a whopping $87.6 million. That’s by far the most money ever generated by a college football program and almost $20 million more than Ohio State — now relegated to second place — pulled in. ‘I don’t really like comparisons,’ said Ben Jay, senior associate athletic director at Ohio State. ‘We’re trying to do different things (than Texas).’ ”

Tyler Mayforth of the San Marcos Daily Record – “An optimist can look at Texas State’s 99-94 double-overtime victory Tuesday afternoon against Huston-Tillotson and find a batch of positives. A realist can examine the same four-point win by the Bobcats and see they have a long way to go until they resemble a competitive Division I basketball team. Sure, Texas State won by four points but it shouldn’t have been that close against a team from the NAIA. The Bobcats beat the Lady Rams in 2008 by 35 points and held the lead from the 19-minute mark of the first half. It was a different story Tuesday afternoon, as Texas State came out flat from that start. ‘Our kids played tight,’ Bobcats head coach Suzanne Fox said. ‘They feel the pressure. Again, how many games have we won in the last week and a half? None. They lost that swagger and that’s the thing. Winning gives them confidence. Today we got tight and made bad choices and it snowballed on us.’ ”

Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News – “If it’s any consolation to Mack Brown and Colt McCoy, who came within one second of knocking Craig Curry off the top of Texas’ gaffe pile, they’re not the only college football types who had trouble telling time this season. Les Miles also lost track of it at the end of a loss against Ole Miss. Only the LSU coach didn’t get a second chance like Texas did in the Big 12 title game, enabling a last-second field goal to beat Nebraska. Given those egregious examples as well as others this season, it made me want to ask: What would the Pirate do? ‘It’s not an exact science,’ Mike Leach said by telephone Tuesday. ‘And it’s not easy. You’ve got split seconds to make monumental decisions.’ Of course, some coaches can do a lot in just a few seconds. Texas Tech’s eccentric coach can be accused of many sins – excessive point differentials comes to mind – but waiting too long to score isn’t one of them. On Saturday out at JerryWorld, Texas had the ball at its 40 with 1:44 left. Seven seconds later, the Longhorns had advanced to the Nebraska 26. And on three plays over the next 96 seconds, Texas lost 3 yards and nearly a last-second shot at the win. Yes, Hunter Lawrence kicked the game-winner after a second was restored to the clock, and rightfully so, enabling Texas to avert its biggest disaster since Curry’s muffed punt in the ‘84 Cotton Bowl cost the Longhorns a national title. But it shouldn’t have come so close Saturday. It happened because Brown couldn’t get a timeout and McCoy was a little too casual stopping the clock. As it turns out, McCoy thought there were 15 seconds left before the third-down play, not seven. And he said Tuesday that he had no idea the clock doesn’t stop until an incomplete pass strikes an object. Had he known, he said, he wouldn’t have sailed the ball out of bounds, where it finally hit a railing with one second left.”

Are you a fan of Austin's local sports? Then make sure you stay up-to-date with Austin's local sports scene.