re: Spent the day in College Station...

Daigeaux, what game were you at? My season seats aren't far from the visitor section on the East side and I think they are great seats. And it's pretty easy to go to the concessions unless it's halftime while the visiting band plays

Other schools have copied A&Ms fish camp model.

They've also copied our CARPOOL model. Which was the best idea ever

I think I can speak to a number of things in this thread. I am an Aggie, born and raised. My first set of booties were A&M booties. When my dad asked me where I wanted to go to college he said he would pay for any school in the world as long as it was A&M.

I graduated with a BS in 1978 (started in September 1974) and saw TAMU through probably it's most stunning growth phase as a university. In Fall 74 the first Waggies (yes we did actually call them that) corps unit was going strong. They were referred to as W-1 unit. The student center had just undergone a major expansion and rebuild/redecorating. The university had 17000 students registered in Fall 1974. By August 1978 the university had grown to about 24K students give or take a few hundred. During the period 1974-78 there was a HUGE, I mean HUGE, debate taking place over Sororities and Fraternities coming to town. Blood Aggies were 100% opposed to the greeks on a number of levels....taking people off campus to live, becoming more popular than the corps, and mandating monetary support from the university. You gotta remember at this time in history I lived on campus all 4 years (not in the corps), had 7 day dining plan, tuition, fees and text books....all for under $9000 total. If the Greeks had been recognized by the university state law would have mandated a fee increase (at that time they called it building use fee) from $59 per semester to $150 per semester to help support them as organizations. As a student body at that time we could still control fees by student votes, unlike today when the legislature typically sets them in conjunction with university lobbyists. The fear at the time was greeks would decimate the corps. The crazy thing was the corps was already decimated, but we didn't have enough sense to realize that.

My MS and PhD period in College Station were January 1980 to May 1984. The campus didn't really grow that much except to the west. A few new dorms were built but most students by this time were moving off campus, but Greeks still did not have official university recognition. During this time Kyle Field had the 3rd decks (east and west side) added and the new press box. The student population when I left in 1984 was still in the 24K range because of artificial limits being set, plus there just wasn't enough housing built still to handle more students.

I left with my PhD in hand and started teaching at LSU in the Food Science Department in June 1984 and stayed there until August 1987. I loved LSU and the campus. I left because I had a teaching job offer in So Cal...and I had to go find out what it was all about.

The only really weird thing about A&M is the continued "cult like" belief that Aggies buy into. If you've gone to TexAgs you'll see it there. All the references to "Good Bull" and "Bad Ags" and supporting the administration no matter what. When I look back at my undergrad days it reminds me somewhat of what it must have been like to be a Jim Jones follower or a tea party member.

I am married to a Louisianan and we still go to LSU games 2-3 times a year. My current employer (no I don't teach) has a plant in Gramercy that I am at 2-3 times a year. And we are in BR and NOLA for Mardi Gras season. LSU is still the same place it was when I left in 87, I think. Friendly, great atmosphere, amazing football.

A&M deserves to be in the SEC and once you folks visit the campus a few times you'll find it a lot like LSU during school. The only sad thing is the tailgating at A&M sucks compared to LSU.

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I've heard it said that Texas A&M has one of the most beautiful campus' in the country, from the ankles down.

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Where have you heard that? My cousin is one of the biggest A&M homers, but even he admits it's one of the ugliest campuses he's ever seen.

In all fairness, people who go to Texas A&M are just fricking weird. Weird in that they are full of themselves, their school and totally oblivious to the fact that they are total douchebags.

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Y'all missed out. The three weeks after everyone got back and before classes started were always the best. Not shite to do but drink all day then bars at night.

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Ya pretty much the same in Columbia. Freshman moved in maybe a week before classes but that was for the dorms. The VERY FEW upperclassmen that lived in dorms moved in maybe 10 days before classes started, and everyone else moved in the first of the month with classes starting prob 20 days later because that's when Rent Starts for Off Campus apartments and houses.

Greek Houses are owned by the University but could open them whenever the house mom or dad wanted to and that was normally the first week of the month.

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Where have you heard that? My cousin is one of the biggest A&M homers, but even he admits it's one of the ugliest campuses he's ever seen.

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I've heard it plenty of places, me thinks you are missing the subtlety of the comment, read it again and think about it.

Drfood, the tIlgating at A&M has exploded over the last 7-8 years. It's not on LSU's level but it is very big now

Starkville is a surprisingly good time.

Wasn't aware. I don't see how you can tailgate when you're in the middle of a concrete parking lot with no trees. I doubt anyone can do tailgating anything like Tiger fans.

I refuse to go anywhere near A&M football since they fired RC and hired that dweeb Fran, talk about a cluster**** that has still not been resolved. We would rather spend our football money on LSU be it in BR or sitting at Big Woodrows on Chimney Rock here in Houston.