(1/20) UT hold up Cotton Bowl Agreement

University of Texas hold up Cotton Bowl Agreement: While other teams seem primed to play, University of Texas at Austin leaders have declined to tell Dallas government and State Fair of Texas officials whether they'll continue to compete in the annual game with the University of Oklahoma at the city-owned Cotton Bowl. "UT's holding it up. We were expecting an answer already," said Bill Blaydes, the Dallas City Council's economic development and housing committee chairman. Texas' hesitation comes as OU and Texas Tech University appear willing to commit to each play a game at the Cotton Bowl, two Dallas officials said this week. UT officials say their internal deliberations about playing OU at the Cotton Bowl beyond 2008, when the teams' contract with Dallas expires, "will take awhile.".. Dallas Mayor Laura Miller expressed general frustration with the negotiations, noting, "Everybody's supposed to give us an answer this week." Questioned after she had a cellphone conversation about the Cotton Bowl during a City Council retreat Thursday, the mayor said she's still confident all the schools she has approached will eventually sign on – including Texas and OU. When asked, however, if UT was the school delaying an expected announcement, Ms. Miller shook her head. "That's not accurate," she said. What's slowing the deal, she said, is that none of the schools seems to want to make the first move. "Everyone's kind of waiting for each other," she said. "We can't move forward until we know. I've been working hard all week to get this done."... A university source stressed that OU has in no way verbally agreed to keep the game in Dallas. The source said OU would consider entering into a written agreement provided the city follows through with its stadium improvement plan. However, the contract would have to include some sort of out clause that would allow OU to leave Dallas for a home-and-home series if voters turn down the bond proposal. OU officials are skeptical the city can make the necessary improvements for the $50 million price tag that's been discussed. A failed bond proposal would be a death knell for the Texas-Oklahoma Red River Rivalry at Fair Park, as far as OU is concerned. "If the bond doesn't pass, we're outta there," the source said. (In part from Dallas Morning News much more there)

Longhorns stacked and ready for another conference title: Oklahoma Daily