Oklahoma Sooners Football Blog: (3/1) Dallas Cotton Bowl Bond Money, Texas Tech and OU? and a OU Prospect

Oklahoma Sooner Football Articles and Notes

Dallas Official: Dallas isn't obligated to spend bond money: The city of Dallas isn't obligated to spend $30 million in bond funds on the Cotton Bowl, said David Cook, the city's chief financial officer. His statement came in response to the Dallas Business Journal query: "What legal options does the city of Dallas have to make the (Cotton Bowl) renovations, if its leaders no longer see the need to spend that money on the project?" Dallas City Councilman Mitchell Rasansky has been skeptical about spending money renovating the Cotton Bowl, in light of the construction of the Cowboys' new stadium, which is estimated at costing more than $1 billion. "The voters have authorized the city to issue bonds for particular purposes, but the voters haven't mandated that that be done," Cook said, in response to a query from the Business Journal. "From a legal view, the city council doesn't have to issue those bonds and do those improvements. They are authorized to do so. It technically wouldn't take a special vote of the citizens to deauthorize," he said. (Dallas Business Journal)

Live Chat Transcript via Dallas Morning News with Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker:

Q: From e-mail: Isn't it true that the city of Dallas failed by not giving a $325 million investment for a $1 billion complex that would have replaced the Cotton Bowl?
A: Rick Baker: We are not in the blame game. We just had to make a decision based on the facts laid out before us. The city of Dallas has been a great partner for 71 years and we will continue to need their world-class hotels and infrastructure to be able to produce a premier bowl experience.

Sooners' prospect instead playing Pro Baseball: The bigger question with [Mike] Wilson is why he is a [Seattle] Mariner at all. He grew up in the heart of football country, Tulsa, Okla., and had accepted a full ride to the University of Oklahoma as a linebacker when Seattle came calling. The running joke around camp is the Sooners might have offered more than Seattle did to secure Wilson's services. To be sure, Wilson will always be a fan of Oklahoma football. What Oklahoma couldn't match was the hold baseball had on Wilson's heart. "I played football, and I liked it," he said. "But I always was a baseball player. That was the sport I loved. So when I got drafted in the second round, it wasn't that hard of a decision. "I sat down with my mother and we talked it over. It didn't take long. The average career in football is four or five years. The average career in baseball is longer. And I was hurting; my knees were tired from all the hitting I was doing playing football." (Seattle Post)

Cotton Bowl Offers Texas Tech a free venue to play? A&M? OU?: We speak extensively [News Radio 1420] with the man who is trying to convince Texas Tech and Texas A&M to play their rivalry game in Dallas rather than Lubbock and College Station. His name is Errol McCoy. He is the state fair president. One of his responsibilities is to fill the cotton bowl with high impact football games. Now that the Cotton Bowl game will no longer played in the Cotton Bowl stadium McCoy will renew his efforts to sweet talk Texas Tech. McCoy says the City of Dallas will pay Texas Tech's travel expenses, and he says the state fair will waive the stadium rental. "So, basically the Universities have zero cost in coming to Dallas to play in a neutral site, with the tremendous upside. And in the case of Texas Tech I think they could improve their overall financial situation for the athletic department by $2 million per year; each year!" Of course the average fan says 'Yeah but that's our big rivalry game.' It doesn't get any bigger than Red Raider verses Aggies. We can't give that up! Right? So News Radio 1420 asked Errol McCoy: does it have to be THAT game? What about Tech verses Oklahoma? What about Tech verses ANY other Big 12 team? How about trying to build a brand new rivalry from scratch; say, Texas Tech verses LSU? Here's McCoy's answer. "So it can be any combination; I think any combination of those you just mentioned probably would work and work well." (Newsradio1420)

Cotton Bowl marriage may soon be tested: Dallas Morning News

Change aids chances: Star Telegram

Peterson dynamite player, but few tailbacks carry teams to titles: MSNBC.com

Cotton Bowl finds new home to build legends: Yahoo! Sports