We’ve got a major beef brewing on the Internet between the chancellor of Texas A&M and a Texas Longhorns reporter, and it got ugly!
Chip Brown, who covers the Texas Longhorns for Scout’s premium website Horns Digest, wrote an article last month (behind a paywall) accusing Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp of going over budget on the Kyle Field renovations. Brown also accused Sharp of meddling with the football program and even interfering with the amount of playing time Kyler Murray received. Murray, a prized recruit from Allen, Texas, has since transferred to Oklahoma.
Here is the statement sent by Sharp’s office.
“Austin-based sports blogger Chip Brown’s last attempt to report on Texas A&M football, on December 17, 2015, was apparently only the first in a series of fairy tales he intends to spin. Chancellor John Sharp made it clear to another reporter (Brent Zwerneman) that Brown’s speculation about him trying to get Kevin Sumlin fired was indeed a fairy tale. And there is no one more unethical than a reporter who has been embarrassed by being called out for misstating information who then decides to seek revenge. This new report – a fairy tale on steroids – seems to be Chip Brown’s attempt at revenge. The entire report is patently false, but here are a few of the biggest errors:
“Discussing the budget for the redevelopment of Kyle Field, which was revised in December 2014 from $450 million to $485 million, Brown says “…that I’m told actually cost $520 million because of $70 million in overruns…”. This is hogwash. The project was delivered on time and on budget. Anything outside of this would have required a vote by the Board of Regents, and that was never necessary.
“Brown then says that “the biggest problem facing A&M as it pays off $350 million bonded to the university is that most of the pledges made to help finance a big chunk of the renovation costs were made back when oil was between $80 and $107 a barrel. Oil is now hovering around $35 a barrel.” Fact: the initial financing plan included $125 million in pledges, which are already in hand. Any speculation about the effect of oil prices? More hogwash. Brown has his mind set on a false narrative and isn’t letting facts stand in his way.
“Brown’s new fairy story continues with lies about Chancellor Sharp’s involvement with Kyler Murray’s recruitment. Chancellor Sharp has never met Kyler Murray or his parents and has never been involved with his recruitment or the recruitment of any other student athlete. Indeed, no one has ever asked him to be involved in recruitment, and we challenge Mr. Brown to produce one student athlete Chancellor Sharp helped recruit. His unnamed “sources” have steered him way off course.
“Next on the list of falsehoods: that Chancellor Sharp was “blowing up the phones of Sumlin and Spavital starting in the middle of the Alabama game to get Kyler Murray more involved.” Anyone who was in the Chancellor’s suite that day knows this is 100% not true. He was watching the game with his guests, not dialing up the coaches.
“Apparently Mr. Brown’s hate for Texas A&M and Chancellor Sharp has gotten in the way of his doing even the most basic fact-checking. At the beginning of his diatribe, he refers to Chancellor Sharp and former Governor Rick Perry as “roommates at Texas A&M.” They were never roommates. Mr. Brown says he covered Governor Perry and then-Comptroller Sharp as a news reporter for the Associated Press; Chancellor Sharp says he “wouldn’t know Chip Brown from Adam’s housecat.”
“We respectfully suggest that Mr. Brown should consider sticking to covering UT football and leave reporting on Texas A&M to reporters who pay closer attention to the facts and who do not have some kind of personal axe to grind with John Sharp. In the meantime, we hereby nominate “Cowchip” Brown for sleaziest reporter in Texas, with full confidence he will win hands down.”
Here was Brown’s response on Twitter.
I like my new nickname from #TAMU chancellor John Sharp, but he and Rick Perry were never A&M roommates? Can all of Google be wrong?
— Chip Brown (@ChipBrownHD) January 7, 2016
#TAMU chancellor John Sharp and Rick Perry as A&M roommates:
Dallas Morning News: https://t.co/6iqb9Ed9Jd
Yahoo:
https://t.co/FW6eA7NlHi
— Chip Brown (@ChipBrownHD) January 7, 2016
Brown was also the source of a report saying Sharp was trying to buy out Kevin Sumlin.
Why is Sharp so outraged with Brown? Maybe he feels like Brown’s constant reporting is undermining A&M as a whole, which makes the program Brown covers — Texas — look better. This is some seriously dirty fighting involving rivals.
