I'm not trying to start trouble.

Believe me, I realize that I'm in very delicate territory, so I'm just going to blurt out an idea ...

I believe the past 11 days, which were capped off Friday with the University of Texas officially accepting an invitation to the Southeastern Conference, was largely born out of The Eyes of Texas crisis on the 40 Acres.

So, let's travel back to 365 days ago.

It was a time when the entire university was walking on eggshells, especially the football program. Only seven weeks earlier in June 2020, members of the Texas football team had demanded the school song be replaced, a situation which made high-level donors so agitated that university officials were shaken by the complicated juggling that was suddenly upon them.

On the football side, there was an uneasy quiet about the situation, with most at the school simply hoping the issue would go away when the season started.

It didn't, and chaos ensued.

From trying to rush the school song in the immediate aftermath of the season-opener to the players walking off the field following a loss to TCU to Sam Ehlinger standing all alone in the Cotton Bowl to the uncertainty behind what the athletic director was telling his football head coach and just how much of what he was being told was being relayed to his players, it was a disaster.

We don't need to relitigate it. The scars are so fresh that it won't take much to cause bleeding.

Yet, it was during this stress that Texas desperately needed a cohesive message from the top down.

Enter Kevin Eltife.

For those keeping score, Eltife was named the new chairman of the Board of Regents on December 20, 2018, but I'm going to argue that it was 22 months later... six months after former Texas president Greg Fenves resigned to take a job at Emory and two months after Texas favorite son Jay Hartzell was selected as the lone finalist to replace him... that the former mayor of Tyler truly emerged as this century's version of legendary UT shot-caller Frank Erwin.

Less than 24 hours after I had written a fairly scathing article on the athletic department's handling of the school song saga, which had somehow bled beyond the OU game into the middle of October without any clarity, I was speaking to a high-level university source who had been quoted in the article less than 24 hours prior, and the entire tone had changed.

According to this source, the Mickey Mouse handling of the situation was done. Never before had the Texas Board of Regents been more aligned on any issue, and with Eltife's leadership, a plan to get the car back on the road was mapped out.

The school song would be saved. Period. The back and forth drama between Chris Del Conte and Tom Herman would stop. Period. Come hell or high water, the BOR, president, athletic director and everyone below them would get on the same page or else.

There was a calm that day in talking with this particular source that was different from any other time we had spoken. It was as if someone behind the scenes had finally started herding cats and turned them into cattle.

What I believe about this moment can be summed up quickly.

a. For the first time since I began covering the school professionally in 1994, the chairman, the BOR as a whole, the president and athletic director were fully aligned, which means when the word came down from the top, no one pursued their own self interests. It might seem like a small and simple thing, but certainly wasn't normal around Austin.

b. Eltife never let go of the steering wheel once he had it.

Fast-forward a couple of months with uncertainty around Herman after Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte had indicated that Herman would return, it was reportedly Eltife that shut down the first version of a vote of confidence press release from Del Conte.

By God, there was going to be change, a limited pool of candidates be damned. From the ousting of Herman to the hire of Steve Sarkisian, Eltife's shadow loomed over every move.

As fate would have it, this was also around the time when Texas and Oklahoma started playing footsie with the SEC, which would eventually lead to the last two weeks.

Talk to anyone involved and they'll tell you that Eltife is the Keyser Soze of the entire university. Want to know how this was planned so well? Eltife. Want to know how the incredible message discipline was put into place like a well-oiled political machine? Eltife. Want to know how UT went from playing checkers to chess in less than 12 months?

Maybe all of this was going to happen anyway. Maybe once Fenves was bumped out and Hartzell was installed as the president, Eltife's strategy and savvy were always going to take control. Maybe.

Yet, from my perspective, there's no getting around the fact that the pieces on the chess board were being moved by him last October. There was a huge need for an alpha in the midst of a crisis that had been void of leadership, and to his credit, he didn't run from the job.

The ship finally stopped drifting aimlessly at the lowest moment of The Eyes of Texas controversy, and no one has wondered who is in control since.

No. 2 - The other elephant in the room ...

Someone asked me on Orangebloods this weekend if there was another moment that represented a line in the sand in this movement to get out of the Big 12 and into the SEC. ...

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend.

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