Texas A&M football: Where do you stand on Gator Bowl ring engraving?

Texas A&M football had their Gator Bowl rings engraved with something non-Gator Bowl related on the inside; where do you stand?

This is among the issues that truly matter. They can be divisive, even among normally civil folk. I’m not talking about something political. No, I’m talking about the importance of what is engraved on a ring handed to players who participated in a bowl game. Specifically, when Texas A&M football got rings for their Gator Bowl victory.

I hope you’ve picked up on the sarcasm by now. However, even though it’s pretty trivial, and opinions on this issue are not strong, I’m genuinely curious to see how most Aggies feel about this. Also, it’s June, and the countdown to football season is painful currently.

The Aggies finished 9-4 in Jimbo Fisher’s first season. His first year was capped off when the Aggies ended a three-game losing streak in bowl games, dismantling the NC State Wolfpack by a final score of 52-13. That capping off was capped off in the best cap off of all time — 12th Man Cullen Gillaspia scoring a man’s touchdown.

https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1079963046179672064

But the story in June of 2019 doesn’t really have anything to do with the actual game played that day. This has to do with the rings those players were given, and the engraving on the inside that had some scratching their heads.

https://twitter.com/tengland150/status/1139315890573467653

This is an obvious reference to the seven-overtime victory over LSU a little over a month prior to the Gator Bowl victory. So, why would the team commemorate a bowl win with the score of another game?

The answer: because it was an all-time classic, a game no one will soon forget, and perhaps a testament to the toughness of Fisher’s 2018 team and future versions.

The drawbacks are just as if not more so obvious than the reasons for the engraving. Why put the score of a different game on the rings for a bowl win? Do we really need to recognize a regular season win? Is this a basketball score (one of these is not like the other).

I am, admittedly annoyingly, somewhere in the middle on this. I don’t have an issue with the players having something to remember their college career by. Some of them will never play football again.

However, I won’t take much stock in the LSU win nor the Gator Bowl win moving forward. They are both memorable, yes, but the goal for this program has to be contending for national championships. We need to always keep that in mind.

So what do you think, Ags?