San Marcos — The University of Texas is exactly 35 miles from the campus at Texas State University. But for Texas State Bobcat fans, Forty Acres sometimes seems to stretch a lot further.

The University of Texas has always towered over Texas State, especially in the realm of college football. UT’s seemingly unlimited athletic budget helps the Longhorns field one of the best Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) football teams in the nation, playing in front of more than 90,000 fans each game.

The Bobcats, on the other hand, play at a much smaller lever in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and as many already know, are in the middle of a campaign to push the football program up to the FBS level.

That in mind, it’s easy to understand why some faithful Bobcat backers have gotten into a bit of an uproar when Grande Communications recently unveiled its new advertising campaign, featuring former UT quarterback and current Cleveland Brown Colt McCoy.

Not that there’s any sort of personal animosity towards McCoy. A native Texan, with incredibly high visibility, think about it — he really is a perfect fit for a Texas-based advertising campaign.

However, it’s the message McCoy conveys which has rubbed Bobcat fans the wrong way. A billboard at the corner of C.M. Allen and Hopkins reads, “Hey Bobcats! Get ‘Hooked’ on Grande like Colt McCoy.”

One would think that a company like Grande, based here in San Marcos, would be more sensitive about a billboard like that, even though the company serves six other Texas cities. And according to Grande general manager Hutch Bass, insulting Bobcat fans was the last thing his company wanted to do.

“The last thing we’d ever want to do would be offend Texas State or San Marcos, which is where we are headquartered,” Bass said. “We have been long-time supporters of Texas State University and will continue to do so.”

So then why is McCoy throwing pitches at Bobcats? Two words: Market research.

“He’s part of a state-wide campaign and research showed that Colt has a tremendous statewide appeal as a Texan who is going to start his NFL career,” Bass said. “We have also found out through research that a lot of Texas State fans are UT fans, and visa versa. There’s a significant overlap, and it’s a case where both fans wants each others’ teams to succeed.”

A tough point to argue with. Go to a Texas State tailgate party, and if the Longhorns are on television, you can bet there will be a plethora of Bobcat fans gathered around the tube watching UT before the Texas State game.

In fact, some don’t even bother going into Bobcat Stadium until the Longhorn game is over. For others, the same can be said about Texas A&M or even Texas Tech football, depending what part of the state they’re from.

But for those who choose to bleed solely Maroon and Gold, acts like those are carnal sins. If you’re a true Bobcat fan, they’ll argue, then you shouldn’t care what’s going on at Texas or A&M.

Does that mean we shouldn’t watch college bowl games, those of which Texas State is not yet eligible to compete in? Or close our eyes every time UT or A&M football is on the highlights?

That sort of fervor might make sense in the future when Texas State does make the jump to the FBS level. Until then, getting upset about a former UT quarterback on a San Marcos billboard really is much ado about nothing.

There are more important things to worry about.

Randy Stevens is Sports Editor of the San Marcos Daily Record. Contact him at rstevens@sanmarcosrecord.com