WACO, Texas Theyre sailgating on the banks of the Brazos River, co-eds back-floating in the bath warm water and mere steps from $300 million reasons why you dont take no for an answer.Theyre lining up two and a half hours before the game, those crazy freshmen standing and screaming and utterly scorched in 98-degree weather in the south end zone, and juiced for the Baylor Line because this is what happens when you dont take no for an answer.They unveiled a statue of Robert Griffin III, George W. Bush to sed the pre-game coin flip and tickets were going for $200 a pop hours before kickoff because when you refuse to be ignored, the day eventually arrives when a spectacular stadium rises out of the clay and your once scoffed program is the shining, brilliant envy of everyone in your conference.MORE: | || Four years after they tried to run you out.Baylor is the powerhouse of Texas now, Griffin says. I dont know if anybody else wants to admit that, but Baylor has owned Texas for a while now.Theres some strange and surreal and more than anything, ironic symmetry with this perfect day of football on the campus of Baylor University. Brandon Ingram Jersey They introduced new McLane Stadium (cost: a cool $300 million) Sunday to the college football world, an unthinkable pipedream of a one-in-a-gazillion longshot four years ago when big, bad Texas threatened to leave the Big 12 for the Pac-12 and leave Baylor behind.Baylors best bet in that untenable situation was hooking up with the now defunct Big East. Or Conference USA. Or maybe even going it alone.Dark days, Baylor president Ken Starr said.But like it always does, history has a way of repeating itself for those who dont learn from it. In 1824, Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, scouted an area of corn and bean fields occupied by the Wichita Native American group known as Waco.A year later, after unsucce Jahlil Okafor Jersey sfully trying to destroy their village, Austin made a treaty with the Waco because the alternative wasnt working. And now here we are, in the middle of this day no one outside the Baylor Bubble the swank campus area plopped in the middle of old town Texas could conceive, replaying that scenario of nearly two centuries ago.This is what happens when you wont go away; when after youre publicly humiliated by your own conference (see: kingpin Texas), you suck it up in true Texas can-do style, and force them to see you for what you can be not what they think you are.You didnt really think Starr would just let Texas roll onto the Baylor campus Jrue Holiday Jersey last year and take Art Briles from all that he had built, from his vision of what this day could be, did you? That was Starr, weeksbeforeTexas officially began searching for a new coach, locking up Briles with a 10-year, $35 million contract extension.Of course Texas could have paid more, and Starr knew as much I dont know that we could get there, he told me a month earlier when asked if Baylor could match a Texas offer but he knew he could play on Briles sense of accomplishment and loyalty. Why leave what youve built, what youve worked at tirele sly day after day, without reaping the rewards?When they unveiled the statue of Griffin hours before the rout of SMU, they may as well have unveiled a statue of Briles, too. Without his vision, without his I want mavericks and trailblazers philosophy, none of this would be po sible.MORE: | | |A lot of us could have gone anywhere, played anywhere, said Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty. But when you believe in a man and what he promises, it doesnt matter where you are it only matters where you see yourself in his vision.Before Briles arrived in 2008, Baylor was a ghost town in the BCS world, a dead-end job where coach after coach failed to not only win, but build any semblance of a foundation or foothold in the most recruiting-rich state in the nation. Briles took the job, and a quarterback from Copperas Cove, Texas (a 70-minute drive from Waco) who Texas recruited as get this a defensive back, decided to follow Briles from Houston to Baylor.Little did anyone know that Robert Griffin III, the son of a fiercely loyal military family, would sign on for this dream and develop into a star under Briles and how in the world is this po sible? win the Heisman Trophy at little ol Baylor. The next thing you know, elite recruits were signing up for what Briles was selling, and then Nike got on board and moved the athletic program to its top tier for marketing and uniform development. Suddenly it was hip to Sic em.You Lonzo Ball Jersey cant put a value on what Art has brought this program, this university, said Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw.Thats not entirely true. Look around this place, this facility that, despite its modest size (45,000), is a glowing example of what happens when you refuse to let someone else control your destiny. A year ago at this time, while dirt was being pushed around to lay footers for the stadium, Baylor had already secured multi-million dollar sponsorships for the stadium, field and bridge leading to the stadium.They had sold six founders suites at $10 million each, 39 premium suites at $1 million to $3 million each and the 80 loge boxes and 1,200 club seats were sold out. All for the dream of what could be.A few months later, Baylor won its first Big 12 championship and played in its first BCS bowl, officially laying Bevo-sized egg all over the face of the one university that left it for dead.We dont look back, Briles said. Life is about moving forward.Where once no one showed up at outdated, off-campus Floyd Casey Stadium to watch the Bears of old, they packed into this place Sunday and watched an in-game App the first of its kind on college Zion Williamson Jersey football to give them four different angles of replays.This is what happens when you dont take no for an answer.