The Patriot News recently put together an astounding list showing the richest college football programs in country. No college football fan was surprised to find out Alabama football ranked among the top five earners, bringing in more than $108 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year.

What some were surprised to see was where Texas stood—as the wealthiest program in the country, and not by a skinny margin. 

The University of Texas football program raked in more than $141 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year. The second wealthiest program? Tennessee at nearly $111 million.

I stopped being good at math when they started mixing letters with the numbers. But even the budding English professor in me can see that, not only did the Texas lap the Vols, it also made more than Texas A&M ($70.4 million) and Nebraska ($69.5 million) football combined.

Texas also turned more than $97 million in profit during that time. Longhorns coach Tom Herman made $5.25 million during the first year of his contract, and if he survives to 2021 he’ll earn $6.25 million. He ranks eighth in the country in annual salary just in front of Texas Christian coach Gary Patterson, who at least played in a conference title game last year.

Herman could pick up a $100,000 bonus if he wins a Big 12 title. But based on last season’s 7-6 record—and the fact that the most valuable player in the 2017 Texas Bowl was UT punter Michael Dickson—let’s not hold our breath.

The Big 12 title trophy is getting close to establishing residency enough to vote in the state of Oklahoma.

For giggles, let me add Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, ranked 52nd on the list of 2017 coach salaries behind North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren, who has not won a conference title, nor coached a Heisman Trophy winner, nor played in the College Football Playoff.

Oklahoma has an all-access pass to college football’s champagne room and looks like it’s going to stay here making it rain for a while. Texas is so ratchet it can’t get past the club bouncer.

So when will college football's richest program be back? And will it be back in time to face college football's best program—full stop—in Alabama in 2022 for its recently announced home-and-home series?

Longhorn fans are fond of saying Alabama is 1-1-7 all-time against Texas. They are not fond of saying that one win came during the only game between the two that mattered—the 2009 BCS National Championship Game.

That game was not only a watershed moment for Alabama, but also for college football. That game vaulted Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban to the top of the college football food chain, where he has lived the life of a Great White Shark. It was also the moment that the Southeastern Conference supplanted the Big 12 as the nation's best league—and the SEC never looked back.

The Tide has never had to evolve because college football has never caught up. And while some have taken their shots and won—Clemson, Ohio State, Florida State, Auburn—the Tide have been a favorite to wear the national title crown every year for the past decade. 

Texas has been the punchline to most college football jokes for the same amount of time.

In fact, Texas hasn’t put together a 10-win season since it lost the national title game to 'Bama. The Longhorns have had as many winning seasons (four) as they have losing seasons since 2010, and they've relinquished the mantle of perennial foe to OU over to TCU, Oklahoma State and even Baylor in recent years.

Texas recruiting has suffered for it, as well.

“In the end,” Lake Travis wide out Garrett Wilson told Rivals, “I’ve watched a lot of people go to Texas with a ton of ability and maybe not achieve what I thought they could. I didn’t want to be one of those guys.”

When the 5-star wide receiver out of a suburb of Austin, Texas, says he chose Ohio State over Texas because he didn’t think he’d develop into an NFL player at UT, there are bigger problems than just not playing for conference titles. 

But it wasn’t so long ago that Texas could be counted on to be a top 10 team, ready to walk into the Cotton Bowl to play the Sooners in a game the nation knew mattered not for bragging rights in a regional rivalry but for national supremacy.

It wasn’t so long ago that Texas won a national title over a team many thought couldn’t be beaten. It wasn’t so long ago that Vince Young clenched that rose between his teeth and made known Texas wasn’t going anywhere.

Now we’re forced to wonder where Texas has gone. 

No, Texas isn’t back. But it would be nice if it were.

RJ Young is a former Oklahoma Sooners football and basketball beat writer, investigative journalist, essayist, novelist, and Ph.D student. His memoir "LET IT BANG" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) hits shelves and earbuds in October. His YouTube channel is fire if you're into storytelling and topics ranging from Baker Mayfield to The Rock's early wrestling career to this one time when a guy got a little too interested in RJ's "Black Panther" cup at a urinal inside of a movie theater.