If you're like me and haven't seen the Lone Star Showdown trophy the Aggies have had for a year, rest easy. You have at least another year to go by the Bright Complex's lobby and behold it.

Texas A&M sprinted -- literally and figuratively -- to the finish line in this year's Lone Star Showdown race, winning 5 1/2 of the last 6 1/2 points to keep the trophy in Aggieland. At the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Lubbock over the weekend, the Aggie men and women both finished ahead of the Longhorns to earn the final two points, giving each team 9 1/2 points in the annual 19-sport competition. In the event of a tie, by rule, the previous winner gets to keep the trophy.

So that's the Aggies based on last year's 10 1/2-8 1/2 victory. Even if there wasn't a tiebreaker in place, A&M certainly earned the right to keep the trophy.

The Aggies have come a long way since getting outscored 28 1/2-9 1/2 in the Lone Star Showdown's first two years. That, by the way, would have been indicative of just about any other year during the last few decades if the competition had been in place that long. Texas always had the better all-around athletics program -- until now.

The Aggies have caught the Longhorns, and it's not a one-year fluke. Each program has earned 28 1/2 points in the last three years, and you can expect more of the same in the next three years.

A&M, though, certainly has been the big winner since the inception of the Lone Star Showdown. Many scoffed that it would show how far the Aggies were behind the Longhorns, which it did at first. But it's also chronicled the Aggies' progress.

Texas isn't the only athletic program the Aggies have gained ground on. A&M would have beaten every Big 12 South program using the Lone Star Showdown formula -- Baylor (11-7), Oklahoma (11 1/2-5 1/2), Oklahoma State (11-6) and Texas Tech (13 1/2-3 1/2).

Yet, few Aggie fans were high-fiving at work Monday or bragging in the chat rooms about keeping the Lone Star Showdown trophy.

I spent more than five hours Monday with 300 potential jurors. The only conversations concerning A&M sports were what's wrong with the baseball team and what's going to happen in head football coach Mike Sherman's second year. There wasn't a word about the Lone Star Showdown or A&M's domination in track.

In other words, there's work to be done.

The Lone Star Showdown isn't going to carry enough weight until the Aggies have a Top 25 football program. If the Aggies would have been 11-2 in football this year, a la Texas Tech, and earned 64.5 points in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics' Sports Directors' Cup (formerly the Sears Cup), the Aggies would be in the Top 10 and possibly heading toward a Top 5 finish. How great would that be?

The Aggies also are going to have to beat the Longhorns in baseball -- if not in the Lone Star Showdown, then make it to Omaha while the Longhorns lose in Super Regionals or worse.

The only sports the Aggies have been skunked in during the Lone Star Showdown are men's swimming, men's indoor track and baseball.

Future races typically will go down to the last few sports, which has been the case in the last few years.

A&M athletics director Bill Byrne was shrewd to hire track coach Pat Henry, maybe the best college coach in America. He's a better closer than Kyra Sedgwick.

Texas had an 8-0 edge in track points during the first two years of the Lone Star Showdown. A&M, thanks to Henry, has an 8-4 edge since.

A&M's track teams had a 4-0 edge this year in that scoring system on Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Tech. Throw out track and A&M only would have tied BU, beat OSU by a point and OU by two points.

And despite having a 10-point edge on Tech, the Red Raiders get to gloat about football. And this year, baseball. Ditto OU.

Byrne and the Aggies should be proud of what they've accomplished in the Lone Star Showdown and the Sports Directors' Cup. But until they make a BCS bowl in football, a Final Four in basketball and the College World Series, they're not going to be held in the same esteem as the Longhorns or Sooners.

Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.