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Paul Ryan botches Texas football metaphor

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images News / Getty

House Speaker Paul Ryan hails from Wisconsin, and after his speech on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, it seems pretty clear he has no idea about college football allegiances in Texas.

At the Texas delegation breakfast, Ryan attempted to unite the party by using a comparison to the college football programs at Texas and Texas A&M.

"We've got really big problems in our country, and in our party we've had, let's say, a really big family discussion," Ryan began. "You've got Horned Frogs, Aggies ... You've got Longhorns. ... But when one team advances to a big bowl game? Or a national championship? Don't you root for the Aggies if you are a Longhorn?"

Ryan was likely addressing the fact that Ted Cruz won the Texas primary, yet Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for the presidency, and encouraging delegates to throw their support behind the latter.

The idea of cheering for an in-state rival was met with laughter by the crowd before Ryan tried to justify the comparison by using the Big Ten as an example.

"I come from Big Ten country, so we fight like heck against Ohio State or Michigan," Ryan said. "And then, when it doesn't go our way or they make it to the Rose Bowl or they go to the national championship, we root for them because we're in the same conference."

At any rate, Texas A&M and Texas haven't even been conference rivals since the Aggies moved to the SEC in 2012.

It's not the first time Ryan's appealed to football at the Cleveland convention with mixed results. On Monday, the avowed Green Bay Packers fan waved a Terrible Towel in front of the Pennsylvania delegation breakfast.

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