permanent replacement for Dye could be found. That replacement was Dr. Robert Cesario, who came from Tulsa, Oklahoma and took up the baton in the fall of 1998. After four years, Dr. Cesario resigned as Director of Rice Bands in the summer of 2002, and was succeeded by Mr. Charles Throckmorton. In 2005, Rice joined Conference USA (C-USA), restoring cross-town rival, the University of Houston, to the status of conference opponent for the first time since the breakup of the Southwest Conference. The two are no longer conference rivals following UH's 2013 departure for the American Athletic Conference. Despite considerable membership turnover in C-USA in the early 2010s, the league still brings Rice into contact with opponents from Texas to the Eastern Seaboard. In October 2021, Rice announced it was joining the American Athletic Conference in 2023. Using this move as justification, the school's athletics department chose to create a new pep band for basketball and volleyball games without consulting members of The MOB. The Rice community was outraged at all levels, but as of October 2022, the decision was yet to be reversed. Satire and controversy The MOB "pokes fun at itself and the world", from political figures to Rice administration personnel to visiting teams. A few shows in particular have provoked more than the usual uproar: In 1973 the Texas A&M Aggies took exception to a MOB performance which featured such typical MOB irreverence as Nazi-style goosestepping, turning the Aggie War Hymn into "Little Wooden Soldier March", and forming a fire hydrant while playing "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" in reference to the Aggie mascot Reveille. After the game, the Aggies formed an angry mob outside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. In the years after this now-infamous show, attention has been focused on the shot at Reveille, and that this was an attempt to mock the mascot shortly after her death; in fact it was no more than "poorly-aimed scatological humor", the mascot in question having been alive and present at the game. In 2007, the MOB used their halftime performance to poke fun at the legal woes facing some members of the Texas Longhorns. The band, wearing dark sunglasses, opened with the theme from Dragnet. Three members dressed as Longhorn