It’s an epic rivalry that’s being renewed for the first time since 2011, and it has the added weight of sending the winner to play Georgia in the SEC title game. All this means that the return of this game carries more meaning than ever before.
If you didn’t grow up in North Texas, or weren’t around prior to 2012, you might not realize what an intense rivalry of disgust and dislike this really is. Since October 1894, UT and A&M have played each other 118 times.
It’s been a fairly one-sided rivalry, as Texas owns a 76-37-5 record against the Aggies. Outside of the Aggies dominating the rivalry in the mid-80’s into the mid-90s, winning 10 of 11, Texas has been the big dog in the series. Their 118 meetings are the third most in college football history. For years, it seemed as though that’s how the rivalry would remain forever.
I graduated from Rockwall High School in the late ‘90s, when there were four main schools from this region everyone seemed to root for. Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and somehow, at least in Rockwall, Texas Tech. Everyone had friends who rooted for a different school. My dad played football at Oklahoma in the mid-'70’s, and my mom went to OU as well, so we were 100% an Oklahoma house. Then something changed.
Maybe I wanted to get under their skin, maybe I wanted to do something different but about the time I was becoming a teenager, I adopted Texas as my college team. It wasn’t a great time to jump on the Longhorn bandwagon, but alas, that was my team. Had I been a student of any substance, I would’ve picked Texas as my first choice. But back then, if you weren’t in the Top 10% of your class you didn’t have a shot in hell of getting accepted in Austin. I had to go elsewhere but kept my passion for the ‘Horns very well alive.
The rivalry, for me at least, really simmers down to the basic question of “How can you be an Aggie and be my friend?!”
tweet this
I went to my first Texas/A&M game in Austin in 2000, when No. 12 Texas wiped No. 22 A&M off the field with a 43-17 win. The sliver of Aggie fans in the visitors section moped out of the stadium and there were some skirmishes to signal the true nature of the rivalry.
The rivalry, for me at least, really simmers down to the basic question of “How can you be an Aggie and be my friend?!”
My senior prom date went to A&M. My lifelong best friend got his doctorate from A&M not too long ago. A quarter of the guys in my fantasy football league of 20 years are Aggies. I’ve been surrounded by Aggies my whole life and I still don’t understand how they can allow themselves to be assimilated into the cult! But they can’t understand why the burnt orange appeals so much to me. I’m a T-shirt fan, after all! To be fair, my brother went there and graduated from the McCombs School of Business, so at least someone in my family has a legit claim and did something right.
I’ve been to Kyle Field, and it’s an incredible game day atmosphere. To outsiders, the cult of A&M is rooted in weird traditions, but at the same time, they are traditions that scream “college football!” Also, to be clear, Austin isn’t really a college town, it’s a major city that happens to have a major college within it as far as I see it. College Station literally exists because of the college.
That brings us to Saturday night in College Station. The Aggies have fared well at home in this game with a 22-25-2 record at Kyle Field. A night game for the return of this epic rivalry will be played at a sold-out stadium that should approach the all-time Kyle Field record of 110,633. The listed capacity is 102,733 but expect that to be well surpassed by a few thousand, despite the cheapest “walk-in” ticket being around $700.
Consider this: if the Longhorns win, they’ll play in the SEC title game in their first season in the SEC. If the Aggies win, they’ll play in the SEC title game for the first time. An Aggies win gives them hope to reach the 12-team playoff. For the ‘Horns, beat A&M, eliminate them from a playoff shot and you’re playing for a first-round bye in the new 12-team playoff format. Incredible.
As of this writing, Texas is a 6-point road favorite. They’re the better team on paper, and the more talented team according to the 24/7 Composite Talent Ranking that had Texas at No. 4 and A&M at No. 10 entering the season. But, the Longhorns have also been the better team on paper in previous years, only to find themselves on the losing side of this thing.
Texas has been ranked in the Top 5 for this matchup 17 times. They are 16-1 against A&M in those games. The only loss? In 1975, when A&M was ranked No. 22 in the country and knocked off No. 5 Texas in College Station. We also saw No. 7 Texas fall to the No. 24 Aggies in College Station in 1999, so there are plenty of examples of A&M beating a higher-ranked Texas team in the intense confines of its home stadium.
I anticipate a wild start to a game in which both teams will be beyond amped up. The crowd will be out of their minds in what should be the loudest, most intense atmosphere of the entire college football season. On the field, I suspect UT QB Quinn Ewers will look for star receiver Isiah Bond to break a long one early, and Marcel Reed will find a way to dance around and break some electric runs as well.
The game would already be a marquee matchup without any historical context. It’s a matchup of Top 15 teams with a trip to a conference title game on the line. But 12 years of pent-up disgust, 12 years of A&M not being able to get out of the shadow of Texas despite competing in the SEC and 12 years of households being able to actually enjoy Thanksgiving weekend together have come and gone.
Not anymore.
On Saturday, it’s a house divided to the extreme. Gig 'em or Hook 'em. Either way, bask in the Saturday night lights this weekend because this is what college football is all about.
