Report: Texas, Texas A&M to renew rivalry in College Station on Nov. 30

While conference realignment has killed a ton of rivalries, Texas moving to the SEC has brought one back. For over a decade, the annual game against Texas A&M was gone. Traditions across the Lone Star State were spoiled but thankfully, they will be getting them back in the 2024 regular season.

However, the matchup will not take place on the customary Thanksgiving Day date. Instead, according to ESPN’s Chris Low, Nov. 30, a Saturday, will be when the game is slotted. College Station will be the location for a renewal of a bitter rivalry between Texas and Texas A&M.

“Texas and Texas A&M will also renew their rivalry next season after a 12-year hiatus,” Low began. The game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 30 in College Station to close the regular season, according to sources.”

As Joe Cook on On3’s Inside Texas points out, the Texas-Texas A&M game has not been played on a Saturday since the 1995 season. The next 16 matchups took place on either Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday.

Before the SEC announced opponents and locations for the 2024 season, Aggies AD Ross Bjork was “firm” on making sure the first matchup took place in College Station. While he never was too sure of the exact date, Bjork was adamant about Kyle Field being the venue.

“Just because of everything that’s transpired, and that’s something that we’ve expressed to the SEC, and I guess we’ll just leave it at that,” Bjork said in an article with The Athletic back in February. “Let’s just say that is a very, very firm position from our standpoint,” Bjork said.

Since the 2013 season, Texas A&M has played LSU as their traditional Thanksgiving weekend opponent. Texas has never had a permanent foe, with the Big 12 usually changing things up on an annual basis. Now, the two in-state foes will be reunited around the time many believe they should play every single year.

Of course, eyes will be on newly hired Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko as the Texas game will wrap up his first season in charge. He will be going up against Steve Sarkisian where the two do have a history against one another as coordinators.

Sarkisian was at Alabama as the OC while Elko was the DC under Jimbo Fisher. But this matchup will be quite different, with more at stake than their 2019 and 2020 meetings.

Just as a lot was made about the thought-to-be series finale in 2011, Nov. 30 in College Station is going to be significant to a lot of people in the state of Texas.