Column: Stakes like these are rare for Texas vs. Texas A&M

I was robbed of something special during my time as a student at the University of Texas at Austin.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY with code HOOKEM and get 50% off annual memberships!]

When Justin Tucker‘s kick went through the uprights during my senior year of high school in 2011, no more meetings between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies were on the schedule with A&M heading to the Southeastern Conference in 2012.

In 2012, I started my time at Texas. Instead of welcoming the Aggies to Austin during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Longhorns welcomed TCU. In 2013, Texas Tech came to town. Texas stayed at home for Thanksgiving games throughout my four years, but seeing a team whose named started with “Texas” but didn’t end with “A&M” was just weird. I wanted to see maroon in the stadium, not purple or red.

And don’t get me worked up about the road game at Kansas in 2018. Hobby Airport is not the best place to celebrate Thanksgiving.

For all those complaints, for the 12 seasons we’ve gone without the Longhorns and the Aggies battling, for the 13 years where the only place the two longtime rivals battled in football was on the recruiting trail for players like Zaycoven Henderson, Kris Boyd, Kyler Murray, Malik Jefferson, Daylon Mack, Evan Stewart, Vernon Broughton, Anthony Hill, Rueben Owens, and Ty’Anthony Smith, for the time where the biggest matchup between the Aggies and Longhorns was on a baseball diamond in Omaha, the return of the football rivalry is going to be a game with stakes rarely seen when the in-state rivals meet.

Since Texas and Texas A&M left the Southwest Conference for the Big 12 ahead of the 1996 season, there have been just two ranked-versus-ranked matchups in the Lone Star Showdown. The first was in 1999 following the Bonfire collapse when the No. 24 Aggies scored an emotional 20-16 win over No. 7 Texas in College Station. The second was a year later when No. 12 Texas beat No. 22 Texas A&M 43-17 in Austin.

From 2001 to 2011, there would be one ranked team max in the rivalry. Of course, it was typically Texas who had the number by their name. That didn’t mean the Longhorns always prevailed.

That’s all to point out that the return of the rivalry this year has implications not seen possibly in decades. There have only been two-top 20 matchups in this contest since Earl Campbell played his last game on the 40 Acres. One was in 1995 when No. 9 Texas beat No. 16 Texas A&M 16-6 in College Station. The other was in 1985 when No. 15 Texas A&M beat No. 18 Texas in College Station.

Though the Aggies lost at Auburn on Saturday night, they remained ranked No. 19 in the Coaches Poll and should remain in the top 20 in the AP Poll.

Two teams of a certain quality don’t always battle each other in this rivalry. But even more unique is the fact that the two teams of a certain quality are fighting for a spot in the SEC Championship game.

The winner at Kyle Field on Saturday will face Georgia in Atlanta on December 7.

“It’s a lot easier when you take your fate out of somebody else’s hands and put it in your own,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

So much has changed for both programs since their last meeting. Mack Brown was around for just two more years, and the Longhorns have gone through two head coaches since 2011. So too have the Aggies.

Texas A&M went to the SEC and found success immediately in the form of Johnny Manziel‘s Heisman season and multiple 10-win campaigns, though a SEC title eluded the Aggies whether Kevin Sumlin or Jimbo Fisher were leading the program.

Texas let go of Brown and floundered under Charlie Strong. Four chaotic years under Tom Herman didn’t end a conference title drought for the Longhorns. Even Sarkisian had struggles before he contended for and won the Big 12 Championship in 2023 on the way to a College Football Playoff appearance.

And now, an opportunity for both teams to play for their first SEC championship is on the line on Saturday.

We are getting a game we deserve for this one. It’s why College GameDay is making a return trip to College Station after previewing the week one game between A&M and Notre Dame. It’s why on a weekend filled with elite rivalry games, the eyes of a national TV audience will be affixed on the Brazos Valley to find out who will play Georgia for the most competitive conference’s championship.

Sarkisian’s program seems to understand how much is on the line.

“For us, the game is the game as far as what are we trying to accomplish to win that game to get to the SEC Championship game.” Sarkisian said. “But I’m not naïve to know the rivalry is the rivalry, and what this game means to the entire state of Texas. Households being divided, Thanksgiving weekend, I think it’s so cool that we’re playing this game again.”

The implications are historic.

There are a number of unique factors at play as well. I never got to go see Texas play at Kyle Field as a student, which means I never have seen the home of the Aggies in its current form. 88,645 people packed into Kyle Field for that 2011 contest. There could be 20,000 more people in the stands on Saturday if Kyle Field approaches its 110,633 record attendance.

There will also be a bit of a change calendar wise. It used to be that odd years were in College Station while even years were in Austin. The SEC threw a bone to former Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork and company when the league made sure the return of the rivalry in 2024, an even year, was in Aggieland.

This will also be the first time since 1995 that the game is not being played on either Thanksgiving or the day after Thanksgiving, with the conference and the television networks electing to put this in primetime on rivalry weekend Saturday.

[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!]

For fans and a sport that were robbed of this game for over a decade, robbed of tremendous experiences, the return of the rivalry on Saturday is everything fans of both the Longhorns and the Aggies could have asked for.

And a lot is on the line. That’s the way it should be.

I can’t wait.