Everyone with the power to bring back the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry will tell you (on the record, at least) that they want to bring the game back. But none of them seem to be in a big hurry to actually bring the game back.
That became apparent earlier this month when Texas announced a home-and-home series with Alabama for the 2022-23 seasons. That bit of news leaves the Longhorns scheduled out with the likes of USC, LSU, Arkansas, Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan through the 2027 season, meaning the series’s renewal will either have to wait until 2028 or the earliest, or the Longhorns will play a major non-conference opponent in September, a 9-game Big 12 schedule and Texas A&M as the lead in to a possible appearance in the Big 12 Championship and the College Football Playoff. Which isn’t happening.
For its part, Texas A&M is also scheduled through 2025 with home-and-homes against Clemson, Colorado, Miami and Notre Dame coming down the pike. Given that, it’s likely the Aggies also line up a 2026-27 series as well.
On Wednesday, Texas AD Chris Del Conte mused to Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News that the Horns-Aggies game will come back at some point, but he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to set something in stone.
Chris Del Conte on renewing UT/A&M football rivalry: "At some point and time we will pick up our rivalry. It’s important to our state and important to our fan base. I’m assuming when it’s appropriate and ready, we’ll play...We’d like to do that, it’s just matching up schedules."
— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) May 30, 2018
If and when the game comes back in 2028 or beyond, the timing of the actual game will become a major issue. The game was played on Thanksgiving weekend in its previous life and, presumably, Texas would like it there again. (Texas closes the 2018 season at Kansas on Black Friday.) Texas A&M, meanwhile, closes each season with LSU. Putting the game back on Thanksgiving weekend would mean pushing LSU up in the schedule, closer to when the Aggies play Alabama and the rest of the SEC West.
Whenever the game inevitably returns, it’s clear the Good Old Days of the UT-A&M rivalry are gone and they aren’t coming back.