For those not familiar with college rivalries in the Lone Star State, it’s important to keep in mind that a team’s biggest rival is typically not reciprocated and that has held true far beyond the shifting sands of realignment that has happened over the years.
For example, SMU plays for the ‘Iron Skillet’ against TCU but the Horned Frogs probably dislike Baylor a lot more than their metroplex rivals. The Bears are no fan of the other private Christian university but also have quite a history with Texas Tech. The Red Raiders think it’s nice that there’s no love in that rivalry but dislike Texas A&M so much that they’ve famously pointed the rear of a horse statue on campus to face College Station. The Aggies’ disdain for Texas is will versed (literally, in their war hymn) but the Longhorns go to Dallas every year to take on their hated rival Oklahoma. You’ll get arguments from fans over the importance of these rivalries with in-state schools and such is life no matter if the teams are in the SWC or Big 12.
Well, it seems that we’re seeing one of these rivalries flare up after lying a little dormant over the years. The issue at hand prompting it? Naturally, it’s veterinarians.
It seems that Tech is pushing to build a new veterinarian school, which is crowding onto the turf of A&M given the Aggies near-monopoly on the subject in the state. This has led to some Texas-sized politics over the past few months and the war of words is just as fierce as it is on the football field. Case in point, the chancellor of the Texas A&M system, John Sharp, wrote an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News this week to speak out as to why the Red Raiders’ pursuit of a new school is superfluous.
There’s a lot of dry material in there save for the last line, which is straight out of a talking point from Saturdays in the fall:
“If there is some kind of rivalry between Tech and A&M, somebody forgot to tell us.”
That statement is sure to rile up those in red black, which technically are on a three-game losing streak to the Aggies on the football field dating back to their last meeting back in 2011.
While we are all certainly pining for a renewal of the Texas and Texas A&M series on the football field, is it too much to ask for the Aggies and Red Raiders meeting up in a bowl game (perhaps, say, the Texas Bowl) in 2018? There’s certainly no shortage of talk needed to fire things back up between the two schools at the moment.