Texas, Texas A&M Presidents Support Restarting Football Rivalry Series

The renewal of a storied Lone Star State rivalry could be in the works.

On Friday, the presidents of both Texas and Texas A&M expressed their desire to get a football game between the two programs back on the schedule in the future.

"It's a storied rivalry," Texas President Greg Fenves told the Statesman's Ralph K.M. Haurwitz. "We've told our ADs to figure out a plan and bring it to us."

The Longhorns aren't the only ones who want the rivalry to be brought back to life, though. Texas A&M President Michael Young told the Statesman that the Aggies were supportive of the idea as well: "Absolutely. We have been from Day One."

The Texas-Texas A&M rivalry dates back to 1894, with the Longhorns holding a 76-37-5 series lead in 118 meetings. As members of the Big 12, the two schools faced off on an annual basis. However, the series came to a halt after 2011 when the Aggies joined the SEC.

The two schools split their latest six meetings, with Texas using a last-second field goal to pull out a 27-25 victory in the most recent meeting back in 2011.

Now that the two schools are in different conferences, finding an open weekend for both teams can be complicated.

"There are some real practical and contractual issues with scheduling nonconference games," Fenves said, per Haurwitz. "The SEC is different from the Big 12. We have nonconference games scheduled 10 years out."

Young added: "You have to get the weekend that coincides and works together. It is complicated. Our schedules don’t match very well. They have nonconference games in the beginning; we have ours interspersed more throughout the season. All of this makes it very hard to schedule."

There is no current timetable for a potential renewal. But as the interview with the Statesman revealed, there is interest on both sides to make it happen.

Any deal could lead to major College Football Playoff implications. The selection committee factors nonconference strength of schedule into its decisions, so having a victory over a Power Five school in nonconference play could pay off big time. Then again, a loss would put more pressure on the losing team to run the table in conference play.

Now is as good of a time as any to bring back the rivalry, though, as both Texas (No. 9) and Texas A&M (No. 16) finished in the Top 25 of the final Associated Press poll in 2018-19.