Texas AD hopeful Texas A&M rivalry can return to Thanksgiving on annual basis with Longhorns moving to SEC

USATSI

Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte is hopeful that future iterations of the rivalry tilt between the Longhorns and Texas A&M will return to its traditional date on Thanksgiving Thursday, he told fans at a town hall event on UT’s campus. Del Conte also hopes that the matchup will become an annual occurrence now that the two share a conference again.

“Obviously, this year is gonna be played on Saturday,” Del Conte said. “My goal is that we move that game back to Thursday [Thanksgiving].” 

The Longhorns and Aggies are set to square off on Saturday, Nov. 30, at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field this season in the first meeting between the schools since 2011. Though they are now both members of the SEC, there is no guarantee that they will play every season as they did when both were members of the Big 12.

With SEC leadership yet to settle on a permanent scheduling format, it’s unclear which rivalries will have permanent protection in the future. Moving to a nine-game schedule would make it easier to protect major rivalries while also allowing teams to cycle through the rest of the league on a semi-regular basis. Del Conte hinted at the possibility of the league moving to a nine-game schedule for the 2026 season during the Town Hall meeting.

 “I know we’re playing this year at their place, they’ll come back the following year. We know that was important for us to play that rivalry,” Del Conte said. “That game will be an annual game.”

The Longhorns and Aggies have met 120 times on the football field with 72 of those games taking place on Thanksgiving Day. The series was moved off…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/texas-ad-hopeful-texas-a-m-rivalry-can-return-to-thanksgiving-on-annual-basis-with-longhorns-moving-to-sec/

Author : David Cobb

Publish date : 2024-02-14 22:14:12

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