Texas 49, Texas A&M 9

[throatybeard]

I am thankful for:

--Erin Andrews
--College FB on TG weekend

[wolfpackdevil]

I am thankful for:

--Erin Andrews
--College FB on TG weekend

I agree completely.

But rooting hard for Texas A&M, need some teams to lose so that USC can play for the title.

It will start tonight, the FSU will come through Saturday.

[BlueintheFace]

It's funny to hear people say that OU is Texas' big rival nowadays... darn kids... they just can't remember that A&M and UT have been the big conference rivalry for decades. Or maybe, darn dennis francione for ruining the A&M program and dooming them to national obscurity.

[throatybeard]

For variety, I'd rather see TTU in the B12CG, but I've got to say Texas has the better case over them. TTU nipped Texas on the last play. And Texas beat OU.

[blazindw]

It's funny to hear people say that OU is Texas' big rival nowadays... darn kids... they just can't remember that A&M and UT have been the big conference rivalry for decades. Or maybe, darn dennis francione for ruining the A&M program and dooming them to national obscurity.

I lived in Texas a couple years and my brother will graduate from there next weekend. Ask most UT alums and Texas Exes (the alumni), they will say that OU is the biggest rival and Texas A&M is the 2nd rival. I would agree, and the Red River Shootout has been a rivalry almost as long as The Lone Star Showdown.

[calltheobvious]

At different points during Auburn's current six-game winning streak over the Tide, many Alabama fans have decided that Tennessee is their biggest rival. I think it's simply an easy way to rationalize away the significance of getting owned by one particular opponent. But as is written every time this issue comes up with Duke and Maryland, you can only decide who your rivals are, not anybody else's.

Here's my litmus test for deciding which team is your biggest rival: If you could only win one game per year for the next ten years, whom would you want to beat? That's your biggest rival.

Methinks if you put the truth serum to UT fans living in Texas that they'd say A&M, since constantly hearing it from your neighbors would get old PDQ.

[throatybeard]

Here's my litmus test for deciding which team is your biggest rival: If you could only win one game per year for the next ten years, whom would you want to beat? That's your biggest rival.

Methinks if you put the truth serum to UT fans living in Texas that they'd say A&M, since constantly hearing it from your neighbors would get old PDQ.

Interesting framing.

But what if you've got an even more complicated rival situation than Texas?

Who would Georgia fans say. Potentially, you're in a position to hear it everyday more from Auburn and even Georgia Tech fans. But wouldn't they say Florida? And where does Tennessee fit into that?

And who does Tennessee say? Bama? Florida? Georgia?

[calltheobvious]

Interesting framing.

But what if you've got an even more complicated rival situation than Texas?

Who would Georgia fans say. Potentially, you're in a position to hear it everyday more from Auburn and even Georgia Tech fans. But wouldn't they say Florida? And where does Tennessee fit into that?

And who does Tennessee say? Bama? Florida? Georgia?

Your really old-guard Georgia people would say 1) Auburn, 2) Tech, and a distant 3) Florida. The younger Dawg crowd would probably say 1) Florida
2) Tech 3) Auburn

Similarly, nearly every Tennessee fan 35 and older would say Alabama (lot of good, clean hate in that rivalry), but the younger crowd has likely come to care about Florida more than Bama.

You're right, though. The neighbor angle is not always going to be a significant factor.

[billybreen]

I am thankful for:

--Erin Andrews

Corollary: I am thankful for HD.

[BlueintheFace]

I lived in Texas a couple years and my brother will graduate from there next weekend. Ask most UT alums and Texas Exes (the alumni), they will say that OU is the biggest rival and Texas A&M is the 2nd rival. I would agree, and the Red River Shootout has been a rivalry almost as long as The Lone Star Showdown.

This is true right now, I agree. OU has just been better for the last ten years while A&M has stunk. However, I assure you, if both OU and A&M were top 10 teams, beating A&M would be higher on the priority list. Consider the following;
1) both schools have fight songs that specifically make fun of the opposing school (not true of OU)
2) Texas' mascot, Bevo, got his name from when A&M students stole the longhorn and branded him
3) the two teams ALWAYS play each other for the last game of the regular season
4) If you hear of a Texas Exe married to a Sooner, it really isn't that weird down here in Texas, but if you hear of a Texas Exe married to an Aggie people always ask, "so how does that work out?" or "How will you raise your children?"
5) When you live in Texas your parents usually went to one of the two schools so all you do is argue with kids who's parents went to the opposite school as yours. It's a proximity thing. Carolina and Duke are rivals because of proximity, but if Carolina was really terrible for 10 years or so and Maryland was great that entire tim, people might start to forget...

Plus, the red river shootout was a non event until 1976 when Darrel Royal accused Barry Switzer of spying on their practices while the A&M game has always been a big deal (until about 10 years ago). Take it from a native Texan living in Austin right now, its just the younger fans who don't know which rivalry has historically been bigger. The sad part though, is that another ten years might doom the rivalry

[A-Tex Devil]

Being at UT in the early part of this decade and living in Austin now, gun to head, people will take the win against OU over A&M if they can only have one. Everything changed once the Big XII was formed. The annual UT-OU game became a conference game, and when Mack Brown and Bob Stoops elevated the programs back to Switzer/Royal goodness, the Red River Shootout was an early season game that not only eliminated the loser (usually) from the national championship, it eliminated them from having a chance to win the conference. This is on the the second Saturday in October. At the very least it created a 2 game hole via record and head to head (again ususally).

Historically, A&M is the biggest rival, but that is changing. Heck, in SWC conference days, Arkansas could have been a bigger rival of Texas than OU.

But the reality of A&M is (and I'm afraid this will draw out some Aggie lurker), other than the 1930s and a 10-12 year run from 1985-1997, they have been dominated by Texas and haven't been nationally relevant. I mean, Army used to be one of Notre Dame's biggest rivals. Programs plummet sometimes.

Still rooting for the computers to set up the OU-UT rematch!!

[throatybeard]

It's amazing to me that Nebraska, yes, a great FB program historically, but one who hasn't exactly torn things up in the last ten years, and in a state with like 1.8M people, has completely given it's historical rival OU the deuces. They're playing Michigan and Iowa now. See ya. If you told me in 1990 that the NU-OU rivalry was going to be dead soon, I'd be all like, no, what?

Maybe OU, Texas and A&M are headed a similar direction.

[BD80]

I am thankful for:

--Erin Andrews

...

I thought the rules of posting required a link ...

[johnb]

Having a large number of relatives who went to OU but having been raised in Texas, I always thought the OU-Texas rivalry was the biggest thing in sports.
UT-A&M was an afterthought, except to A&M, kinda like the UT-Texas Tech is the biggest game on Tech's schedule, but no one around the country cares unless Tech is in the top 25. OU-Nebraska was similar to UT-A&M in that both were big games to both fan bases but huge games only if the game had national importance (and I was taken to the 1971 OU-NU game, which was one of the big games of the era).

But to get on point, Nebraska is tired of being second fiddle to OU, Texas, etc, and Nebraska is really an upper midwest place rather than a southwest place. High time they joined up with their corn-fed cousins and become second fiddle to Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. I've been skeptical that A&M would actually leave their local rivals in order to be second tier in the SEC and really skeptical that the local politicos would allow it, but A&M is much more rural/rednecky than UT and would fit in fairly well with the Mississippi's and Bama's. It also makes me wonder if Oklahoma State would join them.