For Texas fans, keeping rivalry with Oklahoma may mean more than SEC reunion with A&M

And the winner of Mr. Congeniality at this week’s SEC conferences: Jimbo Fisher, the Texas A&M coach, who claimed it’s all good with Nick Saban, then declared he’d “love to play Texas” regardless of the decade-long chilly conflict between the 2 colleges. Don’t know what they have been serving on the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort, however anyone will need to have made Jimbo’s a double.

Meanwhile, the massive news from Big 12 conferences was that Texas and Oklahoma intend to proceed their annual date on the State Fair.

Because we’re all about rivalries and the resumption of such. Otherwise, why play school soccer?

As rivalries go, the feud between A&M and Texas ranks proper up with the best. Before the Aggies stop the Big 12 for the SEC, the sequence was the nation’s third-oldest. Even made a Wheaties field.

Just the identical, we’ve lived with out the A&M-Texas recreation for a decade and nonetheless managed to get alongside with the in-laws at Thanksgiving.

On the opposite hand, if something occurred to Texas-OU, I’m undecided I might ever eat one other corny canine. Or not more than one, anyway.

Texas-OU isn’t merely a rivalry. As talked about right here a time or 10, it’s merely the state’s biggest annual sporting occasion. The twin components of rivalry and venue have mixed over time to forge one thing really memorable, to not point out inextricable, one from the opposite. They go collectively like “cheese” and “enchilada.”

Considering the built-in benefits of Texas-OU, it hardly appears truthful to match with A&M-Texas. One is steeped in scorching oil; the opposite, merely the pure antipathies of a million-plus alums bumping into one another at each flip.

Now, as a Houston grad, and by the pores and skin of my enamel, I’ve no canine in any of those hunts. But it has lengthy appeared that Texas followers are much less infected by the A&M feud than the one from throughout the Red River. Over the final century or so, nationwide titles have often ridden on the result on the State Fair, ratcheting up the depth within the course of. Not to say all these Texas expats adorning OU All-American lists. Bad sufficient to lose a five-star recruit to an in-state rival. Fair or not, the notion of a Texan taking part in in Norman carries a whiff of treason to by-God Texans, significantly these compelled to salute Sam Houston on I-45.

Over the final 45 years of research, it’s turn into my opinion that the majority Aggies take the semi-natural condescension of Longhorns with much less good humor than the remainder of Texas’ in-state rivals, although the Red Raiders are gaining quick. Getting out from below Texas’ nostril was a minimum of half the motivation for decamping to the SEC within the first place.

And when DeLoss Dodds, Texas’ athletic director on the time of the break up, stated the 2 outdated rivals would by no means play once more in consequence?

Deal, pal.

Time finally heals all wounds, but it surely’s been working weekends with Jimbo and Saban. Only a few weeks in the past, Jimbo appeared prepared to show state’s proof towards his outdated boss after Saban accused the Aggies of shopping for their roster. This week, Jimbo stated he’s moved on. Their friends vouched for it. Brian Kelly, LSU’s new coach, made it straightforward sufficient for even sportswriters to know.

“They weren’t wrestling in there,” he stated. “I can tell you that.”

Maybe not, but it surely certain gave the impression of WWE a few weeks in the past. Come to think about it, private animus among the many principals is the stuff of the very best rivalries. It was private when Darrell Royal, the previous Oklahoma quarterback, beat his outdated coach, Bud Wilkinson. And it was private when Royal accused Barry Switzer of spying.

Outside Jackie Sherrill and Bear Bryant, I can’t consider an A&M coach who acquired below Texas’ pores and skin. Emory Bellard was one in all Darrell’s boys. Heck, all people favored R.C. Slocum. Still do.

Dodds — highly effective and imperious — didn’t thoughts testing the extent of his authority. Besides virtually guaranteeing Texas would by no means play A&M once more, he rattled the cages of Dallas officers by threatening to tear Texas-OU from town’s cloth in the event that they didn’t clear up the Cotton Bowl. Only when native icon Pete Schenkel smoothed issues over was a disaster averted.

Oklahoma’s athletic director, Joe Castiglione, informed reporters this week that talks of extending the State Fair contract, which expires after the 2025 season, have already begun. By then, the rivals can have adopted the Aggies east. SEC officers haven’t stated what the league will appear to be or who’s taking part in whom, but it surely appears a foregone conclusion that Texas and Oklahoma will play yearly. Speculation signifies the Aggies and Longhorns will resume their sequence, too.

Considering all of the loopy stuff you hear about school soccer as of late, it’s good to see the return of just a little custom.

As for the preservation of the rivalry that has by no means left us excessive and dry, I’m afraid I’ll want more reassurance than Castiglione’s. Pressed on Texas-OU and the State Fair, he stated the sport will stay in Dallas “for the foreseeable future.” Promises of constancy that weak gained’t work on me or your spouse, Joe.

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