HOUSTON — Cotton Holdings, a Houston-based company known for property restoration and consulting, sounds like the perfect corporate sponsor for the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies.
Cotton CEO Pete Bell made the announcement Thursday that the new rivalry in the SEC will be called the Cotton Lone Star Showdown.
“I think everyone knew when I became the director of athletics at the University of Texas, they asked me the first question, ‘How about the A&M rivalry?,” UT athletic director Chris Del Conte said during a press conference. “Being back here today is critical for this state, critical for college football. I am so excited for both alumni bases.”
Del Conte then told a room full of Horns and Aggies supporters that the game would be held at a neutral site. Awkward pause. “Everyone puckered up just a little bit,” he joked. No, it will be home-and-home.
A&M athletic director Trev Alberts then took the stage and said, “With Chris you just never know what you’re going to get. We are so excited the rivalry is back.”
Texas holds the all-time edge in the football series 76-37-5, but the two teams haven’t met on the football field since 2011.
The series dates back to 1894 when Texas won 38-0. The two teams played again in 1898 and the series ran annually until 2011. The series went back and forth early in the 20th century. The Longhorns were dominant in the 1950s and ‘60s. The Aggies, led by their “Wrecking Crew” defense, took control in the 1980s.
On Nov. 20, 2011, Justin Tucker would nail a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give the Horns a 27-25 victory at Kyle Field. Tucker would go on to become one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history. But it was the final football matchup for years as A&M was set to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
The Aggies truly wanted to leave the Longhorns for good, and for years, they blamed the upstart Longhorn Network for wanting to bolt. What often gets lost in the revisionist history is that ESPN offered to start a channel for both Texas and A&M together, but it was A&M athletic director Bill Byrne who said no thanks. Texas said yes.
UT officials, including then-athletic director DeLoss Dodds, were so bitter about A&M leaving that they refused to play the Aggies in any sport for several years. The chill began to thaw as various school officials retired, coaches moved on and, as usual, time heals all wounds.
There would be a random basketball game, a mid-week baseball game there. The two teams were set to clash in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2016, but Texas lost on a half-court buzzer-beater against Northern Iowa.
Texas’ move to the SEC caused a whole new level of uproar in College Station. Aggies couldn’t believe it. How dare they copy us?! But given the shifting landscape in college sports, it made smart business sense for the Longhorns to join the most lucrative athletic conference in America.
Baseball fans got their first glimpse at the renewed rivalry in May when Texas got shipped to the College Station regional for the NCAAs. The Aggies would reach the College World Series championship series. And days later, Texas would stomp on A&M’s excitement by stealing away coach Jim Schlossnagle.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said numerous times that Texas and Oklahoma are good fits for the expanded conference. Sorry, A&M.
With the football series renewing, the Aggies practically demanded the Horns come to College Station first. Sankey granted that wish, and the two teams will play on Nov. 30. On Stubhub, resale tickets range from $63 to $3,148 for what will be the regular season finale for both teams.
“I’ve been asked before if I care if the game is played again, because I won’t necessarily have the last laugh or bragging rights or anything like that,” Tucker once told the Austin American-Statesman in an oral history of that game. “Like, I don’t care about that. I just want to see great football being played between one great program and its little brother.”
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