Texas Tech Playing Texas A&M Would Be A Win For Football
By Kyle Kensing
Nov 24, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders helmet and logo on the field before the game against the Baylor Bears at Cowboys Stadium. Baylor beat Texas Tech 52-45 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Texas Tech playing Texas A&M is only a reality in so much as athletic director Kirby Hocutt said he would “welcome the opportunity.”
Texas A&M athletic director Eric Hyman reciprocated…well, in so much as he “would entertain anything,” per The Dallas Morning News.
But hey, it’s progress.
A&M announced its departure from the Big 12 Conference in the summer of 2011 in the fallout of the conference’s restructuring, which rival Texas leveraged into the Longhorn Network.
Initial reports said the split was “an amicable divorce,” and the sides avoiding a messy court battle akin to the West Virginia Mountaineers and Big East Conference would seem to support that. But Texas rebuffed A&M interest in continuing their century-old rivalry shortly thereafter.
In turn, A&M president R. Bowen Loftin told The Austin Statesman, “I don’t envision us playing any other Big 12 schools in football on a regular basis.”
Rekindling the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry might take extrarodinary measures, which may be several years and administrators away. But A&M and Tech is a rivalry wrought with history, and was highly competitive over the two programs’ 70 meetings.
Reconciling a fractured relationship often requires an overture from one side. Hocutt making that gesture might be the necessary invitation to rejuvenate football traditions that conference realignment, tier three broadcasting rights and other outside influences jeopardized.
Might other Big 12 members follow suit? The Baylor Bears and Aggies squared off regularly, dating back all the way to 1899, in the Battle of the Brazos. Perhaps BU could express interest in reigniting the series. A rotating series with its former conference mates would guarantee A&M a quality opponent in the resume-building race that the new playoff will usher into college football.
There is some precedent suggesting A&M is genuinely open to a regular date outside the conference schedule. The Aggies maintained its rivalry with the Arkansas Razorbacks even after UA left the old Southwest Conference for the SEC in 1991.
The crossover between Big 12 and SEC is inherently intriguing, and intrigue is largely missing from the college football non-conference season. There are also conference bragging rights to be had. What better way for A&M to establish itself as true SEC than to represent conference pride against another power league?
Texas Tech playing Texas A&M is nothing more than idle, off-season chatter now, but it’s further exploration would yield good things for college football.