LISTEN: Texas AD Chris Del Conte discusses getting spurned by A&M while trying to restart rivalry
For years, Texas A&M and Texas would square off in a heated rivalry game on Thanksgiving weekend (and often on Thanksgiving Day itself).
However, when the Aggies left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012, the rivalry fell by the wayside, seemingly due to hurt feelings and bitterness on both sides.
On Tuesday, Texas AD Chris Del Conte joined Big 12 Radio on SiriusXM and said the Longhorns tried to reignite the rivalry, but were spurned by the Aggies:
.@TexasFootball and @AggieFootball played against each other every year from 1915-2011.
They have not played since 2011.@_delconte reached out to Texas A&M to try and bring back the rivalry game but "it didn't fit in their schedule" 🔊 pic.twitter.com/MzXEEsSPZF
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) November 20, 2018
“I asked them if they wanted to play in 2022 and 2023 when we had an opening,” Del Conte said. “It didn’t fit into their schedule, so we added Alabama. We subsequently picked up Michigan and Ohio State and we just picked up Georgia, so I feel good about our non-conference schedule as we move along the way.”
The Aggies have also supposedly been spurned by the Longhorns before Del Conte took over, so this feud has perpetrators on both sides. Will the two schools ever play again? It doesn’t look like anything will happen soon.
It’s a shame. There’s no reason this game shouldn’t be played every year on Thanksgiving Day.
It had it’s time, but we have moved on. I have no desire to do a home and home or an annual game again at the expense of games like Clemson and Notre Dame.
How do you interpret that as the Longhorns being “spurned” by the Aggies? Longhorns waited until the Aggie’s schedule was full then put forth the offer. That offer could have been put forth before the schedule was full, or they could have accepted the Aggie’s offer long ago. There are no two sides to this, that offer was nothing more than Conte trying to save face for the Longhorns knowing they had refused the game numerous times already and were looking weak and petty for doing so.
Good. Texas tried to cheat everyone with the Longhorn network and now they are surprised no one wants to play with them? They should have to beg on bended knee in order to have an annual rivalry like that ever again.
That’s not how it went. You should read up on how that came about.
It may not have started that way, but over time they absolutely handled things wrong with the network and it absolutely negatively effected the entire Big12. There is a reason 90% of the teams wanted to leave.
Most articles I’ve read don’t do justice to the way it really went. After 100 years of rivalry games every years, the Aggies finally got fed up with the Longhorns. There was a move to create a Big 12 Network in the model of the SEC network. While the details were being worked out, the University of Texas backed out and announced their own Longhorn network. It was great for the Longhorns, but horrible for the rest of the Big 12. I’m sure the Tide or the Tigers could support their own network, but doing so would diminish the SEC, and that’s not a good way to do business.
Exactly, it’s incredible how the story just gets more and more warped as time goes on. Probably because the Longhorns are the ones doing all the talking.
Too bad.
2030 is the soonest they could schedule a regular season game. The series is dead. Neither side really wanted to play the other. Maybe an occasional bowl game but that is it.
Not entirely true. I’ve been here on campus before, during, and after all the move and sentiment here from students, coaches, players, and the AD was a very emphatic yes to continuing the rivalry after the move to the SEC. Longhorn response to the Aggie’s move over the years and their refusal to play has soured that sentiment dramatically.
A&M Leaders was jealous for not getting a piece of the pie; When UT got the Longhorn network. That’s a fact, Jack!
You clearly have no clue how it actually went down bl501.
horns need to quit whining. Perrin & Fenves need to grow up. Their predecessor’s remarks painted them into the corner they are in. The b12 is about to implode because of horn shenanigans. And no conference will take that clown show in. No one was ever more deserving of living in in the slimy part of the sewer than the horns.
This is Texas tradition and part of the Thanksgiving holiday. Everything was planned around the game. We have lost part of our culture not playing this game
A rivalry that dates back in history to the 1800s; liberals have no value in continuing tradition. Sad, next they’ll say the apple pie is unamerican!
Did Bama agree to an away game on the BevoTV network? Emperor Saban may send an ALabama Admin to the guillotine for this.