After a bitter breakup that tore apart football tradition, Texas and Texas A&M reunite Saturday in the SEC.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas and Texas A&M first met on a football field in 1894, a rivalry that would transcend states and touch families for generations.

However, eventually a bitter parting will come between the two.

In 2011, Texas A&M announced it would leave Texas and the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference, determined to focus solely on its bright future and not cling to its sentimental past.

The indignant finger-pointing and painful emotions eventually gave way to a shrug of indifference and a muttering, “Good for you.”

Thirteen years later, the family feud reignited. Texas is playing in the SEC this season, and the No. 3 Longhorns and No. 20 Aggies will finally meet again Saturday night in College Station with a new intensity. A trip to the SEC Championship Game is at stake.

“I’ve missed this. It’s a waste of a game not to play,” said Dan Neal, a former Texas All-American offensive lineman who played in the rivalry from 1992 to 1996.

Neil called the breakup “unfortunate.” Former Texas quarterback Case McCoy, whose crazy foot scramble made the game-winning field goal for the Longhorns in 2011, has spoken more openly about the lost years of their treasured rivalry. Ta.

“I feel like it was stolen from the last generation of football players,” McCoy said.

This split occurred during a period of tumultuous conference realignment across the United States, centered in Texas.

The Big 12 had already lost Colorado to the Pac-12 and Nebraska to the Big Ten. Texas also flirted with joining the Pac-12 and bringing longtime rival the University of Oklahoma and other Big 12 schools into its fold. Meanwhile, Texas A&M briefly looked east to the SEC.

A year later, the ship was still rocking when Texas and ESPN effectively upended a 20-year, $300 million deal to launch the now-defunct Longhorn Network. Big 12 rivals complained bitterly that the imposing Longhorns were dominating the rest of the league.

The Aggies had had enough. Although the two schools had played in the same conference since 1915, A&M thought it had a chance to break out on its own. The SEC was the most powerful football conference in the country, with more money and more respect, and a promise to make a big leap out of Texas’ shadow.

When Texas A&M notified the Big 12 that it was leaving the Big 12, then-Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin called it a “once-in-a-century decision” that the school approached “carefully and methodically.”

Years later, he spoke of his simple desire to flee Texas.

In 2021, Loftin said, “A&M had to do something bold and something that really meant something to A&M that didn’t necessarily tie us to that school in Austin in the future.” spoke.

As a result, deeply rooted state traditions were torn apart. This game was as much a Thanksgiving staple as turkey, stuffing, and pecan pie.

“I went to Texas for the A&M game,” said McCoy, whose family has deep roots in the rivalry. His older brother Colt was one of the greatest quarterbacks in Longhorns program history.

“My dad was a high school football coach (in Texas). My grandparents, uncles, brothers, everyone is involved,” McCoy said of the rivalry. “If you’re a kid growing up in Texas, that meant a lot.”

The Aggies left the Big 12, aware of the possibility of a split, and said they informed Texas they wanted to continue playing. Texas said it has already had a full non-conference schedule in recent years.

As the Texas fight song goes, “Goodbye A&M.” Perhaps due to scheduling conflicts, the tradition was about to be lost.

“It was a travesty,” said former Texas running back Ricky Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1998 and set the NCAA career rushing record against the Aggies.

“I thought it would be foolish to eliminate that game because to me that game is deeper and more powerful than the conference,” Williams said.

Their 2011 match before their disbandment became an instant classic.

In a tense back-and-forth game played in front of an enthusiastic College Station crowd, McCoy’s desperate 25-yard scramble broke through the heart of the defense, setting up Justin Tucker’s 40-yard field goal as time expired. .

Texas’ 27-25 victory on the scoreboard lingered in the minds of a stunned home crowd unsure whether revenge would be forthcoming.

“It parted like the Red Sea,” McCoy said of A&M’s defense. “Thank God, we won that game…I married into a family where everyone is Aggie except my wife. I’ll always live that.”

Over the years, there have been scattered mentions of a renewed rivalry. And in 2021, Texas and Oklahoma were officially invited to join the SEC.

I thought Texas A&M had parted ways with the Longhorns for good, but I was stunned. The loss in 2011 was crushing. Texas’ move to the SEC was shocking.

Texas was originally approved to join in 2025, but that was later moved up to this year. The Aggies will at least have home field advantage and meet again in the evening kickoff at raucous Kyle Field.

“I’ll be going to the game and my kids and family will be there,” said former Texas A&M All-American linebacker Dat Nguyen. “We don’t want to take it for granted, so we want them to experience it and absorb it, because you never know. We hope (the breakup) doesn’t happen again. Masu.”

Former Texas A&M coach RC Slocum is ready for a reunion. He summed up what it should mean for the players taking part in it.

“I’ve always told my employees that in the skyscrapers of Dallas and Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, and the deer blinds of West Texas, this is going to be the most talked about topic of the week,” Slocum said. he said.

“And when you get older, and for the rest of your life, people are going to be talking about this game, so you have to make it in a way that makes it fun for you to talk about this game,” he says. I did.

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas

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