There's only one Red River Rivalry.
Oklahoma-Texas on the football field is among college football's longest-running rivalries, and not even the famed Florida-Georgia World's Largest Outdoor Party can match Red River's single-site history.
The game is synonymous with the State Fair of Texas at the Cotton Bowl, which is closing in on 100 consecutive years of hosting the border-war clash.
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, preparing for his fifth time leading the Sooners into the annual early-October battle, has lost three of his first four meetings against the Longhorns by 17 or more points. Oklahoma upended then-No. 3 Texas in 2023.
But Venables isn't interested in hearing any talk about the game shifting into a home-and-home rivalry series.
"It's the
only one, you know, I have experienced as having it in Dallas," Venables said Wednesday, Oct. 7, on the SEC coaches' teleconference. "I think there's a lot of pageantry and history there in the Cotton Bowl.
"I wouldn't want to change it for anything. I love everything about it: the passion, the energy, the intensity, the, crowd being 50-50 (Horns and Sooners fans), I think it's fantastic."
Under Steve Sarkisian, Texas is seeking a third win in a row in the Red River series -- something the program has not accomplished since 1997-99. The Longhorns opened in most sportsbooks as 6-point favorites, a number that has climbed closer to eight as of midweek.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brent Venables on moving Oklahoma-Texas game: 'I wouldn't want to change it for anything'
