When should the Lone Star Showdown between the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies take place?
The unequivocally correct answer to that question is “every year,” and with the two programs back in the same
conference after 13 year without playing, that aspect of it is set.
But the decision about whether the game should happen on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or on the same Saturday as other high-profile rivalries like The Game and the Iron Bowl is more fraught.
For Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, he simply wants the rivalry to receive the attention it deserves.
“I like it that with this game, we get an opportunity to stand alone,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
The 120th edition of the rivalry, which returns to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2010, is set for Friday. That’s the day the game was played from 1996 to 2007, the last game between the Horns and Aggies on the day after Thanksgiving.
“Whether it’s Thanksgiving or Friday after Thanksgiving. I just think this game deserves the spotlight to stand alone, and the fact that we’re playing on Friday night with all the eyes of college football on it, and really the football world on this game, I think this game deserves that,” Sarkisian said.
There is still competition. Friday features 13 total FBS games, including an early edition of the Egg Bowl between No. 7 Ole Miss and Mississippi State, No. 4 Georgia against No. 23 Georgia Tech, and two other games that will overlap with Texas and Texas A&M — No. 2 Indiana and Purdue kick off at the same time, while No. 25 Arizona and No. 20 Arizona State match up 90 minutes later.
“I’m not the decision maker on that so, but I do think this is a great opportunity for us. Last year we were a Saturday night game and we were up against some other games,” Sarkisian said.
It’s true, as most teams finish the regular season playing on Saturday.
Playing on Thanksgiving presents logistical challenges for fans even as college football has largely conceded the day to the NFL since the league added a third game 20 years ago — Navy and Memphis will be the only FBS game played on Thursday.
From 2008 to 2011, that’s when the Lone Star Showdown was played, the most traditional date for the rivalry with only 15 meetings the day after Thanksgiving and 79 on Thanksgiving, but there’s a strong case for Friday, when fans have a chance to make it to Austin after holiday festivities somewhere else.
