'Nothing Has Changed' in Renewed Texas A&M-Texas Rivalry Says Aggies AD

Texas A&M Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork insists that nothing has changed regarding the scheduling of the reborn Lonestar Showdown.

Texas A&M Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork was not a fan of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners joining the SEC.

And Now that the move has become official, Bjork is holding firm in his stance.

Bjork said at his Aggies town hall Friday that "nothing has changed" regarding the first matchup between the two Lone Star State rivals, and that whenever the Longhorns and Aggies are scheduled to meet, the game will occur at Kyle Field in College Station.

Texas and Oklahoma officially announced their intent to depart the Big 12 early to join the SEC in 2024. The two schools will each pay roughly $50 million to the conference, much of which will be distributed among the eight "legacy" Big 12 programs to offset an expected decrease in their 2024 conference revenue.

In return, Texas A&M, along with the other 13 SEC programs, will nab $49 million from the $721.8 million of revenue the league earned for the 2021-22 fiscal year. After that, all 16 programs will make the same profit under the new media rights deal signed with ESPN beginning in 2024.

The Aggies and Longhorns haven't met on the gridiron since Texas A&M's departure from the Big 12 in 2011. The final game between the two rivals occurred at Kyle Field, ending in a 27-25 victory for Texas thanks to a game-winning field goal from Justin Tucker.

Though the Aggies and Horns will meet in 2024, the logistics of how the schedule will pan out remains a mystery. LSU essentially replaced Texas as A&M's Thanksgiving week rivalry.

“The (SEC members) have not decided on the exact football scheduling format, and we anticipate that decision being made this spring,” Bjork said. “And since we don’t know the exact football scheduling model, it’s too early to analyze the LSU-UT, home-away concept, until we see some models.”

Should Bjork's comments of the first game being held at Kyle Field ring true, this would mean the Aggies would travel to both Austin and Baton Rouge beginning in 2025, though the SEC could change the schedule based on a new format. According to commissioner Greg Sankey, the league is looking to expand to a nine-game conference format.

“We’ve been intentional about discussing our ability to have annual rivalries played or rivalries played every other year," Sankey said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning in Birmingham, Ala. "We haven’t arrived at a destination between eight or nine games. The number of games will facilitate the number of annual games that take place.”

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said last season that the Aggies have been assigned Texas, LSU and Mississippi State as their three "permanent" rivals under the current format. The Aggies, Bulldogs and Tigers currently play in the SEC West.

Sankey also discussed potentially riding both divisions to create a single-division format once the two Big 12 programs arrive.

“We engage in 'blue-sky thinking,' ... take a step back, look at the big picture, forget all of the old encumbrances, and think about ‘Wow, what are all the options in front of us?'" Sankey said. "And we’ve explored dozens of scheduling models."

The expansion comes off the cusp of the new College Football Playoff seeding format. Starting in 2024, the CFP will expand from four teams to 12. With the SEC moving to a 16-team league, this betters the chances of multiple programs representing the conference for a shot at the national title.

Since 2014, the SEC has dominated the competition in the current CFP format, winning six of the last nine contests. The conference is currently on a four-year streak thanks to LSU, Alabama and back-to-back wins by Georgia.

“It seems like since last fall the Big 12 and both (Texas and Oklahoma) were motivated to work out an earlier exit plan,” Bjork said. “This final date provides us with great clarity, so we can make the next round of critical decisions and continue to have a smooth transition.”

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