Texas A&M Football 50 in 50: Should Texas be on the schedule?

Texas A&M football is 39 days away, and in the days leading up to the Aggie opener we’re answering the 50 biggest questions for the 2018 season.

Texas A&M football hasn’t played their rival down there in Austin since the 2011 season, a loss off a late field goal at Kyle Field. The Aggies made the smart move and joined the Southeastern Conference before the 2012 football season.

Since then, the debate has roared on. Should Texas and Texas A&M get the football game back on the schedule?

Both schools debate with each other and with themselves. There are many schools of thought.

One shared belief from both sides is the group that wants the game back due to the tradition. The game was played 118 times in total, most of which was at the end of the season during Thanksgiving.

Families in Texas would gather together and enjoy the trash talking, the intensity of the game, and for the last 20-30 years, the high stakes nature of the game. One or the other team — if not both — was typically in contention for the conference championship.

Former t.u. quarterback Vince Young recently spoke about getting the game back.

"“The friendship that people have with Aggies and Longhorns coming together for one big game, eating dinner just to talk trash for a day. I mean, it’s fun. Especially for Texas, man. It’s fun to compete and have fun, especially the fans.I mean, I enjoy messing with my niece all the time, she’s a Aggie, so I enjoy giving her a hard time every year.”"

He’s got a great point. The football season doesn’t feel right without the Texas game.

The other side of it for Aggies is the fact that that school down in Austin drove us out of the conference with their greed. The ESPN Longhorn Network was the final straw in years of them playing unfairly.

This side will argue we don’t need t.u. on the schedule and there is nothing to gain for us, only for them. They will improve their weak Big 12 schedule, where as the Aggies already have the toughest conference schedule plus have scheduled tough non-conference opponents for the next several seasons.

The other side for t.u. fans is those who dismiss A&M as a rival to begin with. They call us “little brother” and pretend they don’t care that A&M left the Big 12. This is folly. They know it and we know it.

Personally, I’m on the tradition side. I want the game back. A&M might possibly be entering its best era ever, and I want to beat the brakes off of Texas every season. I agree moving to the SEC was the right move, but there are plenty of out-of-conference in-state rivals that play each other every year.

There may not be a financial reason for Aggies, and it’s clear that adding a tough game in place of some low tier Louisiana school would remove a guaranteed win from the schedule, but none of that matters as much as the tradition.

Next: 5 best games from Texas-Texas A&M Big 12 rivalry

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.