2. How many fans show up
As mentioned previously, Texas A&M decided to open the Maroon And White Game to all comers and make tickets free. This is a first, at least in recent memory. With texas university aiming to set a record for their spring game, Aggie fans will surely not want to be one-upped by their cross-state rivals, and at the very least want to set a school record for attendance at the game.
This wouldn’t be the first time A&M aimed for some kind of attendance record. In 2010, A&M set out to beat the Guinness record number of students at a college sporting event. They even added lawn chairs on Kyle Field to accomplish this and the 31,000 students stormed the field (which is actually forbidden. Oops). I was there, and it was awesome.
In 2014, the season after A&M completed its $450 million renovations of Kyle Field, they shattered that record and had 38,800 students tickets sold for the home opener against Lamar.
The fact that they are treating this like a real game, with concessions, an Aggie fan zone, non-scripted plays, and an alumni flag football game at half time tells you A&M is hoping for a huge crowd. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.