Texas A&M Football: Poll suggests Aggie fans want Texas game on the schedule

Texas A&M football has not played Texas since the former joined the SEC in 2012. Will we ever get the game back on the schedule?

Texas A&M and Texas playing each other in football on Thanksgiving (or the day after) was a time-honored tradition for just about everyone in the state of Texas. Even if you yourself did not attend either school, there’s a good chance your dad’s cousin’s uncle’s best friend’s grandpa went there and passed on the tradition to you.

Everyone watched the game.

Since 2012, the fan bases have exchanged digs at one another, claiming the other does not want to renew the rivalry. Most of the quotes from head coaches and athletic directors express a desire to play the game again. Though, if you believe former A&M AD Bill Byrne, former Texas AD DeLoss Dodds does not want the game to appear on the schedule any time soon.

Current head coach of t.u., Tom Herman, expressed desire to rekindle the rivalry:

Now former head coach Kevin Sumlin thought it would come back at some point in the future, and blamed the toughness of getting it back on the SEC schedule.

“Me, personally? I think over the course of time that’s going to happen,” Sumlin said. “With our move to the SEC scheduling has become a real issue.”

Since the issue will burn hot until the game comes back, or 50 years go by, whichever comes first, I asked the Gig Em Gazette Twitter followers a simple question.

77 percent of you would like to see it back on the schedule. To be honest, that’s more than I thought it would be. If you peruse the forums of TexAgs.com, it always seems to be split down the middle.

Those who want the game back on the schedule cherish the rivalry, the trash talk, the tradition of playing it during Thanksgiving week.

Those who don’t want it on the schedule typically wax on about the fact that we don’t need the game any more, that t.u. was selfish in creating their own TV network, that they need the game more than we do now.

They aren’t wrong. But none of that should be enough to let the game die. It’s too important. It means too much. It was part of so many lives. Football in Texas is a religion. How can the two biggest universities in the state go on not facing each other?

Next: 5 toughest games on the 2018 football schedule

It needs to happen. Let’s make it happen. Enough is enough.

Jeff Shull is the Site Expert for the Gig Em Gazette on FanSided. Follow him on Twitter, and be sure to follow the Gig Em Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.