Aggies get no pushovers as new permanent SEC opponents are finally revealed

Texas A&M football now officially knows their permanent opponents for the upcoming four years, and it looks like the Aggies will have a rough go of things.

Texas A&M football, according to Chris Low of ESPN, will be facing off with Texas, LSU, and Missouri each season over the next four years. Texas and LSU were expected to be on this schedule, while that third spot was up in the air— and it's not exactly the result that every Aggie fan wanted to see.

First of all, there's not too much of a historical rivalry between the two teams, so the animus just isn't there. The Aggies have much more of a history with a team like Arkansas than they do with Missouri, as they shared the Southwest Conference with the Hogs for much longer than they shared the Big 12 with Missouri— not to mention that they were not even in the same division as the Tigers during that time period.

Texas A&M football gets no pushovers with new permanent SEC opponents

On a purely football level, too, this shows that the next four years will be no cakewalk at all for the Aggies. It's not the hardest three-opponent slate in the entire conference— Auburn has to play both Alabama and Georgia every year, Alabama gets Tennessee and Auburn, etc.— but the likelihood that one of these turns into a complete "gimme" game is very low.

Missouri has gotten things rolling under Eli Drinkwitz, and are currently ranked ahead of LSU in the most recent SP+ ratings. LSU themselves always have it going outside of a couple of years under Ed Orgeron. Texas has had some struggles over the last decade, but you can't discount anything in a rivalry game.

If Texas A&M wants to be a championship program, their regular-season slate over the next few years will be an apt testing ground. They will have to rise to this challenge, and I think Mike Elko can get them there.