Longhorns' SEC party exposes their 12-year-long envy, hypocrisy towards Texas A&M

Longhorns tip their hand with SEC celebration, showcase envy of Texas A&M that has been present for last 12 years

Ever since Texas A&M made the visionary move to join the SEC back in 2012, the Longhorns have been trying to catch up. Whether it's dubbing David Ash "David Football" in hopes of copying Manziel in 2013 or firing Tom Herman because he was losing recruits while A&M was in the CFP discussion in 2020, the envy has been obvious to everyone watching.

This culminated in the Longhorns making the move to the SEC. The Aggies were, of course, not happy about this, but if nothing else it was a tacit admission that A&M was right. The Ags went their own way when they refused to go along with the Longhorns to the PAC-10, and with one conference's ascendance and the other's all-but-dissolution, it's clear who made the correct call.

You'd think that the Longhorns tucking tail and plodding along in A&M's shadow would be enough to embarrass most self-respecting Texas fans, but it's possible the operative adjective there failed to apply to too broad a swath of those donning burnt orange. Instead, what we got was crowing and chest-beating—even when SEC journalists report that envy was the motivating factor for the Longhorns.

This was especially odd, given the fact that, for the previous twelve years, Texas fans have filed squarely away in their talking points that A&M is lame for promoting SEC membership as a positive. The hypocrisy was palpable—and it just got even worse.

Are you kidding me?

Twelve years of Longhorns talking down on Aggies for viewing their conference affiliation as a plus, and the moment they finally get in the door, they're throwing an SEC-themed party. The duplicity could not be more obvious, but even as we speak, Longhorn fans are memory-holing the fact that they've ever said an unkind word about promoting SEC membership. All except this guy, I guess, who must have missed the fanbase-wide memo.

In the end, this only further confirms what we've known for some time: that when it comes to the SEC move, the Aggies were the leader and the Longhorns were the followers. They know the best move for them now is to lean into the branding, and this is just that.

In ten, twenty, thirty years—this interplay will all but be forgotten, of course. The talking points will have to do with the game that (thankfully) will have been played many more times by that point. But for now, this is evidence of a dynamic that is obvious between these two schools—yet one that Texas fans will die before admitting.