Texas’ Steve Sarkisian Talks Renewed Texas A&M, Arkansas Rivalries After SEC Move

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVMay 30, 2024

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Texas and Oklahoma making the move to the SEC for the 2024 season has renewed a number of traditional rivalry games, and Longhorns’ head coach Steve Sarkisian is here for it.

He told ESPN’s Heather Dinich on Wednesday that he’s looking forward to having Texas A&M and Arkansas back on the schedule:

“I’ve been part of some great rivalries in college football, and I know there was so much talk about realignment and I know realignment looks different for every school, but for us, we gained two rivals back. We’re playing Arkansas again, which is great for Texas and Longhorn nation. We get A&M back. The game with A&M, you’re talking about houses divided, you’re talking about decades of tremendous games and Thanksgiving weekend. To get that game back, we’re looking forward to it, I’m sure A&M is, too. I’ve got a ton of respect for Coach [Mike] Elko.”The Longhorns and the Aggies—in-state rivals who haven’t played since 2011 after Texas A&M’s move to the SEC, ending a 96-year uninterrupted streak of matchups—will face off on Nov. 30. Texas and Arkansas, who haven’t played a conference game against one another since 1991 in the Southwest Conference days, will face off on Nov. 16.

“Our rival has been Texas when we didn’t play Texas,” Razorbacks’ head coach Sam Pittman told Dinich. “You can feel it in the state. We did have an opportunity to play Texas two or three seasons ago, and it was a big, big deal for the state of Arkansas. For us at least it’s a great addition to bring an old rivalry back.”

Texas leads the all-time series against Texas A&M, 76–37–5, and the series against Arkansas by a margin of 56-23.

Brett McMurphy @Brett_McMurphyTexas A&M coach Mike Elko on Texas joining SEC: “We should play them. When you have 2 programs like that in same state 2 hours away they should play every year and it should mean a lot”

Conference realignment has been one of the major stories in college football in recent seasons. Along with Texas and Oklahoma defecting to the SEC, the Pac-12 will at least temporarily cease to exist after USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington departed for the Big Ten; Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah left for the Big 12; Stanford and Washington headed to the ACC; and Oregon State and Washington State will play six football games in the Mountain West next season.

The SEC and Big Ten undoubtedly came out of the fracas as the two strongest conferences in the country. The Big 12 lost not only its two biggest programs but one of the banner rivalries in the sport, the Red River Shootout. And the Big Ten added a traditional football powerhouse in USC, a traditional basketball powerhouse in UCLA and a pair of schools in Oregon and Washington who jockeyed for Pac-12 football supremacy in recent years.

In most cases, conference realignment has ended a lot of classic conference rivalries. Texas is one of the few schools restoring those classic matchups.