The New Football Thanksgiving in Texas

Texans expect to watch the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies every Thanksgiving. Unfortunately one of these traditions will not be played this year or in the near future...the Lone Star Showdown.  Texas A&M's move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference ended the third longest rivalry in the FBS and one of the greatest American sports rivalries.

What does this rivalry mean to Texans?

There's nothing more important to Texans than football and food and when they're put together on Thanksgiving, it's their favorite day of the year.  Texans eat their Thanksgiving meal throughout the day, enjoying some Dallas Cowboy football and the Lone Star Showdown.  The state's inhabitants are born and bred to be Longhorns and Aggies and this football game is on the minds of Texans every Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, this rivalry has been suspended for the near future and Texans, Longhorns and Aggies are adjusting to the change. This Thanksgiving will not feature the annual Texas-Texas A&M rivalry but both schools are in action.  The Longhorns renew a Southwest Conference rivalry with TCU on Thanksgiving and the Aggies continue their acquaintance with Missouri on Saturday.  The schools will not meet on the gridiron until 2019 (at the earliest), but no other traditions were changed at the two schools.  Both schools reference the other in their fight song but there was no change to the lyrics.  The University of Texas continued its annual Hex Rally to "hex" its Thanksgiving Day opponent and Texas A&M continued its weekly Midnight Yell Practice prior to each game of the season.

This in-state rivalry is very important to the State of Texas and a part of the state's history with 118 football duels, 222 men's basketball meetings and 365 baseball games between the schools.  It's also one of the best rivalries in college athletics and hopefully will be restored soon.