Ever since the Texas and Texas A&M broke up in November 2011, the two have functioned like every dysfunctional couple you've ever known. "Do I care how my ex is doing? Nope, definitely don't care. Don't care at all. I definitely do not care that they're over there by the bathroom talking to a guy I've never seen before."
It was entertaining at first, but it's gotten to the point where the I-don't-care-that-you-don't-care routine stopped being cute a long time ago, and now everyone just wants both sides to shut up and get back together already.
It appears we're closer than ever to finally reviving the UT-A&M game.
In an interview with Texas Monthly, Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp goes on record saying he'd like to see the game return.
Still, Sharp won’t rule out the possibility of a rematch sometime in the future. “I’d like to put the UT–A&M game back together. I know the governor wants to put it back together. UT wants to put it back together.”
He thought about it for a minute, and a grin spread across his face.
“Man, can you imagine how much money we could make off that game?”
This is an, ahem, sharp turn from what the A&M chancellor thought very recently. Here's what Sharp told the Texas Tribunejust two years ago.
We asked them to play. I will say there is less enthusiasm among the Aggie network now than there was back then. We have new friends and we like playing LSU and we like playing these folks. We're hopeful that sometime in the future there will be a bowl game that we're able to play in, you know,if [Texas] gets there. But the great thing about playing us is that you can get on real TV if you play us.
Charlie Strong wanted to play A&M, and so does Tom Herman.
Here's what Kevin Sumlin had to say earlier this summer.
“Me, personally? I think over the course of time that’s going to happen,” Sumlin told the Austin American-Statesman. “With our move to the SEC scheduling has become a real issue.”
Sumlin isn't wrong. Scheduling will be a big thorn if and when the game comes back, a hurdle that wouldn't have been there had the series continued after 2011. Texas will want to resume the series where it was played before -- on Thanksgiving weekend. The 'Horns alternate between Texas Tech and TCU right now -- hollow replacements for the A&M game on Thanksgiving night or Black Friday -- and has home-and-homes with USC, LSU, Ohio State and Michigan in September through the next decade. A&M plays LSU on Thanksgiving weekend now, and moving that game would create a headache on the SEC's end unless the Kansas-Missouri rivalry also resumed (which isn't happening until Bill Self says it is... don't ask). A&M also has home-and-homes with Clemson, Colorado, Miami and Notre Dame coming down the pike as well.
Circling back to the ivory tower and Texas Monthly, UT chancellor William McRaven said he'd be on board with bringing it back, too.
"I’m a big believer that we need to get back and play the game," he said in 2015. "I’m not sure everybody’s in agreement with me, but that’s a tradition worth reviving."
The chancellors of each university wants to bring the UT-A&M rivalry back. The coaches do, too. The fans may say they don't, but that would change the millisecond they saw the burnt orange and the maroon on the field together again.
There are a million reasons to bring the game back, and not one good one to leave this century-old rivalry to decay in the dirt. Play the game. Besides, like Sharp said, there's money to be made here, dadgumit.