As dawn struck Aggieland in the early hours of Saturday morning and marked the end of the 13-year hiatus of the football rivalry between Texas A&M and Texas, things seemed to move ahead of schedule.
Eight hours before kickoff, the crowd started pouring into tailgates. Four hours before kickoff, and it seemed like the legions of fans were chomping at the bit to get within the gates. And with over 20 minutes ‘til game time, there was hardly an open spot left in the sea of 109,028 fans — the third-largest football crowd ever at Kyle Field.
“It means a ton,” sophomore linebacker Taurean York said. “You get on the bus and you’re going through campus, passing [the Memorial Student Center], and they’re already flooded. People are packed by the MSC, past the MSC by the Corps of Cadets area. It was insane.”
The sea of humanity impressed one visitor who had a bit more of a role in arranging the proceedings than most of the folks surrounding the stadium that afternoon — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey.
“I’ve never seen so many people moving into a game as I just walked through,” Sankey said. “The [ESPN College] GameDay scene this morning was outstanding. … Part of the conversation I had with both universities, as we were discussing [Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference] in 2021 was the opportunity to play the game here. It was an important one.”
Once the crowd finally made its way into Kyle Field, it didn’t take long for them to make their presence felt — A&M walked out to the drumline of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band and Kanye West’s “Power,” and the stadium physically shook with the rhythm of 110,000 fans and 13 years of anticipation being let loose with a spot in the SEC Championship Game on the line.
“I remember as my time here, the Alabama game was crazy with fans, the Notre Dame game was crazy with the fans and this game was the craziest one yet,” York said.
But in the end, it was the other part of the crowd that made itself known by the end of the night: The specks of orange in a sea of maroon that ended the game with chants of “S-E-C! S-E-C!” and “Texas Fight!” after a game-sealing fumble recovery by Texas fifth-year defensive lineman Vernon Broughton that secured a 17-7 victory for the Longhorns.
It was vindication for Sankey and the SEC, whose addition of Texas and Oklahoma spawned a series of conference realignment that has shaken the foundations of college football and sent other teams and conferences scattering to the winds.
It also reminded Sankey of an earlier trip to Aggieland when he was a staffer in 2011, just before A&M’s move to the SEC the following year.
“To see the number of SEC logos in the parking lots here tailgating, it’s a mutual embrace,” Sankey said. “People want to win, there are competitors in this league, so it fits really well.”
Just as any conference commissioner would want their marquee game of the weekend to go, the crowd was fueled by late-game momentum shifts, mainly junior defensive back Will Lee III’s 93-yard pick six with 5:42 left in the third quarter and A&M’s blocked punt in the fourth quarter that for a moment had the Aggie crowd roaring back to life.
But while the Longhorn crowd cheered in the end — to the bitter disappointment of the Aggie fans around them — the real winner of Saturday’s showdown was Sankey and the SEC, whose bold bet to add Texas and bring back the Lone Star Showdown gave the conference even more of a stranglehold on rivalry week and the college football world.
“My pulse rate stays high late through the day,” Sankey said. “My blood pressure is up. My hair is grayer, and there’s less of it. But I think it’s special.”
