Texas A & M

Many states feature a rivalry between the primary liberal arts college and the agricultural school.  But one of the greatest of these rivalries is in Texas, where hearts have long been divided between the haughty University of Texas and its scrappy rival, Texas A & M University.  Texas A & M opened on October 4, 1876, and was given the glorious name of The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.  (The later Victorians had a genius for florid and descriptive names -- who can forget the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, founded in 1871, which lived on for decades as A & P?)

Naturally, the folks in Texas referred to the new school as Texas A & M -- and in 1963 (a time where people loved acronyms) the legislature made this official, changing the name to Texas A & M University.  Wikipedia tells us that "{t}he letters 'A&M,' originally short for 'Agricultural and Mechanical,' are retained only as a link to the university's past."

Texas A & M first fielded a football team in 1894, and soon became a power.  The 1919 Aggies were not only undefeated -- they outscored their opposition 275 to 0.  The 1939 Aggies went 11-0, beat Tulane in the Sugar Bowl, and were chosen as the National Champion by the Associated Press.  But they went into decline during the 1940's, and after that were rarely at the same level as the University of Texas.  They had their moments -- Bear Bryant had four stirring seasons in the mid-1950's, including a Heisman Trophy winner (John David Crow) and a Southwest Conference title.  Gene Stallings won the Southwest Conference title in 1967 -- and beat Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.  Jackie Sherrill won three consecutive Southwest titles in the mid-1980's -- and beat Texas five years in a row.  And R.C. Slocum won four conference titles in the 1990's.

But for the most part, A & M has always fallen just short of national greatness.  For example, here are their top-10 finishes in the AP poll since the end of WW 2:

1956:  9-0-1 (5th)

1957:  8-3 (9th)

1976:  10-2 (7th)

1985:  10-2 (6th)

1987:  10-2 (10th)

1992:  12-1 (7th)

1993:  10-2 (9th)

1994:  10-0-1 (8th)

2012:  11-2 (5th)

See?  They tend to break through a couple of times per decade, but they've never been that close to actually going all the way.  They also have an all-time record of 37-76-5 against Texas, and that sort of thing tends to weigh on a fan base.  A & M has one of the best fan bases in the country, and they have more traditions and rituals than almost any school in college football, and everyone sort of admires their grit and spirit, but they've generally been just outside the charmed circle of the very highest powers.

One of their problems has always been the difficulty of recruiting against Texas.  The two schools obviously try to get the same high school players, and it's always been difficult to explain why someone should turn down the lordly Longhorns -- and their glamorous home in Austin -- to struggle down in College Station.  But a few years ago, when Texas was being even more annoying than usual -- threatening to break up the Big XII as part of an ultimately futile effort to move into the Pac 12 -- the Aggies saw a way to escape their ancient nemesis.  The Southeastern Conference had taken Arkansas from the Southwest Conference in the early 1990's, but the SEC was still looking for a way into Texas.  A & M was that way, and since 2012 the Aggies have belonged to the SEC.  It's been a happy deal for both sides -- the SEC greatly expanded its footprint by adding one of the largest fan bases in Texas, while A & M could now tell recruits that if they wanted to play in the nation's best football conference, they should go with the Aggies over UT.  The only loss to college football fans is that UT and A & M no longer play each other.  Given that Georgia plays Georgia Tech, and Florida plays Florida State, and South Carolina plays Clemson, it seems obvious that belonging to different conferences shouldn't end such a great rivalry.  But the Longhorns and Aggies are each very haughty in their own ways, and who knows when this series will be renewed?

The Aggies have an all-time record of 15-16-1 in UCFC competition.  They won the title at the end of the 1927 season (with a 28-7 win over Texas) and kept it through much of the 1928 season, before losing it so Centenary.  Their longest streak was in 1998, when they won six UCFC games in a row, before losing the title to Texas in a 26-24 thriller in the last game of the season.  That game -- on November 27, 1998 -- was the Aggies' last crack at the UCFC, until today.