Discussing the importance of preseason polls ahead of the 2024 football season
American-Statesman reporters discuss the importance of preseason polls, expectations for No. 4 Texas and the top teams on their personal ballots.
HOUSTON – When the Texas and Texas A&M football teams meet at Kyle Field on Nov. 30, it will be in the renamed Lone Star Showdown.
It was announced Thursday that Cotton Holdings, Inc. will be the title sponsor of the Texas-Texas A&M football game when the series resumes in the fall after a 13-year hiatus. According to the Houston-based company’s website, Cotton Holdings, Inc. “provides property restoration and recovery, construction, roofing, consulting, staffing, temporary housing and culinary services to public and private entities worldwide.”
The announcement on Thursday of the “Cotton Lone Star Showdown” — a series that includes not only football but other sports as well — came at a new joint conference attended by both Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte and his counterpart at Texas A&M, Trev Alberts. Former Texas A&M football coach RC Slocum was also in attendance.
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“Rekindling our historic rivalry with Texas A&M and bringing it back not only to our fans, but to fans of college sports across our great state, the country and the world is something very special. And we are so grateful to have our friends at Cotton Holdings join us to amplify this with the Lone Star Showdown rivalry series. I know our fans will be following the standings closely,” Del Conte said in a press release.
“The 12th Man is ready for the return of the Lone Star Showdown and Cotton Holdings is the ideal title sponsor for a rivalry series of this magnitude,” Alberts was quoted as saying. “Texas A&M Athletics has a long history with Cotton Holdings and it is a homegrown, Texas-based company with a global impact. We are proud to partner with an organization that shares our values and commitment to excellence.”
The Cotton Lone Star Showdown isn’t just about football. The first part of this revamped series will also feature the schools’ volleyball programs on Sept. 27. The football game, however, was the reason media representatives were invited to The Capital Grille in Houston on Thursday.
When Texas visits Texas A&M, it will have been 4,755 days since the last game between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Texas leads 76-37-5 in a series that began in 1894. In its history, Texas has only played more games against Oklahoma (119 games) than it has against Texas A&M. Texas remains by far the team with the most games played in Texas A&M history.
To this day, the last memory of the Texas-Texas A&M series is Justin Tucker’s 40-yard field goal that secured a 27-25 victory over the Aggies on Nov. 24, 2011. Three years ago, Tucker told the American-Statesman he was looking forward to resuming the rivalry.
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“I’ve always been a big proponent of the idea of the teams playing each other since A&M moved to the SEC and Texas stayed in the Big 12,” Tucker said. “I’m a big believer in letting the teams play, letting the players play, letting the coaches coach and letting the chips fly and let them fall where they fall. Everyone who watches this game is going to benefit because the experience is fantastic. It’s just such a great, storied rivalry.
“I’ve been asked if I mind if the game is played again because I won’t necessarily have the last laugh or the bragging rights or anything like that. I don’t care. I just want to see great football between a great team and its little brother.”
