BEVO BEAT Football A&M Chancellor John Sharp: ‘I’d like to put the Texas-A&M game back together’ Sharp is also bullish on A&M's long-term growth: 'We have become the school of choice' Posted July 27th, 2017


In a wide-ranging interview with Texas Monthly, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp indicated he wants to restart the Texas-A&M football rivalry.

“I’d like to put the UT-A&M game back together,” Sharp told the magazine. “I know the governor wants to put it back together. UT wants to put it back together.

“Man, can you imagine how much money we could make off that game.”


Sharp touched on a number of other topics and indicated he’s very bullish on the school’s future. “Without being too arrogant, we have become the school of choice,” Sharp said. “This is where kids want to go.”

From A&M’s perspective, this represents the most positive comments about the rivalry to date. The fact it comes from the person at the top of the A&M system also helps. A&M coach Kevin Sumlin has already said he believes the rivalry will resume at some point in the future.

From looking at both schools’ future schedules, it may not be realistic until 2021-22.

At Big 12 media days, Texas coach Tom Herman left no doubt that he wants to play A&M.

“The fact that Texas A&M left our conference, our fans, we don’t play a rival at home ever,” Herman said. “Now, can we kind of generate and fabricate some new rivalries? Sure. I don’t know why we can’t play A&M as our marquee non-conference opponent.”

Herman rattled off several key intrastate, non-conference rivalries that dot the college football landscape, like Florida-Florida State and Clemson-South Carolina. He noted that the SEC plays eight conference games per year while the Big 12 has nine.

“If you’re going to play a big-boy schedule such as LSU, USC and Ohio State,” Herman said, “I’d like to see us play the big boy right down the road from us.”

Contact Brian Davis at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com.

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