The Baton Rogue Advocate is reporting that, after a few interim seasons, Texas A&M and LSU will meet as Thanksgiving rivals starting as early as 2014. The move will create a regular season finale rivalry that suits the interests of both the Tigers and Aggies, as well as former LSU Thanksgiving opponent Arkansas, who will now start an annual "border war" (our words, not theirs, so calm yourself, Kansas fans) with newcomer Missouri.

This is the rarest case of conference realignment actually helping to clear up a scheduling problem. When A&M announced they were leaving the Big 12, the lost rivalry with Texas on Thanksgiving night was considered a terrible "blow to Texas tradition" (pearl-clutching, drawled-out emphasis ours). While LSU isn't UT, there's a long history between both schools, and LSU fans have never been fond of Arkansas as a season-ending "rival," a forced pairing that occurred during the 1992 expansion.

Then again, not all is so clean and convenient - Missouri will move to the SEC East, meaning their annual rivalry with Arkansas dictates Texas A&M will have to play far-flung South Carolina (the Hogs' former perma-East opponent) each season, thus pitting the westernmost team against the easternmost one.

That's a small price to pay for Aggies worried about losing their Lone Star rivals - LSU is relatively close, a nationally dominant program and a fan base that's easy to uh, "foster a passionate rivalry with."