Flash forward: 2024 football preview

Sports editor Hunter Mitchell

reviews new, returning rivalries

By Hunter Mitchell @HunterM1001

Hatred, new and old

There are two games that most of the 12th Man have circled on their calendars with a maroon marker: Texas and LSU. While nothing needs to be said about the Texas matchup — there’s decades of hate buried there — LSU has emerged as a budding rival since A&M arrived in the SEC. The Tigers and Aggies seemingly always play each other close — except for 2019 — and often that’s one of the key indicators of a rivalry. Aggie fans can’t stop reliving and LSU fans can’t seem to live down the 2018 seven-overtime thriller that saw A&M win on a two-point conversion 74-72. Games like that don’t just happen in any annual matchup, and despite A&M’s old foe coming onto the scene in ‘24, there will certainly be no love lost between the Aggies and the Tigers.

On the road again

The SEC road opponents for A&M seems, at the moment, a manageable one. A lot can change in a few years, but I can say with relative confidence that neither South Carolina nor Mississippi State will become national championship contenders by 2024. The Aggies will once again square off against Arkansas in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, in what will be the final installment of the Southwest Classic. Besides that, the only other two matchups will be a trip to The Swamp to face the Florida Gators and to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face Auburn.

Texas A&M and Texas squared off on the gridiron every year from 1915 to 2011. Then, after leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, it seemed the two schools would only face off in the occasional baseball game and Twitter thread. After a little over a decade, the two fated rivals are now set to face each other annually once more as Texas joins the SEC in 2024. Although the renewed rivalry is the marquee matchup, there are other points of interest on the recently-announced schedule.

Roll Tide, no Tide

The SEC is arguably the most difficult football conference in the country, and there’s one big, elephant-sized reason for that: the Alabama Crimson Tide. Having them on your schedule, like the Aggies have every year since 2012, memorable upsets, like the Johnny Football legacy game in 2012 and the game-winning field goal in 2021. Despite these good memories for the 12th Man, the result is usually bitter defeat when playing Alabama.

Led by all-time great coach Nick Saban, Alabama has always been a dominant force in the SEC West. A&M has been well aware of the fact that the road to a College Football Playoff berth runs through Tuscaloosa, Alabama. However, whether by luck or design, the Aggies and Crimson Tide will not face one another come 2024, meaning that’s one less part of the gauntlet that A&M will have to run through in the SEC.

Apostolics vs. Aggies

Florida may be the toughest challenge right now, as, despite a down year in 2022, coach Billy Napier has multiple solid recruiting classes under his belt who will be sophomores and juniors by the time the Aggies come to town. Auburn is a true wild card, as it brings in former Ole Miss head coach and burner phone enthusiast Hugh Freeze. If he can get Auburn to the level he had the Rebels in in the 2010s, the trip to the Plains in ‘24 could prove to be a difficult one.

The only real eye-opening non-conference game on the 2024 schedule is against a historic powerhouse, as the Aggies will welcome the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to College Station. The two schools only faced off five times prior, and only once has it been outside the state of Texas. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 3-2, but the last matchup was a 24-3 Aggie victory at home in 2001.

The real ‘rivalry’ between Notre Dame and A&M stems from 2020, when many of the Aggie faithful felt like they were snubbed of a CFP appearance as the Fighting Irish claimed the fourth and final spot over A&M. The one-sided resentment will finally culminate on the field, and Aggie fans will hope to let out some deep-seeded aggression.