What does it take to put on the Lone Star State’s most historic college football rivalry? Start with more than 100,000 Texas A&M and Texas spectators, dozens of shuttle buses, and a literal ton of beef parading around the field in the form of Bevo (to say nothing of the many more tons of beef that will land on the grills of tailgating fans that day).
And that’s just the beginning. Texas Monthly dug deep into the numbers behind the Texas–Texas A&M football rivalry, which returns November 30 in College Station after thirteen long years passed without the Aggies and Longhorns facing off on the gridiron. From in-game heroics to off-field logistics, these figures help tell the story of a 130-year-old rivalry and the excitement building among football fans across the state as UT–Texas A&M finally returns to Kyle Field.
$622
The price of the cheapest resale ticket to the game on SeatGeek.
Both university athletic departments partner with SeatGeek as their resale site. If you’re looking to buy for a group, expect much higher prices per ticket.
$630
The average cost per night of a hotel in Bryan–College Station for the weekend of the game.
On any other weekend, an average hotel room would cost about $200 per night.
30
The weight, in pounds, of the amount of food eaten every day by Bevo XV, UT’s Longhorn steer mascot.
The nine-year-old, who weighs almost one ton, has represented UT on the football field since September 2016.
102,733
The number of seats at Kyle Field, Texas A&M’s home stadium.
Austin’s Darrell K Royal—Texas Memorial Stadium has 100,119 seats.
28,000 to 31,000
The projected number of shuttle bus riders headed to Kyle Field on game day.
Texas A&M’s transportation services department said it also plans to have roughly seventy shuttle buses operating on November 30.
15,000
The minimum number of presale parking spaces reserved ahead of the game
Prepaid reserved parking permits range from $23 to $83.50. Texas A&M’s transportation services department said it expects more than 20,000 vehicles to arrive on campus on game day.
119
After the Thanksgiving weekend games, Texas–Texas A&M and Tennessee-Vanderbilt will be tied with Texas-Oklahoma and Tennessee-Kentucky as the third most-played rivalry in the Southeastern Conference.
96
The number of consecutive years Aggies and Longhorns met between 1915 and 2011.
But the thirteen-year wait for the rivalry to return somehow felt longer.
8
The list includes Darrell Royal and Mack Brown from Texas, William Madison “Matty” Bell, Homer Norton, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Gene Stallings, and R.C. Slocum from Texas A&M, and Dana X. Bible, who coached Texas A&M for eleven seasons and Texas for ten.
30
With a 16–14 record, Slocum coached more games in the UT–A&M rivalry than any other coach in the history of both schools.
479
The number of yards Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy gained in the air and on the ground in the 2009 rivalry game.
McCoy’s combined yardage was the most in total offense by any player in a single UT–A&M game.
5,012
The number of yards A&M running back Darren Lewis gained in his career (1987–1990).
Lewis ran for 212 of those yards in the Aggies’ 28–24 win over UT in 1988. By the end of his time in College Station, Lewis had passed both Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson to become the Southwest Conference’s all-time leading rusher, a mark he will forever hold.
283
The number of yards Longhorn running back Cedric Benson ran for in UT’s 46–15 victory in 2003’s rivalry game.
Benson’s total that day stands as the best single-game rushing mark in both UT history and in any UT–A&M matchup (he also had four touchdowns).
90
The number of yards A&M running back Keith Woodside gained on a single play in the Aggies’ 1987 win over the Longhorns.
The play remains the longest touchdown run for either team in the history of the rivalry.
536
The all-time single-game record for passing yards against Texas A&M.
The quarterback who put up those flashy numbers against A&M in 1996 wasn’t a Longhorn then—he played for Brigham Young University—but he is now. That 41–37 win over the Aggies was the best passing game of Steve Sarkisian’s BYU career. But Sark would probably love to see it surpassed by Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning, or both UT signal-callers combined when they play at Kyle Field on November 30.
