LSU’s Thanksgiving night game at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) is a different matchup than we’re used to seeing on Thanksgiving. But it’ll be over after this year, and in some ways, it’s not that different than the game we’re most used to watching.
Why LSU and Texas A&M are playing football on Thanksgiving night
College football doesn’t have locked games like the NFL’s Lions and Cowboys, so teams fill the void by committee.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
As a general practice, the college game cedes the Thanksgiving daytime TV slots to the NFL, then follows up with one or two major, nationally broadcast games at night. College teams and TV networks don’t have much interest in fighting with the Cowboys and Lions for eyeballs during the day, so that’s a sensible alternative.
LSU-A&M is a bit of a weird matchup, because the night slot is usually given to two teams who are actual rivals. That’s not really LSU and A&M, who have an agreement to play each other in the final regular season game but not much else beyond a shared presence in the SEC West.
This is the third year of their season-ending arrangement, and they’ve played twice on Thanksgiving before. LSU has played 27 Thanksgiving games, and A&M has played a bunch against Texas over the years. But these teams as a Thanksgiving game ends after this year, and that seems pretty fine with everyone.
Texas and Texas A&M used to have a reputation as the Thanksgiving teams.
But their sad lack of a current series means there’s a void.
On some level, A&M and LSU work as a substitute. They’ve played 54 games against each other, dating back to 1899, so it’s not like they don’t have history. They just have less of it than the Ole Miss-Mississippi State Egg Bowl or the A&M-Texas series that now doesn’t exist. The Egg Bowl was ESPN’s big Thanksgiving game from 1998 to 2003, then again 2013, but not since. It’ll again be that big Thanksgiving night game in 2017 and 2018, and then, who knows? Two other teams will probably slide in.
That’s a departure from the closest thing college football has to a Thanksgiving norm. A&M and Texas have a ton of Thanksgiving history, having played then 64 times, according to The Eagle. That’s the most in major college football by a lot, but the Horns and Aggies haven’t put any kind of lock on Thanksgiving games. Texas has played them against other teams, too, and recently punted on Thanksgiving night games on the whole, moving its frequent game to Black Friday.
The NFL started playing a few years ago on Thanksgiving night, and that’s cut into college teams’ share of the after-dinner and during-dinner markets. Plus, it’s kind of hard to get students to show up for games in the middle of a holiday when they’ve been home on break. There are logistical problems all over.
The college game has sometimes had rivalries that have worked out for a long stretches to be like the NFL’s Detroit and Dallas traditions, but they’ve not been locked into place in the same way. That’s left room for games like LSU-A&M to take its place, but with TV contracts of only a few years, we might never see one series dominate Thanksgiving again – even only on a frequent, non-annual basis.
So, enjoy watching LSU and A&M with some turkey at your side. Leonard Fournette won’t be there, but the game could be good, and if you’re an LSU or an A&M fan, it might be the last time you’ve got a Thanksgiving game for a while.
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