Texas Motor Speedway wants to host Texas-Texas A&M

Eddie Gossage, the owner of the 180,000-seat Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, wants to play host to a renewal of the football rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies.

The two former conference rivals haven’t met since the last-second Texas win in 2011 due to Texas A&M making the move to the SEC, but Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong did mention back in June that the two sides are “trying to work something out right now,” but did not go into further specifics.

The genesis for Gossage’s wild idea emerged out of the Week Two game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Gossage was at the game and decided that he might like to host some football teams, too.

Texas and Texas A&M, specifically.

"I think everybody that lives in Texas would love to see them play again. It’s a crime they don’t," Gossage said, according to SEC Country. "That would be a perfect game for us, because that’s a special one. That was one you always looked forward to. Maybe to revive it, something like this would help."

Gossage envisions the game featuring 200,000 spectators at a reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway, which would be a record crowd.

“The beauty is you can make it whatever size you want. Remember, in Texas, you gotta do things big,” Gossage said. “Bigger than anybody else. I look at that crowd at Bristol, which was spectacular and a massive achievement, but I wouldn’t be interested in doing it unless we’re going to be bigger. So it’s how big do the schools want it? How much would they want to beat the record by?”

And so while playing multiple such games doesn’t make much sense, considering that Virginia Tech and Tennessee both received $4 million for the game at Bristol, playing a one-off game at the track is highly appealing, especially with the added suspense of getting 100,000 Texas fans and 100,000 Texas A&M fans together at the same time.

When framed in that way, how is that something that fans on either side would want to pass up? It would be perhaps the greatest spectacle in college football in addition to shattering the single-game attendance.

It’s clear that the rivalry needs to start up again because college football is better for it, so why not do it in the biggest, most Texas way possible?