Texas Football: Aggies could’ve been part of the Longhorn Network

In what turned out to be an interview on the “On Second Thought” podcast last week, former longtime Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds shared his opinion on a number of different topics. That included how the Texas football program (among other sports) nearly wound up playing in the ACC if it was up to him and the school left the Big 12 back in conference realignment roughly one decade ago.

There was also the discussion about how the Longhorns nearly had an arrangement with the in-state rival Texas A&M Aggies for a joint television network. Texas would essentially have a joint television network with Texas A&M that would provide statewide coverage with the main goal of getting more exposure for non-profit sports.

While Dodds said that at one point the “wheels were in motion” to make this happen, nothing came to fruition when it was all said and done. Dodds also noted that it was Texas A&M that turned down this offer from the Longhorns. Granted, there never seemed to be real legs to this to the level for which negotiations for Longhorn Network took off.

There was a report roughly 10 years ago from the Dallas Morning News talking about this same matter of Texas A&M turning down an offer from Texas for a joint television network. So it sounds like this all happened a good while ahead of conference realignment taking place.

DeLoss Dodds almost oversaw Texas football having a type of joint network with Texas A&M?

Texas A&M did bolt from the Big 12 following the conclusion of the 2011 season. They have played in the SEC West ever since. The Aggies were one of two teams that left the Big 12 to join the SEC. The other was the Mizzou Tigers, who joined the SEC East.

Meanwhile, blue bloods like Texas and the Oklahoma Sooners have continued to play in the Big 12. The famed Lone Star Showdown rivalry game laid dormant since the 2011 season, and it doesn’t look like it will resume anytime in the next five or 10 years.

Dodds was the Texas athletic director for two years after the conclusion of the Lone Star Showdown annual rivalry game. He also oversaw well over a dozen National Championships won for the Texas athletic program on his watch.

Longhorn Network eventually wound up signing with ESPN, thanks to a report much better offer than the school got from Fox Sports. The game might have changed a bit in the discussions for the television network if the Aggies were heavily involved at one point in time.