Texas football: Red River Rivalry named fourth-best rivalry

The Red River Rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners is one of the top games. Where does it rank among CFB’s best?

What is college football without rivalries? For the Texas Longhorns, their biggest rivalry is with the Oklahoma Sooners. The Red River Rivalry is one of the top games in any season with what is at stake. Not to mention to rivalry of border states Texas and Oklahoma. With the death of the Texas-Texas A&M game, the Red River Rivalry became the premier matchup in the Big 12 Conference.

Related: Texas ranked 14th in preseason poll

Lindy’s Take on the Red River Rivalry

The heated Red River Showdown (nee Shootout) has its own venue – the Cotton Bowl in Dallas- and three trophies, the most notable a gold 10-gallon hat mounted on a block of wood. It resides in the offices of the winning athletic department. The Sooners have had it so much lately, that they let Texas keep it after OU won the postseason rematch in 2018.

When the Heisman Trophy winner is on the field, these teams have split their 10 meetings. Unfortunately for Texas, OU has six of those nine Heisman winners and (uh-oh, here comes another mention of that damn 2018 rematch) Kyler Murray got to play against the Longhorns a second time. So, the Heisman Trophy winner is actually 8-2 all-time in this matchup. Only Sam Bradford (2008) and Murray (2018) have felt the sting of losing the Shoot, er, Showdown but were still able win the Heisman.

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