For 2006-09, the Texas Bowl will have an alternating committment with the Big East Conference and Conference USA, while the Big 12 Conference will have a team in all four games. When Kansas and Oklahoma were eliminated from the BCS in 2007, TCU took the place of the Big 12 team, and Houston, a "home team," represented C-USA. The 2009 game will be played at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
The Texas Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played between two teams from the Big 12 Conference and one team from the C-USA. The game was established in 1998 when Texas A&M left the Southeastern Conference to join the Big 12 Conference. Texas A&M's former conference, the SEC, did not have any bowl-eligible teams, so the Aggies were given an automatic berth into the Cotton Bowl Classic. The other teams that participated in the first Texas Bowl were the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston. UT Austin won the game 17-14, but UH later violated NCAA rules by receiving bonuses for winning or losing records and self-imposed penalties that included being forced to sit out the 2004 season. As a result, the Cougars were barred from postseason play for five years starting in 2005.
In 1999, the game was renamed after its principal sponsor, the State Farm Insurance Company. From 1998 to 2002, the game was known as the State Farm Texas Bowl. In 2003, it was rebranded as the State Farm Bowl Las Vegas.
The fact that Texas dominated TCU from the late 1960s through the early 1990s is perhaps the most important aspect in the rivalry. The meeting became much less one-sided after TCU departed the Mountain West Conference to join the Big 12 in 2012.
However, the tradition of this game goes back much further than that. The two schools have been annual opponents since 1882 when they first met on a field in Austin that was owned by John H. King. The game has been played at various locations across Texas including Fort Worth's Cotton Bowl, Dallas' Cotton Bowl, and now Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth.
TCU has won the series 57-24-1.
Texas leads the all-time series 31-12-1.
The last time TCU defeated Texas was in 2013. That year, the Horned Frogs beat the Longhorns 34-31 in double overtime at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It was the first ever game played in that stadium. The previous year, Texas beat TCU 33-28 in Austin.
There are several factors that go into deciding who will win the Texas-TCU rivalry game. One factor is overall football talent between the two programs. Another factor is coaching ability among others. Finally, there is an intangible factor that some people call "magic".
On December 29, 2021, a Big 12 team will face a Pac 12 club at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas. This Big 12 vs. Pac 10 game pits two of the most popular teams in college football. The Texas Longhorns have won the Alamo Bowl two years in a row. They beat Ohio State 34-28 in 2019 and defeated LSU 38-31 in 2018. California was the last Big 10/Pac 10 team to win the Alamo Bowl when they beat Oklahoma 31-30 in 2017.
The Cal Bears were invited to the Alamo Bowl after finishing the 2020 season with a 9-3 record. In their third year under head coach Justin Wilcox, Cal went 8-4 and made its first bowl appearance since 2014. Wilcox previously served as the offensive coordinator for Washington from 2013-2015 where he worked with new Texas Longhorn head coach Rick Barnes. Before joining the coaching staff at Washington, Wilcox was an assistant coach for the Memphis Tigers from 2008-2012. He spent one season (2007) as the quarterbacks coach for Mississippi State before moving on to Memphis.
Justin Wilcox is expected to bring his aggressive offense from Cal to Austin. He has said that he wants to "stomp out of the gate fast" when he takes over a program and use his experience as a coordinator at both SEC and Pacific 10 schools to help Texas move up the rankings quickly.
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