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Longhorn, Aggie rivalry now officially recognized
With sponsor on board, familiar foes battling for points
By Alex Blair
In a joint press conference in Austin on Tuesday, UT Men's Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and A&M Director of Athletics Bill Byrne announced the creation of the Lone Star Showdown Rivalry Series. State Farm will endorse the series by making a major contribution to both school's athletic programs in order to finance and title the trial two-year program. The Lone Star Showdown consists of a system of points awarded to each school depending on the outcome of athletic events where Texas and Texas A&M meet. The university that wins the head-to-head competition in football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming and diving, baseball and men's and women's tennis gets one point per sport. The winner of each match-up in men's and women's basketball, volleyball and softball wins half a point per contest since the teams meet twice a season. In sports where the two universities do not meet head-to-head, the team that places higher in the Big 12 Conference Championship wins one point. The school that has the most points after the last athletic competition of the year wins the series. Talk of the series began six months ago between Byrne and Dodds after Byrne broached the idea. The deal was negotiated by Host Communications, a Lexington, Ky.-based media and marketing company. "Host Communication takes a percentage of the funds, but the rest is split evenly between UT and A&M," Dodds said. According to Byrne, State Farm can request how the money is allocated, but to his knowledge no requests have been made. While the historic Longhorn/Aggie rivalry has been played out across many sports for years, it has, for the most part, been presented as primarily football-centric. This new series is an attempt by both universities to carry the excitement from Thanksgiving weekend to other sports. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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