Texas A&M AD Mentions BYU As Potential Opponent In 2020

PROVO, Utah – BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe has always held one of the toughest jobs in college sports. Since last week, the job has gotten even tougher as the Big Ten and Pac-12 moved to Conference-Only schedules for the upcoming football season.

Those decisions by the Pac-12 and Big Ten resulted in five games being canceled from BYU’s schedule. Now Holmoe has the tall task of trying to put together nearly half the schedule in a matter of weeks before the start of the season.

This 41-37 win over No. 12 Texas A&M launched a special season for @BYUfootball in 1996. I firmly believe that the 1996 team is the most talented in #BYU history. @Chadlewis89 https://t.co/8YXOUFMNpJ pic.twitter.com/CXrG7IQMq5

— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) March 16, 2020

But BYU isn’t the only program that has seen games canceled from the Pac-12 and Big Ten’s moves. Texas A&M from the SEC is one of the many programs impacted.

Could the Aggies find themselves on BYU’s schedule this fall?

Texas A&M AD weighs in on possible opponents including BYU

Ross Bjork, Athletic Director at Texas A&M was on A&M’s official school podcast, Studio 12 on Wednesday and was asked about how the Aggies will replace the canceled game against Colorado.

So, we anticipated there’d be some breakage in the schedule, perhaps. This started really back in April, I started talking to my colleague at Colorado, the athletic director at Fresno State is a good friend of mine from my days at UCLA. He played football at UCLA, Terry Toomey. So, we start talking, hey, what’s California thinking? What’s happening out there? So, we anticipated some breakage, assuming that we’re playing, and so you kind of anticipate these things. Colorado gave us the heads up, so we’ve got to replace that game.

Fresno, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the state of California. You hear different things right now they’re staying the course. So, I had a lot of scheduling conversations over the weekend. Lots of ADs. There are lots of ADs that are scrambling right now. Look, the opponents aren’t going to be hard to find. That’s not going to be the issue. I mean, Notre Dame is going to be looking for a lot of games, BYU, I think has already lost at least five maybe six games. Obviously some other Big 12 opponents have lost some Pac 12 matchups, finding the game piece is not going to be the hard part. So that Arkansas game, we would need that game on campus.

A&M’s game against Colorado was scheduled for September 19th. BYU was originally slated to play Arizona State on September 19th. The Aggies game against Fresno State is scheduled for October 10th. Fresno State is part of the California State University system schools who will not be having students on campus this fall.

The Dallas Morning News also noted Bjork referring to BYU being a possibility for Texas A&M.

The last time BYU played Texas A&M was part of the Pigskin Classic in 1996. BYU leads the all-time series against A&M 2-1.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.