Ahead of one of the most highly anticipated college football matchups of the year, the Texas A&M Aggies have been forced to abandon one of their most long lasting traditions due to a ban.
Texas A&M is set to revive its dormant rivalry with Texas – one of the most bitter rivalries in all of college football – after the Longhorns moved to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) this season.
With that move, Texas and Texas A&M are set to play each other for the first time in 13 years when UT travels to College Station. But one of the Aggies’ oldest, most storied traditions will not be present.
For over 90 years, the Aggies have built a massive bonfire and lit it in celebration of the final game of the season. Traditionally, this has been the Texas game – with the bonfire symbolizing the students, ‘burning desire to beat the hell outta t.u.’ (t.u. is a derogatory nickname for Texas created by Aggie students).
But this year, there will not be a bonfire. According to Texas A&M student newspaper ‘The Battalion’, a burn ban in Robertson County that has been in place since September 10 due to drought-like conditions forced the bonfire to be pushed off to a later date.
A statement from the Student Bonfire organizing committee said that the burning of the bonfire will be rescheduled for the spring semester.
Ahead of its renewed rivalry with Texas, Texas A&M will not hold one of its most loved traditions
The Aggie Bonfire will not be held this year due to a drought at the school (picture from 2019)
The bonfire was a site of tragedy when it collapsed in 1999, killing 12 students and injuring 27
Texas A&M’s first Aggie bonfire was in November of 1907. Almost each year since then – with some exceptions due to bans by the school – massive structures have been built to set ablaze on the Texas plains.
It reaches dozens of feet high – and the cutting, stacking, and lighting of the fire itself is a months long project.
Throughout the years, multiple plots to thwart the bonfire by Texas fans, students, and alumni have been attempted. These include trying to light the fire early and multiple attempts of trying to blow it up via explosives. Aircraft have also been used in trying to ruin the bonfire – whether that’s by air dropping bombs onto the bonfire stack or one planned attempt of flying a model airplane armed with a bomb into the structure.
The bonfire was a site of tragedy in 1999 when the stack – approximately 59 feet (17.98m) high and consisting of about 5,000 logs – collapsed during construction before it could be lit.
At the time, 58 students were working on the stack – with 27 injured and 12 losing their lives. In 2003, a memorial was built on the site of the accident.
Since then, the bonfire has been an unofficial event that isn’t sanctioned by the university. Instead, it’s been put on by a committee of students and is branded as the Student Bonfire. It still attracts tens of thousands of people.
The game itself is set to be one of the most consequential matchups for this year’s College Football Playoff as the No. 3 Longhorns play the No. 20 Aggies. Texas stands atop the SEC standings at 6-1 while Texas A&M is right behind them at 5-2.
That means, thanks to tiebreakers, the winner of this game will advance to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta to play Georgia. If Texas A&M wins the Texas game and the SEC title game, they will advance to the playoff despite owning three losses on the season to Notre Dame, South Carolina, and just last week to struggling Auburn.
