It turns out the wrong Texas State rivalry was hyped heading into 2024. 

The I-35 Rivalry between the Bobcats and the UTSA Roadrunners was billed as a G5 clash that would pit two potential conference champions against each other in a College Football Playoff eliminator. Texas State caged the Roadrunners in that Week 2 clash, 49-10, to beat UTSA for the first time in series history. 

Conference realignment giveth and taketh away. That’s true for rivalries. Sure, we lost Sam Houston vs. SFA when the Bearkats moved to the FBS ranks ahead of 2023. The Iron Skillet might be boxed for good after 2025. Texas will no longer play Baylor or TCU or Texas Tech, at least not in the regular season. 

But we’ll also get a few back in 2024. The Longhorns vs. the Aggies get all the headlines, but the Texas State vs. Sam Houston rivalry, which dates to 1915, might be the most-heated intrastate rivalry that most fans don’t know about. 

Sam Houston State University was founded in 1879 and named after Huntsville’s most famous resident, who is now memorialized by a giant statue off I-45 70 miles north of Houston. Sam Houston, who died in 1863, was the leader of the Texas revolutionary army and the republic’s first president. 

Texas State and Sam Houston State were always interconnected as members of the Texas State University System in 1911. Both were normal colleges at their inception created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. And both were charter members of the Gulf Coast Conference in 1931 before moving alongside each other to the Gulf Star Conference and then the Southland. 

The two schools played each other on the football field from 1915 to 2011, with the rivalry ending when Texas State moved to the WAC in 2012. The Bobcats lead the series 49-37-5. The Bearkats remain Texas State’s most played all-time opponent at 92 games. Texas State was also Sam Houston’s most played opponent until the series was cancelled, which allowed the Battle of the Piney Woods against SFA to move into the top spot. 

A good rivalry requires venom. The rivalry reached new heights in that regard in 2006, when Sam Houston students feared the state legislature would change its name to Texas State at Huntsville in the same way that Southwest Texas State became Texas State at San Marcos in 2003. The Sam Houston student government passed a resolution in August 2006, urging lawmakers to protect the name and passed around a petition on campus and at football games to halt the possibility.

“Any change would be bad,” Frank Krystyniak, who was then the university’s director of public relations, told the Houston Chronicle in 2006. “The people of Huntsville still think Sam Houston walks the streets. That’s how conscious they are of history.” 

And while the name change never materialized, the notion that Texas State was big brother to Sam Houston’s little brother was cemented in fan base trash talk. That was exaggerated when the Bobcats left the Bearkats behind by leaving the FCS and joining the FBS ranks 12 years ago. Sam Houston finally caught up by joining Conference USA in 2023. 

The game will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston. Sam Houston had an agreement with NRG to play one game a year there, which used to be the yearly matchup against SFA. The G5 showdown between Texas State and Sam Houston will fill that slot in 2024. The two squads are a combined 5-2, with a 5-0 mark against non-Power Four squads. Texas State’s only loss was to Arizona State in Week 3. Sam Houston’s only defeat was on the road against UCF in Week 2. Both teams are amongst the three betting favorites to win their respective conferences. 

“What a great way to face a rival school after more than a decade,” Texas State coach G.J. Kinne said when the game was announced. “To play an in-state rival in an NFL stadium in the state of Texas will be special.”