The Texas Longhorns take on the Oklahoma Sooners for the 112th time on Saturday afternoon from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). The annual rivalry is timed each year around the famous State Fair of Texas.
The game’s technical name these days is the “AT&T Red River Showdown.”
Same classic game with a new name: annual Texas-OU game is now the AT&T Red River Showdown. http://t.co/zF8cCLUqVF pic.twitter.com/qJYz0KG4Pm
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) April 4, 2014
For the majority of the first 100 years of rivalry’s history, it was the Red River Shootout.
A lot of people still call it that. Google Trends shows it’s still more popular than the current official one, but not quite as popular as the second one:
The Shootout name stuck until 2005, when a corporate sponsor changed the name to the “SBC Red River Rivalry” to avoid the gun violence connotations that “shootout” has. The reaction remains pretty mixed.
It's the Red River Shootout, ABC. I don't care what you wish to call it, it will always be remembered as the Red River Shootout. #RRS
— TLWB (@_TLWB_) April 4, 2014
Folks, I could give a crap what THEY want you to call it: IT'S THE RED RIVER SHOOTOUT! One game does not make a "rivalry." (cont.)
— Sixth Year Seniors (@6thYearSeniors) October 13, 2012
Sorry it will always be called the "Red River Rivalry" no matter what AT&T or anyone else wants to call it. http://t.co/tUDjp7KDba
— Matthew Vermillion (@mvermi) April 4, 2014
After all these changes, some television announcers don’t really know what to call it, either.
Can’t blame em!
Red River, shootout, showdown, rivalry......FS1 announcers have no clue what to call this game.
— Sans Cheese (@SansCheese) October 8, 2016
These commentators don't even know what to call this game.
— BoomTown (@BoomOUUpdated) October 8, 2016
"Red River shooto...showdown."
The bottom line here is that this is America, and you can really call this game whatever you so please.
Just wanna stick with the traditional Texas-OU or OU-Texas? Go ahead! Let’s be honest, this thing will most likely get a different corporate sponsor every so often, as we pointed out a couple of years ago:
In 10 years, the game will be renamed the Bank of America Red River Meetup, with the Comcast-Netflix Red River Event following 10 years after that. The Facebook Red River Facebook looms in the distance as a warning to us all.
Sure, you can try and keep up with the likely forthcoming changes, but it’s probably just easier to just pick one and roll with it!
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