Separate from all the historical arguments of rivals, bragging rights, tradition and marketing an important consideration is OOC schedule strategy.
In the B12 with a 9 game conference schedule Texas has 3 OOC slots to fill preferrably 1 or 2 non home and home slots to allow 6 home games at DKR. Some conferences schedule 4 OOC slots and 8 regular season games.
What seems to be the preference is an early cupcake, a step up to medium P5 opponent and end with a premiere primetime opponent suitable for national TV audience.
This sets the stage to get established in the season and work up to national exposure before the regular season begins. Many successful teams follow the formula.
In the past decade the primetime opponent has been a mostly home and home deal:
CU, UCLA, UCLA, Ole Miss, Ole Miss, UCLA, ND, ND, USC, USC
In the coming season plus future decade the games under contract are:
LSU, LSU, ARK, ALA, ALA, Mich, tOSU, tOSU, Mich, GA, GA.
Again the home and home deal benefits both teams with a national exposure and home field income.
I see very little benefit in playing a late Nov OOC game against TA&M at the expense of removing a game from the early OOC part of the schedule.
The OOC scheduling strategy should be a path national primetime exposure while maintaining a 6 game home field advantage for fan/revenue purposes.
A late Nov game vs TAMU doesn't fit in a 9 game conference regular season.