The excitement around game day this weekend is overshadowed with the end of a rivalry era. TCU will be facing the Texas Longhorns for the last time as a Big 12 opponent.

Oklahoma and Texas will leave the Big 12 in 2024 to join the SEC and students have mixed emotions about the departure. Some are excited to play Texas one last time, others upset to see the conference rivalry go.

“I’m incredibly upset UT is going to the SEC,” junior nursing major Tom Strandwitz said. “It’s a game I look forward to every year, and it’s a game I grew up watching after TCU joined the Big 12.”

Other students are excited to see TCU’s different rivalries grow.

“I think we could do away with playing UT,” said senior psychology major Hannah Wilder. “I think they are one of our rivals, but we have more intense ones that are personal to our university like SMU and Baylor.”

The rivalry has an effect on the fans that makes the game day environment special.

“I think my favorite part would be how everyone comes together, it’s something that bonds us all,” Wilder said. “The atmosphere is like no other.”

It also makes for some good family friendly competition.

“The game is always great for my family because my mom went to TCU and now I do too, but my dad went to UT,” said Strandwitz. “It makes a fun little rivalry week in our house.”

Despite TCU football’s struggles this year after making the National Championship last year, the team looks to hurt Texas’s chance at making the College Football Playoff. Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, TCU is 8-3 against the Longhorns.

“Anything can happen, and I always feel like the Frogs want it more than Texas,” Strandwitz said.