Is LSU destined to be Texas Football's biggest rival?

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The Texas Longhorns have two main rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas A&M Aggies. The Arkansas Razorbacks are an old UT rival that has been renewed thanks to the Longhorns switch from the Big 12 to the SEC. Other in-state schools consider Texas their rivals. But one rivalry is growing and it could take over all the rest. LSU looms in the future.

The Tigers and the Longhorns have always kind of felt like rivals, even though they don’t have a long history of playing. In over 100 years of football history at both schools, LSU and Texas have met only 18 times. But only two of those games have been since JFK was president. There was supposed to be a meeting in Baton Rouge in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic scrapped that game.

So why would LSU become one of Texas’ biggest, if not the biggest, rival in college football? Three reasons: Recruiting, proximity and the coaches.

Texas vs. LSU in Recruiting:

There once was a time when recruiting was easier. When Mack Brown coached Texas, his goal was the lockup most of the good players in the state of Texas and try for one or two national prospects. LSU similarly locked up Louisiana. That was enough to keep both programs viable for bigger rewards like conference and national championships.

But near the end of Brown’s era, and into the Charlie Strong and Tom Herman tenures, the bigger programs around the nation began to raid the Lone Star State. Ohio State, USC and others began cherry picking the best talent out of Texas. As that happened, the Longhorns faltered.

But NIL (basically pay for play) and current Texas coach Steve Sarkisian have changed the dynamic. Texas was still trying to lockup the best talent in the state, but they were also aggressively going after talent nationwide. UT has made in-roads into Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.

Arch Manning is the most famous Louisiana recruit to head west to Austin. The Texas quarterback grew up in New Orleans and was heavily recruited by LSU. The Longhorns currently have six players from Louisiana on the roster. The Tigers have 13 players from the state of Texas on the roster. The border lines are blurring.

The biggest recruiting war in college football right now is for Texas five-star wide receiver commit Easton Royal. The Louisiana native has been a UT pledge since November, but LSU is trending for the No. 6 player in the 2027 recruiting class.

Especially in East Texas, the recruiting territory of LSU and Texas now overlap. Both programs need talent from the other’s state to compete at the highest level.

Texas and LSU separated by 429 miles:

There are only two SEC schools closer to Austin than Baton Rouge, OU in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Aggies in College Station. Arkansas ranks No. 4. Now SEC bunkmates, LSU and Texas will play each other a lot more frequently down the line.

The fan bases have always been in close proximity to each other. Baton Rouge is roughly the same distance from Austin as Lubbock. But with few meetings on the football field, the fans of both teams held more of a seething distrust for one another rather than the outright hatred that accompanies a rivalry.

LSU and A&M are closer in distance to each other, and thanks to over a decade as co-members of the SEC, the Tigers and Aggies have built a healthy rivalry. But UT and LSU are both bigger fish in the college football pond than A&M. Now that the Horns are in the conference, LSU will be butting heads with Texas more and more. And the fans, that used semi-resent each other, can now openly despise each other.

Sarkisian and Kiffin must go to war:

The two head coaches of Texas and LSU will help to push the rivalry over the edge. Off the field, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian are very good friends. Both have had dark periods in their careers. They’ve been there for each other in those career valleys.

The two have a long history together. Both coached together on the staff at USC under Pete Carroll. When Kiffin left LA to coach the Oakland Raiders, it was Sark that replaced him as offensive coordinator at Southern Cal. Later, when Kiffin was fired as head coach of the Trojans, Sark replaced him in 2013.

Thank you for those that did. Love you @CoachSarkhttps://t.co/MA0pv1qKgE

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) March 18, 2026

Neither had a good exit from Southern Cal. Kiffin was famously fired on the tarmac of an airport and Sark lost his job because of problems with alcohol. Both found redemption on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama. In fact, Sarkisian would once again replace Kiffin as offensive coordinator with the Crimson Tide.

👊🏽 💪🏽🙏🏽 https://t.co/SObLkswL9e

— Steve Sarkisian (@CoachSark) March 18, 2026

Now, Sark and Kiffin are the head coaches of the two biggest programs in the western half of the SEC. They will be battling daily on the recruiting trail and, now regularly, on the football field. While, they will likely remain good friends in their personal lives, they will fight tooth and nail for their programs.

It’s like your best friend that you’d borderline lay down your life for. But you also would have no problem taking their rent check at the weekly poker game. Professionally, Sark and Kiffin are now enemies.

Both love to troll. Kiffin does it a lot more than Sarkisian. But as evidence by his recent comments directed at Texas Tech and Ole Miss, Sarkisian is expressing his opinions more publicly these days. So far, they haven’t openly taken shots at each other. When that happens, you know it is really on.

Texas-LSU Rivalry going forward:

LSU will be a bigger rival than Arkansas in the future. In two years, the SEC will re-evaluate the there yearly protected rivals for each team. It will be interesting to see if the conference changes any or many of them. If they do, there could be a scenario where the Tigers replace the Razorbacks as one of UT’s protected rivals in the future.

In the short term, there’s also the Manning factor. Arch’s trip to Baton Rouge in November promises to be one of the biggest events on the 2026 college football calendar. The fallout from that game will be epic either way.

Will LSU ever replace A&M or OU has Texas’ biggest rival? It is unlikely. The hatred of the Sooners and Aggies goes back a century. But competitively, with two great coaches at the head of two powerful programs in neighboring states, the Texas-LSU rivalry will grow and grow and grow.

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Is LSU destined to be Texas Football’s biggest rival?

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