College football fans all over Texas can invite two old friends back into their homes this Thanksgiving – the Longhorns and Aggies.

ESPN announced Monday that it will broadcast the Texas-Texas A&M game on Thanksgiving night the next two seasons. This fall, the game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 27 in Austin. The game will shift back to College Station, Texas, in 2009; the time of that game has yet to be determined.

The schools had agreed to move the game from Friday to Thursday. But the official announcement was cheered by officials at both schools.

"The game has been a great tradition for years on Thanksgiving, and we're pleased that it will be again for the next two years," UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds said.

A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said: "I am thrilled that ESPN has offered to move the game back to that traditional date of Thanksgiving. I applaud the Big 12 Conference and our television partners in making this happen."

The state's premier rivalry is going back to the prime-time stage it enjoyed during the old Southwest Conference days.

UT and A&M battled on Thanksgiving night during the 1980s and early '90s. A&M was 9-0 against UT when the game was on ESPN.

The game, now dubbed the State Farm Lone Star Showdown, hasn't been on Thanksgiving since 1993. The game was not televised the following year, and ABC picked up the broadcast rights in '95. Upon the formation of the Big 12 in 1996, ABC shifted the game to Fridays.

"I am very excited about playing our Texas game on Thanksgiving night," first-year A&M coach Mike Sherman said. "This tradition-rich rivalry between two great universities deserves this type of exposure.

"I am hopeful we can keep this date for this game in years to come."

A&M has won two straight against its rival, but Texas leads the all-time series, 73-36-5.

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