The Texas Longhorns and the Rice Owls have scheduled a three-game football series for 2019, 2021, and 2023, FBSchedules.com has learned.
In the first game of the series, Texas and Rice will square off at NRG Stadium in Houston on Sept. 14, 2019. The Owls will be the home team and will receive a $1 million guarantee, according to a copy of the contract obtained from The University of Texas at Austin via an open records request.
In a separate contract, Texas and Rice have scheduled two additional football games which will both be played at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. Texas will host Rice on Sept. 18, 2021 and will pay the Owls a $1 million guarantee. Two seasons later on Sept. 2, 2023, the Owls return to Austin for a $1.5 million guarantee.
Texas and Rice have met 94 times on the gridiron in a series that began back in 1914. The two schools played every season from 1914 through 1995, but have met only 12 times between 1997 and 2015. Texas leads the overall series 72-21-1.
Rice was previously scheduled to face Texas A&M at NRG Stadium in 2019 to conclude a two-game contract that began in 2014 in College Station. The Owls also list three other non-conference opponents for 2019 (Wake Forest, Baylor, and Army), so it’s likely that the Texas A&M contest has been postponed to another season or canceled altogether.
In addition, Rice was scheduled to host Baylor on Sept. 14, 2019, which is the same date as the newly scheduled game against Texas at NRG Stadium. That means the Baylor game is on the move also, but probably just changing dates that season.
Update (2/11/2016)
Both Texas and Rice have officially announced the three-game football series.
Regarding the previously scheduled Rice-Texas A&M game in 2019, Rice stated in their release that A&M “…requested to release the slot on its schedule due to a scheduling conflict.”
Football Schedules