The Oklahoma Sooners recovered from another slow start to close the first half trailing by only five. But the Texas Longhorns took it to another level by outscoring the Sooners by nine to win 94-80.
The Sooners fell to 20-11 and 8-10 in Big 12 play.
The Sooners struggled to get their offense going in the first half, especially from three. But late in the half, the Sooners began to find their rhythm and were hitting from deep to close the gap.
But the Longhorns took control in the second half, pushing their lead to as many as 20 over the final 20 minutes. The Sooners struggled to contain Tyrese Hunter, who had a career-high 30 points for the Longhorns, shooting 9 of 13 from the field. Hunter was also 3 of 4 from the three.
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Oklahoma got a big game from Rivaldo Soares, who led the Sooners with 21 points on 7 of 9 from the field and 3 of 4 from three.
Despite the return of Javian McCollum, the Sooners offense wasn’t consistent enough to hang with the Longhorns for a full 40 minutes and the defense wasn’t much better, allowing the Horns to shoot 63.6% from the field.
The Sooners now head into Big 12 tournament play hoping to make a statement and solidify their NCAA tournament hopes. The Sooners will be the No. 9 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will have a difficult road in Kansas City.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.You can also follow John on Twitter @john9williams.
Texas A&M, Kentucky face off in NCAA volleyball championship game
We now know the two teams heading to the national championship. Meg Hall explains how Texas A&M and Kentucky made it to the title game.
The 2025 NCAA volleyball season comes down to Kentucky vs. Texas A&M. The conference rivals will meet in the first all-SEC national championship game on Sunday, Dec. 21 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
Texas A&M is vying for its first championship after upsetting No. 1 overall seed Nebraska and Pitt in the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively. Meanwhile, Kentucky is looking to win its second title and first since 2020 after beating Wisconsin in a five-set semifinal thriller.
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It will be the 28th all-time meeting between the teams. The Wildcats hold a 17-10 advantage in the series, but the Aggies are 2-0 when the team’s meet on a neutral court.
Kentucky beat Texas A&M on Oct. 8 in College Station. The Aggies won the first set, but Wildcats rallied to win the last three for the victory.
When is Kentucky vs. Texas A&M volleyball?
No. 1 Kentucky (29-2) faces No. 3 Texas A&M (28-4) on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kentucky vs. Texas A&M volleyball: Channel, streaming
Date: Sunday, Dec. 21
Time: 3:30 p.m ET (2:30 p.m. CT)
Location: T-Mobile Center (Kansas City, Missouri)
Channel: ABC
Stream: ESPN+, Fubo
Stream to NCAA volleyball championship
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MORE: The 11 best NCAA volleyball players in transfer portal
No matter the accomplishments and accolades collected through the year, all seasons must come to end in some form or fashion. Unfortunately for Texas A&M football, the form of its first defeat in the College Football Playoff was in a tight 10-3 matchup with the Miami Hurricanes.
Despite of their best defensive outing of the 2025 campaign, the Aggies inability to get the offense churning until the very end of the game was among the factors that doomed their chances of advancing deeper into the national title race.
All things considered, it was a terrific season for the Maroon and White, who rattled off 11 straight wins to start the season as well as reaching the CFP for the first time in school history, which is a huge leap seeing that it was only head coach Mike Elko’s second season at the helm of the program. With that said, let’s take a look at the good, bad and ugly of the final A&M game of the year.
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The Good: A precedent was set
Sep 27, 2025; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko reacts against the Auburn Tigers during the fourth quarter at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images
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Though the sting of a loss, especially a season-ending one, is a hard feeling to turn the page over with, an 11-2 run in Elko’s second year is a quite the feat. A&M, which hadn’t achieved 10 wins in a season in over a decade, is poised to build a long-standing prescence in the national title race.
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Though a small sample size, Elko has progressed his time in each of the last two years, which can lead folks to assume that next year will have a similar outcome as far as overall success. While difficult to grasp in the moment, championship programs are not so quickly built in today’s Southeastern Conference.
The Bad: Offensive struggles spoil courageous defensive effort
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Dec 20, 2025; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies safety Dalton Brooks (25) strips the ball from Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Malachi Toney (10) during the second half of the first round game of the CFP National Playoff at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
In most normal circumstances, holding a team to just 10 points typically results in a victory. But that was not the case for the Aggies on Saturday. Through the better part of a three-and-a-half quarters, the A&M defense held Miami to just three points until in the final two minutes when a touchdown was conceded.
The Aggies had no answer to their defense’s heroics and came up short in the final seconds of the game when there was a chance in the end zone to tie the ballgame. A new offensive coordinator in Holmon Wiggins is due up next season, so the jury is still out on how next year will pan out.
The Ugly: Kicking the ball
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Sep 7, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies place kicker Jared Zirkel (99) kicks during the second quarter against the McNeese State Cowboys at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images
Sometimes, things can be so bad that they are simply comical. That would certainly be the case in College Station on Saturday afternoon, where a windy day helped a total of four field goal attempts to be missed across both squads.
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However, the Aggie faithful would be the first to say that even without wind, field goal kicking seemed virtually impossible this season. Kicker Jared Zirkel seemingly kicked the ball straight in the Hurricanes line within the 30-yard line and the Aggies only scored off a short boot from kicker Randy Bond.
ESPN’s College GameDay is pulling double duty this weekend for the College Football Playoff, airing ahead of last night’s Alabama win at Oklahoma and again this morning in College Station, Texas for Texas A&M’s opening-round game against Miami.
A pair of notorious college football legends were set to represent for their schools as guest pickers. Brian Bosworth was on hand in Norman, Okla. for Friday night’s show, while Heisman winner Johnny Manziel was set to serve as guest picker on Saturday. Evidently there’s been a change of plans with Johnny Football, as moments ago host Rece Davis former Aggies basketball star and two-time NBA champion Alex Caruso was announced as the show’s guest picker.
College GameDay has not announced a reason for the change, and has not announced it on social media.
Manziel has not comented about the change either. He shared a number of Instagram stories on Friday night from the Anthony Joshua-Jake Paul boxing match, which took place at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
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Bleacher Report also promoted that Manziel was to appear on the outlet’s pregame show from Kyle Field, which livestreamed on YouTube at 10 a.m. ET. Manziel shared Bleacher Report’s Instagram post about his appearance to his stories on Friday night, but he did not appear on the Saturday show alongside Mike Golic Jr. and Ray G.
Manziel previously served as guest picker for the Aggies’ Week 1 game against Notre Dame. Caruso will be making his College GameDay debut.
Caruso is a College Station native who stayed home to star for the Aggiest basketball program from 2012 to ‘16, earning SEC All-Defensive Team and second-team All-SEC honors during his impressive college career. He left college as the program leader in assists and steals, and was the centerpiece of the 2015–16 team that made a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Caruso has gone on to become a valuable role player in the NBA. After going undrafted and beginning his career in the G League, Caruso played for the Lakers from 2017 to ‘21, winning the 2020 NBA Finals. He played in 21 playoff games, making one start during that title run, and averaged 6.5 points, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
He continued his career with the Bulls from 2021 to ‘24, scoring a career high 10.1 points per game in his final season with Chicago. Following the 2023–24 season, he was traded to the Thunder, and was a crucial piece to the dominant 2024–25 Oklahoma City title team, averaging 7.1 points per game through the regular season and playing some of his best ball in the playoffs, with 9.2 points and two steals per game during the title run.
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Caruso did not score 20 points once during the regular season for OKC, but did it twice in the Thunder’s Finals win over the Pacers, making NBA history in the process.
Oklahoma City made clear how valuable he is after the season, signing Caruso to a guaranteed four-year, $81 million contract extension.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
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