For anyone over 45, yeah, Arkansas is a traditional rival. Young people don't know squat, and don't decide anything. The kids enrolling at UT today, were 5 or 6 years old the last time A&M and Texas played. Do they view TAMU as a rival? Who knows? More importantly, who cares? They're not making the decisions. The people with money are, and they're all old like me.
And I'm sure you think A&M is better off with Texas in a different, landlocked, economically dying conference, with no hope of ever keeping up financially with the SEC and B1G. No duh. Clearly that's not an ideal situation for Texas, which is why the situation is now changing.
And I, too, don't think we need to lock in on specific pods, but rather 3-4 set annual games, that are protected, but aren't the same for all teams involved. So if you like, the ags can play LSU,Texas, and MSU, while Texas plays A&M, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and the Sooners can play Texas, and maybe Arkansas, and Missouri? Not sure who they'd pick as their 2 and 3 but there's no need for it to be TAMU if neither school values that as an annual game.