Texas Longhorn fans from Central Texas still plan to attend Cotton Bowl game despite potentially hazardous road conditions

On January 10, 2025By Littum

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – North Texas experienced snow and icy conditions ahead of Friday night’s Cotton Bowl game in Arlington, where the Texas Longhorns and Ohio State Buckeyes will play for their ticket to the National Championship Game.

While the weather has yet to affect the big game, it will likely affect fans traveling to the area tomorrow, but some dedicated UT fans here in Central Texas say they didn’t want to miss it.

Melissa Bostwick, who grew up in Waco, says she’s been a Texas Longhorns fan for years.

“In about 1996, I started going to Texas games with a friend of mine and really enjoyed it and had a great time, and then I married into a UT family,” she shared.

Now that she and her family have a daughter who just graduated from UT and a son who still attends there, she and her family go to every football game they can and buy tickets for tomorrow’s game back in September.

“When the Cotton Bowl went on sale, I knew it was going to be one of the semifinal games, so I bought tickets to the Cotton Bowl, and luckily we ended up there,” Bostwick said.

So when she heard that the area was expecting some dangerous weather on the day of the big fight, they all started holding their breath.

“I’ve been watching it for almost a week, so it’s been up and down,” she recalled.

But despite the weather, organizers have said this year’s Goodyear Cotton Bowl is still on and right on schedule. Everyone just needs to be extra careful on the roads tomorrow.

According to Bostwick, “we’ll leave in the morning and hope we get there in enough time to get to the game.”

In a statement shared yesterday by AT&T Stadium and Cotton Bowl officials, they said “North Texas highways are already being salted and plans are in place to ensure a safe environment for everyone in and around AT&T Stadium on game day .”

Governor Greg Abbott also addressed concerns about travel to the game during a news conference yesterday.

“I was assured, as I have been from other sources, that there should be no obstacle to people joining the fight,” Governor Abbott said.

But Bostwick says at least they would handle that game.

“We were actually thinking of going up on Wednesday,” she said, “we have friends coming up from Houston who are meeting us and they flew in, they changed their flights from Friday to Wednesday.”

Another local UT alum who will be at the game tomorrow, Benjy Bauer, shared that “no weather conditions would stop me from going, I would crawl to Dallas if I had to. My biggest concern about the weather is Ohio State’s two incredible wide receivers.”

“We’re super excited, it’s going to be a great time,” shared Bostwick, “Hopefully the stadium will be packed and it would be great if there were more Texas fans, but I hope everyone who has a ticket can go.”

The match is scheduled for 18:30 tomorrow evening. You can watch it live on ESPN, but if you’re planning on driving up to Dallas for it, just make sure to be extra careful while on the roads.