Saturday is the day half of Dallas has been circling since August. Texas and Oklahoma meet at the Cotton Bowl on October 10 with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on ABC or ESPN, and the whole thing plays out in the middle of the State Fair of Texas, the way it has every year since 1929. This is the 97th straight meeting at the Fair, and the contract keeps the game at Fair Park through 2036. Texas won last year’s game 23-6, so Sooner fans arrive with something to prove.
If you have tickets, the most useful advice is the oldest. Get there early. The Fair opens at 7 a.m. on game day instead of the usual 10 a.m., and your game ticket doubles as your Fair admission. Download it to your phone before you leave the house, because cell service near the stadium gets shaky once more than 90,000 fans start trying to post the same photo of Big Tex.
Official State Fair parking lots at Gates 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 15 open at 7 a.m. Coming in on I-30, the Fair suggests taking exit 48A toward Haskell Avenue for the quickest route to the lots. Rideshare drop-off and pick-up is at Gate 1, at Gurley Avenue and South Haskell. Will Call opens at 7 a.m. at 816 S. Second Ave., across from the Music Hall.
Plenty of locals skip the car entirely and take DART, and that is still the smart move. The Green Line runs right to the Fair Park gates, though the trains get packed the closer you get to kickoff. Check DART’s State Fair page for game-day schedules before you go.
Outdoor concessions, the Tower Building food court and the Midway open at 8 a.m., and the exhibit buildings follow at 9. Cotton Bowl gates open at 11:30 a.m. There are two security screenings, one to get into the Fair and another to get into the stadium, and the clear bag policy applies inside the Cotton Bowl. If your seats are in the renovated west tower, which used to be the press box, head for the elevators on either side of Gate A. The State Fair lays out the full list of rules and reminders in its official game-day guide.
The stadium itself looks different from a few years ago. The first phase of the Cotton Bowl’s roughly $140 million renovation added wider concourses, escalators and updated concession stands and restrooms. More work is planned for the east side down the road. We covered the renovation and the rivalry’s history here.
The party starts Friday. ESPN’s SEC Network sets up in front of the Hall of State, with The Paul Finebaum Show broadcasting live from 2 to 6 p.m. on Friday and SEC Nation taking over Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m. Fans are welcome to join the crowd, and homemade signs are allowed through the gates until 9 a.m. Saturday, as long as they stay clean.
Once the Golden Hat is handed out, the Fair keeps going. The winning team’s flag goes up near the Top o’ Texas Tower around 6:30 p.m. DJ Sober plays the Bud Light Stage in front of the Cotton Bowl at 7:30 p.m., and the fireworks start along the Esplanade at 7:45 p.m. Houston rapper Paul Wall headlines the Chevrolet Main Stage in the Fair Park Coliseum at 7:45 p.m. The Midway stays open into the night, though the buildings close at 9 p.m. except for the Tower Building, which runs until 10. One change worth knowing. The nightly Starlight Parade is canceled on Saturday because of the crowd size.
If you are not going to the game, consider Sunday. The Fair runs through October 18, and on Saturday the grounds belong to burnt orange and crimson.
Where to Eat Texas-OU Weekend
Inside the gates, start with the classic. Fletcher’s has been frying corny dogs at the Fair since 1942, and an Original Corny Dog with a stripe of mustard is as much a part of this game as the Golden Hat. This year the Fletcher family finally took home a Big Tex Choice Award, winning Best Taste Sweet with the Chocolate Corny Dog. It is milk chocolate fudge dipped in the same corny dog batter, fried and finished with yellow vanilla icing standing in for mustard and a side of raspberry compote playing ketchup. At $7, it is the cheapest of this year’s winners.
The other 2026 winners are worth tracking down too. Tom Grace’s Burger Chop Tater Tacos took Best Taste Savory with a burger filling folded into shells made of tater tots. The Tropical Coco Fresca from Fruteria Cano, a pineapple and watermelon agua fresca with a Tajín rim and a scoop of icy coconut, won Best Sipper and makes a lot of sense on a warm afternoon. Stephen El Gidi’s Berry Me in Matcha, a New York-style cheesecake on a stick dipped in white chocolate and rolled in matcha cookie crumbs, won Most Creative. At $15, it is a good one to split. The full list is on the State Fair’s site.
Before the game, Deep Ellum sits right on the Green Line and makes an easy first stop. AllGood Cafe at 2934 Main St. opens early, and a plate of Migas or the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs will carry you through four quarters and a few laps around the Midway. A few blocks away, Pecan Lodge at 2702 Main St. opens at 11 a.m. on Saturday and serves until 10 p.m. or until the pits run dry. Get the Brisket by the pound, or the Hot Mess, a salt-crusted sweet potato loaded with barbacoa, chipotle cream, cheese, bacon and green onions. Expect a line on game day.
After the game, Deep Ellum is a short ride back up the Green Line, and it stays awake long after the fireworks. Terry Black’s Barbecue at 3025 Main St. brings the Black family’s Lockhart barbecue up I-35. The family learned the trade in Lockhart, the town many Texans call the barbecue capital of the state, and the Deep Ellum location opened in 2019. Order the Beef Ribs, sold by the pound, with a link of Jalapeno Cheese Sausage and a side of Cream Corn. There is a full bar and a patio, and the line moves cafeteria-style. It serves until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Regino Rojas started Revolver Taco Lounge in Fort Worth in 2011 and brought his family’s Michoacán cooking to Deep Ellum in 2017. The current home at 2646 Elm St. builds its tacos on handmade corn tortillas, and the cooking still leans on Rojas family recipes. It is open until midnight on Friday and Saturday, and walk-ins are welcome.
If the night runs long, finish at Serious Pizza, 2807 Elm St., where the pies are 30 inches across and the slices are built to match. It stays open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, which makes it the last word in Deep Ellum on Texas-OU weekend, whichever color you are wearing home.
