The idea of this super intense rivalry being without rules seems pretty logical to me as I've seen it play out over the years
In the real or fictional spy world OU developed a bogus but realistic looking "TOP SECRET" document. Texas should have applied one of the rules in Le Carre novels much more quickly. The first time something happens it can be just bad luck or coincidence but the second time means the other guys know what we are planning. The other one is what will we do to determine if the information is a plant intended to mask the real plan (could have used as a generic D to see if the first play was real of course in the spirit of spycraft OU could have just run the play on the list and then changed)
Great backstory about using deception to seize the initiative as noted elsewhere.