Longhorns football kicks off the 2024 season this weekend with a home game against Colorado State.
This also marks the university’s first game as part of the Southeastern Conference, better known as the SEC.
We know many of our listeners are avid football fans who’ve been following what this change will mean for us and for college football more broadly. But we also know there are still folks who have some basic questions about what all this means and how it will affect the season and the program going forward — and for that matter, football in Texas writ large.
Danny Davis, who covers UT sports for the Austin American-Statesman, said one of the biggest pieces of this change is the return of the rivalry between UT and Texas A&M.
“That’s something that a lot of people are excited about,” Davis said. “My wife is a Longhorn grad and she doesn’t like Oklahoma, but she hates Texas A&M, so she’s really happy to go get that rivalry game back. … That’s kind of a Thanksgiving tradition around here and houses divided and in state forever and all that fun. So that game in College Station that Saturday will be so much fun. I’m looking forward to it.”
Davis said the decision to move the Longhorns to the SEC comes down to money.
“Money decides everything. Texas, a couple years ago, started to look at the landscape of college football, where college football was going,” Davis said. “They knew their TV deal was up in the Big 12, and they started to look around because they wanted a better TV deal. They wanted more financial security. And the SEC is the big dog of college football. The SEC is the Taylor Swift of college football. … Texas just wanted a piece of that.”
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Because Texas is a big program with a lot of fans, Davis said they had their pick of which conference they wanted to join. That said, there is still a formal process to make that happen.
“It comes down to university presidents. And, you know, there’s always some politics behind the scenes. That was the big case when the Big 12 was formed. Texas, and Oklahoma as well, when they applied to go to the SEC, that had to be approved by the 14 SEC schools. Their presidents had to sign off on that,” Davis said. “The conferences try to fill out their standings and get enough teams to actually be a formidable conference. But at the end, the presidents are making the call.”
Davis said the game stays the same, but the competition for the Longhorns is going to be tougher.
“The teams across almost all sports are tougher in the SEC than the Big 12. I think Texas won 15 conference championships last year, either regular season or tournament. They’re probably not going to do that this year in the SEC just because the competition’s a lot tougher,” he said. “But aside from some new places to visit and new teams to learn to hate or have new teams hate Texas, that’s probably the biggest difference Texas fans are going to see.”
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Texas won’t play Alabama – a powerhouse team that often dominates the SEC – this year, but there are some good rivalries on the Longhorns’ schedule.
“They do have Oklahoma, which is a given. I mean, they’re not going separate Texas and Oklahoma. Arkansas is not a good team this year, but the Razorbacks hate Texas. If you’re an old-school Texas fan, you know about that Arkansas rivalry,” Davis said. “They get to play Florida. Georgia’s obviously coming here. There’s some tough tests on that schedule. It’s going to be really interesting to see how the Longhorns do.”
Davis said that this change also marks a potential new era for college football, as teams switch conferences to follow the money. Namely, Davis said he thinks that the SEC and the Big Ten will come to dominate the sport.
“You have the SEC and then you have the Big Ten, which is where Michigan and Ohio State and some of those northern schools are at. And they’ve brought in some of those West Coast schools — USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington just moved over there this year. I think you kind of have two mega conferences,” Davis said. “The Big 12 is trying to hold on. They have some decent schools in their conference. … But I think most people kind of view this as the SEC and Big Ten deal. And everyone else is trying to fight to stay relevant.
“But I would say this: With the changing landscape of what college football is, especially now with some of the payment stuff and the NIL stuff and the transfer portal and just all the new changes, it wouldn’t be a shock if 10 years from now, if I’m still talking to you, we’re talking about a completely different landscape.”
