Del Conte eager to get A&M-Texas series going

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Chris Del Conte’s office desk at Darrell K. Royal-Memorial Stadium once belonged to DKR himself, as did the empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey displayed behind his chair.

It was one year ago this month Del Conte left his comfortable conditions at TCU to accept one of the biggest jobs in college athletics: AD at the University of Texas. Since arriving in Austin, he made updating facilities a priority, has added big names to future football schedules and attempted to put Texas A&M back on the schedule.

I asked him about the potential of UT eventually playing Texas A&M again in football. It is no surprise that Del Conte is the driver to restart this game.

“I would like to think at some point in time it will get done, but the timing didn’t work for them; I would love for this to happen because it’s good for college football,” Del Conte said. “We had an opening in 2022 and ’23, and it didn’t work for them. The timing didn’t work.”

Del Conte may think Aggies vs. Horns is good for college football, but he wants it for one reason: Aggies against Horns will fill up a stadium of any size. Del Conte didn’t say this, but he didn’t have to: Whatever bad feelings exist between some of the power brokers at UT and A&M, they will eventually be forced to be on the same field at the same time since 2011.

However much the head coach at Texas A&M, whether it’s Jimbo Fisher or someone else, does not want to add Texas to a schedule that already includes the death march that is the SEC West, they will have to eventually.

The Aggies love to blow off the Horns on this game, because it gives them a feeling of superiority in a relationship that, for some inexplicable reason, they have felt inferior in for forever. To the Horns, the Aggies say, “We don’t need the tea sips.”

Technically, both schools are so large and blessed with so much money, neither needs the other. But the day is coming they will. Because an Aggies nonconference game against Hot Garbage Tech is not going to do it.

Like any good marriage, cash will drive this reunification. As attendance becomes an increasingly larger issue for every college athletic department, the only guaranteed way to fill up a stadium of more than 80,000 is Big vs. Big at 2:30 or 7 p.m.

That’s why Del Conte has lined up Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, LSU, etc. for future schedules. He can fill up DKR for those dates, charge a premium and attach a handful of other games on the back of that one ticket. Welcome to the absurdity that is the college athletics business model. And if a network throws enough money at the schools, they somehow magically figure out a way to find time for each other.

“These games mean so much to a city, a state, and they are a big part of the emotional psyche; I agree with it and I’m with the fans who want it,” Del Conte said. “And I think it would be good for the state of Texas and both institutions that they have a chance to play each other for a long, long time.

“But, you know, Alabama and Auburn took a break from playing each other for 40 years. What a ‘travesty.’”

Yes, from 1908 to 1947, there was no Iron Bowl. The series began in 1892 and ran through 1907. It restarted in 1948 and has continued ever since.

“The Iron Bowl is such a celebrated game that they took a break for 40 years,” Del Conte said. “So when this happens, it happens.”