AD looks ahead to new era
Del Conte talks A&M schedule, facility upgrades
AUSTIN — Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte promoted a number of upcoming facility improvements and expansion projects during a virtual town hall event earlier this week that included a public question and answer session.
Here’s a look at some of the more notable topics Del Conte touched on across those 50 minutes.
SEC scheduling
Future football schedules and team groupings have been prominent topics ever since Texas and Oklahoma announced they would join the SEC for the 2024-25 athletic year, one year ahead of schedule.
The SEC is still debating whether to play eight or nine conference games once the league expands to 16 teams with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. The conference is expected to replace its current twodivision model with four sets of four-team “pods” that play each other annually while rotating through the rest of the league, though Del Conte said those talks are still ongoing.
“We don’t know what division we’re going to be playing in or how it’s going to be located,” he said. “We have our first real meeting coming up in two months. I will attend all SEC meetings from here on out. Are we going to play eight games or nine games? Everything is up for debate. We just don’t know exactly how it’s going to shape up. We’ll know more by this summer exactly what it’s going to look like.”
Holiday tradition
One thing’s for certain: Texas and Texas A&M will finally renew their dormant football rivalry. But whether the programs will reserve Thanksgiving week for one another, as had been the case prior to Texas A&M joining the SEC in 2012, remains to be seen.
“Again, that’s way too premature,” Del Conte said. “But I know that game means so much to so many people. I don’t have that answer yet.”
Football upgrades
Texas debuted its new $200 million south end zone expansion in 2021. That project turned Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium into a full bowl, added luxury suites and athletic department offices, and featured significant renovations to the team’s training facilities and lounges in the MoncriefNeuhaus Athletic Center.
But the arms race never stops, and Del Conte said Texas will start construction on a new 10,000 square foot recruiting lounge this summer. Texas also has hired an architect to design a new practice facility to replace “The Bubble” that sits along Red River Street. The $4 million indoor practice facility was built in 2002 and houses a full-sized turf football field with one set of goal posts. The indoor track and field athletes also use the facility for training purposes.
“The practice facility is coming and hopefully in the next two to three months I’ll tell you exactly where it’s gonna go,” Del Conte said. “We’ve hired an architect. We’re in the process of designing it in several locations. Once that’s designed, we’ll go to president ( Jay) Hartzell for approval then go to the board of trustees and move forward.”
Expanding Disch-Falk
Texas sold its full allotment of baseball season tickets for the first time this year. And with the Longhorns preparing to move into the SEC, which features a number of 7,000plus seat baseball stadiums, Del Conte said he’s exploring ways to expand Disch-Falk Field, which can currently hold 6,985 fans.
The main impediment to expansion, Del Conte said, is the surrounding roadways.
“It’s something we need to look at,” he said. “The problem is we can’t put any seats on either side of the outfield because we don’t own those roads, those are city roads. So we don’t have any way to expand going to right field or left field. We would probably look at expansion down the thirdbase line as a possibility. So if we do anything it’ll be above the third-base line.”
Adding new sports
When asked about adding wrestling or men’s soccer, Del Conte referenced the “proportionality” aspect of Title IX that requires schools to provide their male and female students with varsity athletic opportunities in proportion to the undergraduate population.
Texas’ undergraduate enrollment is almost 61 percent women. So any new programs will be on the women’s side, which includes the new beach volleyball program that began practicing this month.
“If we’re gonna add any sports in the near future they will not be men, they’ll be women’s sports,” Del Conte said. “Because our athletic department must mirror the student body. We have plans in place to add more women’s sports, so we’ll continue to review that and move forward in a timely fashion.”
Longhorn Network
The Longhorn Network will be folded into the SEC Network.
“We have a year or two left with the Longhorn Network,” Del Conte said. “Then, all that inventory stays with us.”