Chris Del Conte on Texas' SEC move: "We're just going home"

Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte’s annual town hall functions as a state of the union for Longhorn intercollegiate athletics. In discussing Texas Longhorns sports and UT’s future affiliation in the Southeastern Conference, Del Conte himself was in a very animated state.

[Join Inside Texas and get ONE MONTH of Longhorn intel for just $1!]

“For us to go to the Southeastern Conference, I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Del Conte said Tuesday night.

He’d add, “We know the anticipation of going into the Southeastern Conference is coming, and we wanted to let everyone know that Texas lives there. In 1903, Texas was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic (Association), the precursor to the SEC. That was where we were at one time, and we’re just going home.”

Texas has hitched its wagons to three different athletic conferences since leaving the SIAA. The Longhorns have been a part of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletics Association, the Southwest Conference, and the Big 12. After being members of the Big 12 through its several iterations since 1996, the Longhorns will be taking their wagons east to the SEC come July 1.

“We’re in a place that the brands we’re going to get to play and who we’re going to be a part of, it makes sense,” Del Conte said. “We’re not flying from coast to coast. We’re not going up and down. We’re in a region that makes sense to us, the south, and the teams we get to play.”

This was visualized on Del Conte’s presentation with a map of all the states that have SEC institutions within their boundaries. Some states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee — members of the union with two SEC schools in them — were split 50-50. Alabama was halved with one part of the Yellowhammer State crimson for the Tide and the other blue for Auburn. For Mississippi, the top portion was Rebel blue while the lower half was Bulldog maroon. Tennessee was split down the middle with colors for the Commodores and the Volunteers.

The Lone Star State was doused in burnt orange, with a tiny, maroon sliver in College Station covered by a small Texas A&M logo, an area Del Conte jokingly called “Aggie-ville,” as the only Aggie enclave in Texas.

RELATED: Updates from Chris Del Conte’s athletics town hall (+)

This led into Del Conte discussing the football scheduling formula for the SEC, one of the league’s hot-button issues in recent years. The question has been whether to remain with an eight-game conference schedule or move to a nine-game slate like other major leagues have done. The Longhorns’ first season in the SEC will feature an eight-game schedule, and Del Conte alluded to 2025 being more of the same.

“We have eight games scheduled right now,” Del Conte said. “We’re working on going to a nine-game schedule, but we have a ways to go with that. I would say this year we have an eight-game schedule. The following year, we have another eight-game schedule. Then we’ll look at going into a nine-game conference schedule.”

One of those eight games scheduled? The return of the rivalry matchup with Texas A&M. Currently, the Longhorns are scheduled to visit College Station on Saturday, November 30. But Del Conte wants to restore other traditional aspects of that game.

“My goal is that we move that game back to Thursday,” Del Conte said.

Other factors behind the SEC move, like the lucrative media rights agreement the league holds with ESPN, were not mentioned by the Texas athletics director during his 90 minutes at the microphone. But he wasn’t there to talk numbers. Rather, he was intent to talk at length about Texas’ change in conferences, something the school will do on June 30.

Del Conte announced there would be a celebration of Texas joining the SEC held on the South Mall during UT’s final day as a member of the Big 12. Del Conte said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and “all the brass” from the league would be in Austin for something CDC likened to Christmas Eve.

“For us, it’s the first time to showcase who we are as an institution and who we’re joining,” Del Conte said. “Having the brass of the Southeastern Conference here that day is going to be really phenomenal. It’s going to be a true celebration of our great institution.”

There were questions posed to Del Conte about the potential scheduling of other Big 12 schools in football. Privately, no one at Texas appears interested in playing teams like Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, or Houston anytime soon.

Publicly, Del Conte said with how the SEC is figuring out whether eight games or nine is best, and the need for Texas to regularly host seven home games, the only way he could see a game against a member of UT’s soon-to-be former conference was if it was at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

“If they want to come play here at Texas, I’m all in,” Del Conte said. “I’m not sure yet how we can do a home-and-home until I know how all that balances out.”

Regarding other SEC sports and their schedules, Del Conte said he expected those to be released some time in July.

The overall tone Del Conte had in discussing his athletic department, one with intentions on winning another Directors’ Cup, was one of celebration.

And for Del Conte, nothing was more worthy of celebration than the deal he, UT Board of Regents chairmen Kevin Eltife, and UT president Jay Hartzell brokered to move Texas to the SEC.

[Subscribe to the brand new Inside Texas YouTube channel!]

“We can’t wait,” Del Conte said.