Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte visits the field before an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)AP
The University of Texas intends to offer 200 more scholarships to athletes each year in response to a federal lawsuit expected to alter the structure of college sports, athletic director Chris Del Conte said Wednesday.
During his annual town hall, Del Conte laid out a plan to distribute 466 scholarships to student athletes in future years, up from the Longhorns’ current number of 266.2. The House vs. NCAA settlement, which earned preliminary approval last year, would allow colleges to directly pay athletes up to a cap of approximately $20.5 million and would also remove scholarship limits for athletic departments.
Del Conte said he’d like to take advantage by doling out as many scholarships as he’s able to give each sport.
“This is the University of Texas — we’re good at everything,” Del Conte said. “We are going to fully fund every single one of our sports at the highest [level].
The final approval hearing for the House settlement is scheduled for April 7. Expecting the settlement to get the green light, Del Conte used his town hall Wednesday to unveil a proposal for distributing scholarships across Texas’ 19 teams.
The breakdown is below:
A slide from from Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte's annual town hall.Texas Athletics
The House Settlement would establish roster limits for teams, which could prohibit Texas from offering additional scholarships to some of its programs, including football.
Del Conte also explained Wednesday that Title IX, the law meant to promote gender equity in athletics, mandates that the breakdown of roster spots in a school’s athletic department must resemble the gender demographics of the university at large.
Texas has more women enrolled than men. As a result, the athletic department has more female athletes — and, Del Conte said, because he’d like to offer as many scholarships possible, more new ones will go to women.
Del Conte said he projects the increased scholarship totals to cost $9 million, and he feels confident the department can fund that by producing new revenues. He referenced the school’s shift to the SEC and AI-backed improvements in efficiency as reasons for optimism.
Del Conte said some schools might choose not to offer the maximum amount of scholarships to fill out each of their athletic rosters, but the Longhorns plan to do so.
“When you look at this list, if it says, now you can go in beach volleyball from six [scholarships] to 19, by God, we’re going to 19,” Del Conte said. “When it says you can go from women’s indoor [volleyball] from 12 to 18, we’re going to go to 18 full rides. When you look across the board, every single one of those sports, our obligation, my obligation, is to fund them at the highest level.”
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