Chris Del Conte on NIL: "We'll be firmly invested into this opportunity."
Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte believes in the power of athletic scholarships. In his eyes, they open doors and present opportunities to student-athletes that few other institutions can offer.
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Del Conte also believes in being adaptable to the prevailing trends in college athletics, and the prevailing trend of modern high-level Division I sports is Name, Image, and Likeness.
“It’s here and it’s here to stay,” Del Conte said Monday during a Texas athletics virtual town hall.
As a result, Del Conte and the rest of the athletic department want to be at the forefront of the NIL landscape. If championships across all 20 (and soon to be 21) Texas sports is the goal, then being the best at NIL is imperative. That’s what Del Conte believes, and that’s why he endorsed the efforts of the Texas One Fund during the town hall.
“You can help in so many ways, whether you call the Texas One Fund or you message a student-athlete directly and say ‘I’d like for you to come to a birthday party,'” Del Conte said. “They get a chance to work with you and get to meet you in a different front. We run everything by compliance. The sheriff is on the call, and she does a great job of making sure we do everything above board.
“It’s one of those things that I never thought was possible when I was a student, but here we are today. I embrace it, because if we want to be great we have to embrace. I tell everybody my feet were tempered coming in, but now it’s here to stay. We’re all in. The goal of the University of Texas is to win championships across the board, and NIL is going to help us do that. We’ll be firmly invested into this opportunity.”
(‘The sheriff’ is likely Lori Hammond, senior associate athletics director for athletics risk management and compliance services)
There are outliers in NIL that stand to gain plenty of dollars based off their own self-built profile. Two athletes Del Conte mentioned as part of that category were Bijan Robinson, the 2022 Doak Walker Award winner, and Logan Eggleston, the women’s volleyball player of the year and captain of the 2022 national championship team.
For other student-athletes who may not have that same brand power, Del Conte wants there to be similar opportunities. That’s where the Texas One Fund steps in.
RELATED: Texas One Fund president Patrick Smith explains the nuts and bolts of the main UT NIL collective
“One of the things that I love that the Texas One Fund did is they went and got the long form done,” Del Conte said. “It’s a 501(c)3. Your dollars are 100 percent tax deductible, so it gives an opportunity for us to have an NIL collective that your dollars are going straight to a student-athlete, and that athlete will then be performing community service.”
The last part is of extreme importance to Del Conte. Not only does he believe it supports the student-athlete, but it creates a bond between the student-athlete, the University of Texas, and the Austin community.
“The Texas One Fund ensures that those kids that are receiving your discretionary income that is tax-deductible, when they go and volunteer in these community endeavors, they’re getting in touch and ingraining themselves in our community,” Del Conte said. “You know, they’ll go back years from now and say ‘I absolutely had an incredible time at the University of Texas, and this is where I want to be.’ It shows it’s reciprocated in a lifetime of memories and a lifetime of involvement.”
The Texas One Fund has received plenty of stamps of approval from the athletic department. Advertisements for the collective have been visible at the Moody Center, and will be mainstays at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, McCombs Field, the Texas Tennis Center, and other athletic events this spring.
In addition, Del Conte and head football coach Steve Sarkisian are scheduled to be in Houston on Tuesday as a thank you to significant Texas One Fund donors and to raise awareness for the collective’s efforts.
The two most visible representatives of the UT athletic department are keenly aware of how important NIL is to success in Power 5 athletics. Del Conte’s words when speaking to Longhorn fans on Monday night serve as another example of Texas’ efforts to be a leader in the modern NIL world.
