Could new sports be added to the Texas Longhorns athletic department?
The Texas Longhorns athletic department currently sponsors 20 total sports. Splitting indoor and outdoor track, there are nine men’s intercollegiate teams and 11 women’s Longhorn athletic teams.
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During a virtual townhall meeting put on by UT athletics on Monday, Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte said the school could add more programs to his department. If any were to be added though, the options are limited to women’s sports.
“If we’re going to add any sports in the near future, they will not be men,” Del Conte said Monday night. “They will be women’s sports.”
Del Conte explained that Title IX requirements mandate that intercollegiate athletic departments mirror the “proportionality of the institution.” With almost 56 percent of the Fall 2022 UT-Austin enrollment female, the athletic department has to match that picture.
That’s why Texas’ recent addition to the athletic department, beach volleyball, is a women’s sport.
“We’re in the process of looking at adding several sports across the board,” Del Conte said. “One would be beach volleyball on the women’s side, which Jerritt (Elliott) came to us and said we’ve got a national championship volleyball program. We’re recruiting for student-athletes in that space across all spectrums, beach has become really, really popular. We wanted to add that to his already growing team.”
Neither the Big 12 nor the SEC sponsors beach volleyball. The Longhorns’ conference destination for that sport has not yet been announced, though LSU, South Carolina, and TCU all compete in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. Texas beach volleyball recently had its first practice, will play a limited spring 2023 schedule, and participate fully during the 2024 campaign.
Texas currently sponsors football, basketball, baseball, cross country, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, and track for men’s sports. The women’s sports are basketball, cross country, golf, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track, and volleyball.
The Big 12 currently sponsors three sports the UT athletic department does not compete in: equestrian, gymnastics, and wrestling. Equestrian and gymnastics are women’s sports while wrestling is a men’s sport.
Texas’ future home, the Southeastern Conference, sponsors equestrian and gymnastics, but not wrestling.
Could Texas add programs for any of those? Del Conte didn’t get into specifics on the subject but considering adding wrestling is off the table since it is a men’s sport.
Additions could come from one or both of equestrian or gymnastics. Technically, it could also come from skiing, bowling, fencing, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, or water polo.
No matter what the specific choice is, according to Del Conte, there will be additions made in the not-too-distant future.
“We have plans in place to add several more women’s sports,” Del Conte said. “We’re going to continue to review that and move forward in a timely fashion.”
