What Chris Del Conte said about the House settlement, SEC scheduling, and more at SEC Spring Meetings

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — When Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte speaks, the nation tends to listen. He comes from a position of unique authority when it comes to college athletics, and his point of view on the pressing issues like the House settlement, the College Football Playoff, and Southeastern Conference scheduling goes a long way. Here’s a quick bullet point view of what Del Conte said to reporters in Florida on Wednesday.

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-“There’s compelling arguments on everything. One of the things we’re looking at right now is taking it all in and seeing where the landscape is going. For me, the most important thing is where the House settlement is. I think this past year, having a 12-team playoff was awesome. We finally got there. We’re old enough to know and you probably voted for a national champion. AP vote. Where we’re at today is awesome. The playoff system we had this year was great. They’re making a tweak to the seeding this coming year, and we’re continuing to make tweaks as we move forward.”

-Discussion in Destin is all about the format of the future of the playoff. Asked if he prefers four automatic qualifiers, Del Conte declined an answer and rather pointed to the fact that he entered this week in order to gather information and gain a better understanding of where his fellow administrators were coming from.

-Two things were clear, though: Del Conte prefers the nine-game SEC schedule because of the split created by the Red River Shootout, and a nine-game won’t prevent the Longhorns from scheduling teams like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, and others in the future: “Those games are important in college.” Del Conte would not say specifically how many athletic directors favored nine conference games.

-No matter what the model looks like, will Texas A&M and Oklahoma continue to be, for sure, on the schedule every year? “Those are my intentions. I think those are critical games for us, for sure.”

-Strength of schedule is at the forefront of conversations. Del Conte spoke about how there are specific metrics put in place for selection committees for men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. “It’s a little more subjective in the CFP committee than it is that way. So from a coach’s perspective, I get why they’re looking at it.”

-Del Conte declined to provide definitive answers on a number of topics due to the uncertainty of the House settlement. While most expect Claudia Wilken to approve the settlement, she still hasn’t done so: “A lot of these discussions are based on what-ifs.” He acknowledged she was inundated with a lot of material and that material is part of what will become a massive change to college athletics.

-On the Ohio State game kickoff time controversy, Del Conte said they were approached and asked if the Longhorns would approve a move to Sunday night. No other requests about moving the game to a later kickoff time were mentioned by Del Conte. He said he refused that request, despite the game falling on a holiday weekend, to make sure his team did not have to play week two on short rest.

-Del Conte threw as much water as he could on the report that Texas was spending $35-40 million on its football roster in 2025, just like Steve Sarkisian did on Monday. He labeled the report as not accurate as far as for this calendar year: “If you put it in an ecosystem of two years, you can say that could possibly be it. But that’s not the number.” Inside Texas has reported that the figure in that report was likely a two-year total as opposed to the one-year sum.

-Del Conte mentioned that the House settlement disseminations will be 75% for football, 15% for men’s basketball, 5% for women’s basketball, and 5% for the remaining sports. Fair market value is a wrench in the decision making process that won’t be clear until the final decision is made. Also, figuring out how to split the remaining 5% among sports like baseball, swimming, volleyball, and more is a decision Del Conte will have to sort through over the course of the next few months as more information becomes available.

-The Texas Longhorns were the only SEC school to host a home playoff game. Del Conte loved the atmosphere against Clemson, and came out in support of more playoff games, including contests in later rounds, being played at on-campus venues: “I’m all in on that.” He acknowledged that isn’t a snap-of-the-fingers decision as the bowl system has a say in whether that will be possible, but the atmosphere in Austin in December obviously stuck in Del Conte’s memory.

-As far as the nine-game schedule and potential play-in games for the automatic qualifier spots, Del Conte refused to offer an answer and pointed again to how much variability exists in all these issues.

-Del Conte said football and men’s basketball are the Texas sports with a positive PNL (profit and loss).

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-Del Conte said again that he will fully fund every scholarship sport all the way to its SEC mandated roster limit. He declined to say what sports would receive bits of the aforementioned 5% pie, but he said “my goal is eventually to have five or six of our sports fully in participation in revenue (sharing).”