UT Athletic Director Chris Del Conte spoke about the highs and lows of the Longhorns’ season and college sports with WFAA.
AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte spoke about the Longhorns’ season and the state of college sports in a one-on-one interview with WFAA.
Del Conte didn’t blink when asked what his biggest challenge is right now: “Managing people’s expectations,” he says. “I’ve been running an enterprise based on people’s passion. And rational people become irrational when it is their passion.”
It comes with the territory of running a massive athletic department that was recently valued at $1.3 billion. That’s billion with a “B,” an enterprise larger than a lot of companies in Texas.
The University of Texas at Austin fields nearly two dozen intercollegiate sports, but only two generate what Del Conte calls “positive P&L.” In financial terms, that’s a profit and loss statement, basically summarizing how much money a company, or in this case an athletic department, made and how much it spent.
“We generate our own revenue. We live within our own budget, and that’s how we operate here,” Del Conte says.
The department is able to operate with no state aid or financial assistance from the university due to the revenue generated by two sports: football and men’s basketball.
Other sports and individual athletes do generate income from Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, such as recent grad Madisen Skinner, who starred for UT’s volleyball team and inked a huge deal with H-E-B. But only those two sports generate the positive revenue that powers the entire program.
We asked Del Conte if it was inevitable that UT’s other sports would compete for limited resources. But he was quick to say, “No. I have 21 sports. We just added another $10 million into our scholarship budget. Every single student at the University of Texas will be on a full ride.”
Because of this summer’s landmark House v. NCAA settlement, schools are allowed to directly pay student-athletes through revenue-sharing models. The cap is $20.5 million per school in the 2025-26 school year, and will rise to $33 million over the next 10 years. It also creates a new framework for NIL deals, governed by an independent body called the College Sports Commission.
“We’ve been preparing for this for several years. We were not caught off guard. The decision lifted the cap on the number of scholarships. Instead it set a roster limit. So we were able to put every athlete at Texas under a full scholarship. Think about that,” Del Conte says.
Fort UT, this has been one of the most heavily scrutinized seasons in recent history. Some of that had to do with being ranked the preseason #1 team in the country. And while the Longhorns have three wins over highly ranked opponents, they also have three losses. But Del Conte feels it’s inevitable that with the transfer portal and revenue sharing deals, every team will experience ups and downs year to year.
“Look how many SEC games have ended in one score games. It’s so competitive right now. And I love it. You look at Indiana, they’re having a year. A&M. Oregon. Ole Miss. I think it’s good for college football. And when you look at the NFL, they’re not thinking about going undefeated every year. It’s just about making the playoffs. And that’s how it’s going to be now, just about making the Playoff,” he said.
We said this has been one of the most heavily scrutinized seasons in recent Longhorns history. And a lot of that comes down to two people: the quarterback and the coach. According to On3 NIL Tracker, heralded QB Arch Manning has seen his name-image-likeness value plunge from $6.8 million at the start of this season to $3.6 million as the regular season comes to an end. Del Conte recoils when asked about athletes’ values being tracked like the stock market.
“I don’t even know how you’re validating that. You gotta get off the internet because none of that makes any sense to me. ‘Oh he lost this value, he did that.’ That’s all BS. So I don’t, I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff because it’s not valid,” he said.
One thing he hasn’t been able to ignore is the constant speculation that head coach Steve Sarkisian isn’t long for Austin. Sarkisian has repeatedly been linked to other jobs, college and pro. And recently went on his weekly conference call with reporters to say, “It is not true. If you have a question about my future, call me or call Chris Del Conte… we can set the record straight.”
Del Conte says he’s confident that Sarkisian is committed to UT for the long term, saying, “Oh, Steve’s going to the NFL… and what happened the next day? The agent said we never talked to anyone. That’s ridiculous.”
We asked if he went to his head coach when the initial reports started coming in, but Del Conte says he didn’t have to.
“No, he came right to me. ‘This is erroneous.’ He came right to me and said, ‘That’s BS!’” Del Conte said.
The Southeastern Conference is currently focused on the SCORE Act, even going as far as paying for television ads urging Congress to pass it. Del Conte says he is fully committed to supporting the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act.
“Imagine having a society with laws, that there’s no police to enforce the laws. It’s a lawless society, right?!” he says.
Del Conte describes the current state of college athletics as a “race to the bottom, where every state is making its own rules. Florida has a different law than Texas. Texas has a different law than Missouri, California. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The SCORE Act would create a federal framework for college athletics, and supporters like Del Conte claim it will stabilize the system and protect athletes from exploitation. But a lot of athletes have come out against it, saying it would undermine their rights to collective bargaining, essentially consolidating the power of major conferences and granting the NCAA undue protection from antitrust action. The legislation is currently sitting in the House, and while it could shift the landscape yet again, Del Conte says UT, and college athletics as a whole, will be fine.
“It’s always changing and evolving. I couldn’t tell you what it’s going to be a year from now, but it’s going to be exciting!” he said.