Well, well, well.
If it isn’t the other university of Texas.
Texas A&M likes to call itself the Texas Fighting Aggies. The idea behind it is that they’re the Texas school. But if they’re the Texas school, why not just call themselves Texas? Like many things Texas A&M does (and I bear good will towards Texas A&M, I am a transplant into this world), Texas A&M’s halfway attempt to call themselves Texas only brings more attention to the fact that they are not Texas.
UTSA, on the other hand…
Now that is a university of Texas.
Technically speaking.
UTSA’s lost the plot a little bit, and we’re bummed about it. Jeff Traylor made big things happen for the Roadrunners, notching a 12-win and 11-win season and teaching a whole nation to say those blessed words: “Meep Meep.” Traylor, or someone close to him, saw the potential in UTSA, pivoting hard into the school’s San Antonian identity. We’ve all seen the area code on the helmets. I can’t find the quote now, but I could have sworn that at one point Traylor suggested rebranding as just “San Antonio,” like how Cal State-Fresno goes by Fresno State.
Why do we say the Roadrunners lost the plot? Because they just got beat by 39 points by Texas State. People were always wondering when someone would figure out how to win in San Marcos, and someone—GJ Kinne—finally did, and reports of a Bobcat dynasty were inflated as they came up the Balcones Fault but Texas State did kick the shit out of UTSA last weekend, and now Texas will probably kick the shit out of UTSA tonight.
The bright side is that UTSA really has been good lately, and UTSA—like Texas State—plays in the greater Central Texas area, and theoretically, that means they should be able to make things work. The fact UTSA went from being UT–San Antonio to being mentioned in Pac-12 expansion talk is undeniable progress. Hopefully they keep it up.
Anyway, one of my best friends transferred from UTSA to UT and then worked something like 30 hours a week throughout college, and I always think about that with UTSA and the middle-class half of the UT populace. Both produce adults, and I appreciate that. Texas should try to keep UTSA as an ally. Maybe even use the transfer portal to treat the school as a minor league team. Imagine Arch Manning spending a year in San Antonio beating up on the AAC.
The Game and Other Things
I have been asked to advertise our college football model, which is a good resource. Especially if you’re on a computer. The Barking Crow’s iPhone user experience kinda sucks. Here are the model’s playoff probabilities. Here is its bracketology. What’s that you’re seeing? Texas as the first overall seed? Yes. That’s right. Texas might not be the best football team in the country (might be, might not be) but statistically, they’re the likeliest team to take the number one seed in the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff. Of course, that sets them up for a semifinal against Georgia, but it’d be in the Cotton Bowl this way. You can’t keep the Longhorns out of Jerryworld, and the further you can make Georgia drive to a football game, the likelier its players are to [redacted, went too far].
I have also been asked to talk about other Texas sports in here, but I have simultaneously been asked to be done with this post by 9:00, and it is 9:15. I will offer this: DKR might be the fifth-best Texas Longhorns athletic venue, if that. The Moody Center is similar but cooler. The soccer field has one of the best skyline views in the city, or at least it used to. (I’m not sure I’ve been to the soccer field since the Moody Center was built and I’m suddenly afraid you can’t see the Capitol from the field.) The Gregory Gymnasium, of course, is a volleyball cathedral. And the baseball and softball fields (hand up, I forgot about softball) are great.
We might have to do a longer post about this sometime. Put it on the list for summer blogs.
(Forgot about the Colorado River, which I assume is the rowing team’s home venue? The 2025–26 athletic year might require taking a one-year-old child to see every Longhorn team play.)
