Is a Texas Takeover About to Hit the SEC, On and Off the Field?

ATLANTA — Texas is the betting favorite to win the SEC this season, and there’s serious momentum around the Longhorns not only taking over the conference between the lines—but off the field, too.

“The popularity of the Texas Longhorns is at an all-time high,” coach Steve Sarkisian said Tuesday at SEC media days, quickly pointing out metrics like eight million average TV viewers per game last season, average home attendance of 102,000 fans, and selling out season tickets for a fourth straight year.

Last season, Texas lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, but it was the last team standing from the conference in the College Football Playoff, losing to eventual champion Ohio State in the semifinals.

This season, the Longhorns will have one of the most expensive rosters in college football, thanks to lucrative NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals signed before a July 1 shift in regulating said contracts—on top of the athletic department planning to pay football players roughly 75% of its $20.5 million revenue-sharing budget. The total sum, including revenue-sharing and NIL (name, image, and likeness), could reach $40 million, the Houston Chronicle previously reported.

Additionally, Texas’s five road games this season—at Ohio State, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Georgia—will see the Longhorns travel over 9,000 miles, more than any other team in the SEC.  

Manning Mania

The most important player for Texas (and almost certainly the highest-paid) will be quarterback Arch Manning, who has taken over the starting job after Quinn Ewers was drafted by the Dolphins. 

Manning said he’s excited to compete in “a big-time conference” in the SEC, but he is blocking out the intense media interest around his debut season. “I’m here to play ball,” he said in front of dozens of reporters Tuesday. “This is very much so secondary.”

Sarkisian is confident Manning, who comes from one of the most famous families in football, is ready for the moment. “He grew up in this era of seeing high-level football,” Sarkisan said. “He’s watched Super Bowls. He’s watched gold jackets getting put on.”

Cash Flow

Sarkisian echoed thoughts from many other coaches in expressing uncertainty about how the newly created College Sports Commission will regulate revenue-sharing and NIL deals.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know. We’re in such the beginning stages of this thing. I think that everybody is operating differently. Everybody is trying to navigate this differently, and what are exactly the rules and are they going to be enforced? Nobody really knows.”

When it comes to paying players, Sarkisian believes Texas takes a different approach than many other schools. “When kids come on our campus, we don’t talk about NIL or revenue-sharing or publicity rights until the very end,” he said. “And that may hurt us on some kids, but if a kid is coming to Texas for that reason, we don’t want him anyway.”

Sarkisan added, “If you’re coming for the other reason, he’s probably going to be the guy in 18 months that’s back in the portal going somewhere else where they’re going to offer him more money.”