Forty Acres Insider: December 10

Chris Del Conte head shot 2025

Longhorn Nation,

I'm writing you today as we return from Las Vegas, where last night we celebrated our newest NFF College Football Hall of Famer, Michael Huff, as well as Scholar-Athlete/William V. Campbell Trophy finalist Trey Moore. It's a great time to be a Longhorn as we roll through December and head into the holidays — there's a whole lot to talk about in Texas Athletics! Our Volleyball squad punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the 20th-straight season, extending the nation's longest active streak! No. 2 Women's Basketball notched yet another top-15 win. We introduced the new leader of our Soccer program and officially kicked off a brand-new era with Coach Bates. We rolled out a big-time announcement on the pursuit of a future facility. And Football had another tremendous signing day, adding a plethora of outstanding new student-athletes — most of whom will be joining us soon — as we gear up for a big-time class of titans against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. Tis the season to be jolly, y'all, and we're so darn lucky to be Longhorns — the best fans in the land riding shotgun with us all the livelong day!

Our @NFFNetwork HOF Inductee & Campbell Trophy Finalist 🤘 pic.twitter.com/Ix8lwtUrok
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 10, 2025

Before we get too far into talking about the present, WE'VE GOT SOME EXCITING NEWS FOR THE FUTURE as our friends on campus announced an RFP — Request for Proposal — for awesome new facilities that will be a great benefit to our athletics program and the entire UT community. A few weeks ago (November 20), the UT System Board of Regents authorized the 2033 Higher Education Development Foundation to issue an RFP on behalf of UT Austin to seek developer(s) to plan, design, construct, equip, finance and operate a small multipurpose public arena and student-athlete housing facility located on main campus at minimal or no cost to UT. Today that RFP was issued and the process of seeking developers began. The multipurpose public arena is envisioned to provide a state-of-the-art, new competition home for our four-time National Championship Volleyball program which will seat approximately 6,000 fans, with the flexibility to expand to 6,500 seats, for concerts, shows, university, and community events. The public-private development project will encompass approximately four acres on UT Austin's main campus, located north of East MLK Boulevard between Robert Dedman Drive and Interstate-35. The student-athlete housing component is envisioned to provide a best-in-class living and learning environment that reflects our commitment to recruiting and developing the premier student-athletes in the world. Additionally, the facility could provide for ground-level retail opportunities that will enhance the campus, fans, community, and visitors experience. We are excited to find developers to bring these projects to fruition as they will create an experience that our student-athletes, coaches, and passionate fans will be proud of in the heart of a district built for elite talent and entertainment.

Announcing "a critical step for the future of @TexasVolleyball and our student-athletes' housing experience." 🤘https://t.co/LGJse70d8l pic.twitter.com/w7bHwYnVEz
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) December 10, 2025

What a great time we had rallying together with our Longhorns at Gregory Gym as No. 1-seeded Volleyball put on their best Texas Fight in sweeping both Florida A&M and the defending National Champs Penn State to advance to our eye-popping 20th-straight NCAA Regional Semifinals (and it's oh so sweet!) under Coach Elliott. No other team in the country has an active streak that matches our incredible run of Sweet 16 appearances! And y'all were absolutely en fuego cheering on our squad, raising the roof, and bringing that patented passion & pride as we stampeded to those wins — but folks, we're just getting started. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN; WE GET TO DO IT AGAIN this week as the Road to Kansas City and the NCAA Championship continues runs through the Forty Acres with the Austin Regional (Round of 16 and Elite Eight matches) taking place right here in the friendly confines of The Greg. Yes, our Horns will look to serve, set & spike their way further on through the tourney in front of a packed house and raucous crowd once again. It will be some high-level action with our Horns taking on fourth-seeded Indiana on Friday (11 a.m. CT/ESPN) with the two and three seeds, Stanford and Wisconsin respectively, competing in the other bracket. The winner of those matches meet on Sunday (either 2 or 6:30 p.m. CT/TV is TBD) with a spot in the Final Four on the line. Get fired up early, get your best Burnt Orange & White garb ready and we'll see you at the gym!

SWEEPIN' OUR WAY TO THE SIXTEEN🤘🧹#HookEm pic.twitter.com/3eRf1TUKu9
— Texas Volleyball (@TexasVolleyball) December 7, 2025

On Sunday we received our postseason destination and we're off to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl where we'll have a truly special NEW YEAR'S EVE MATCHUP WITH MICHIGAN (2 p.m. CT/ABC). It's our first-ever appearance in the Citrus Bowl and features a showdown between two of college football's proudest programs — a pair of traditional powers that are both among the top-five winningest programs of all-time. We're heading in with Texas Fight on our minds, even if we believed we had a strong case to return to the College Football Playoff for the third-straight year. With the best strength of schedule of anyone in the 12-team bracket, head-to-head wins over two teams in the current top-10 (and three in top-15), plus playing one heck of a season-opening battle at No. 2-seeded Ohio State, we came up just short. But a final No. 13 CFP ranking is nothing to hang our heads about — and neither is the opportunity in front of us. This is a chance to finish the season with an exclamation point and look to win 10 games and finish in the top-10 for the third straight year — something that hasn't been done on the Forty Acres since Mack Brown's great teams in 2007-09. It also gives Coach Sark another month to coach, train and develop our squad. And one of the absolute best parts is it will bring Longhorn Nation together in Orlando to celebrate this team and another outstanding year under Coach Sark as we ring in the New Year. Can't wait to see you there, and if you can't make it, I know you'll be bringing that Texas Pride worldwide!

See y'all soon, @CitrusBowl 🤘 pic.twitter.com/9a0sGWSEFY
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 7, 2025

Fresh off defeating No. 11 North Carolina last Thursday (its third top-15 triumph in the past five games) and following that effort up with Sunday's 101-42 home win over Prairie View A&M, Coach Schaefer and No. 2 Women's Basketball hits the road and looks to remain perfect against UTRGV later tonight down in Edinburg (6:30 p.m. CT/ESPN+). After that it takes on an old SWC and Big 12 foe in No. 13 Baylor on Sunday (12 p.m. CT/ABC) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Coach Miller and Men's Basketball got back in the win column with a 95-69 victory over Southern in The Mood on Monday and travels to Hartford for a big-time non-conference matchup at perennial power No. 5 UConn on Friday (7 p.m. CT/FOX).

🔟-0️⃣ TEXAS 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/l6RoLDzS0t
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) December 7, 2025

And before we get to the notes, I've got to give Longhorn Nation a huge shoutout. Y'all packed the stands and tuned-in worldwide to make our Horns the second-most-watched programs in the nation. It was an absolutely historic year of viewership as ALL EYES WERE ON TEXAS FOOTBALL this season! We started with 16.6 million tuning in for our hard-fought season opener at Ohio State — the most-watched season-opening game on any network, EVER! Then capped it off with 13.3 million watching our dominant 27-17 victory over Texas A&M — the most watched weekday CFB game on any network, EVER! That also was the largest television audience in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown history as well as the third-most watched game in 2025, on any network. And for the one-hundred-three thousand-plus in the house, y'all are the absolute best!

All eyes on us 👀🤘 pic.twitter.com/NLxDgLf2Xi
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 5, 2025

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — We'll see you back at The Greg!

Y'ALL SHOWED OUT 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/Q7nxVd9jre
— Texas Volleyball (@TexasVolleyball) December 7, 2025

P.S. — Horns Up for Football Signing Day!

Horns are here 🤘✍️ pic.twitter.com/i5DWlialhq
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 6, 2025

P.S. — The Eyes on our takedown of the Aggies

ALL EYES ON TEXAS! One of the TOP-3 most-watched programs in CFB all season, Horns had historical year of TV ratings—starting with most-watched opener in CFB history (16.6 million/at Ohio State) to closing with most-watched weekday game ever (13m/3rd-most all networks in 2025)🤘🏼 https://t.co/h1SWl4ANp8
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) December 5, 2025

P.S. — So awesome for our guy Dicker the Kicker, Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee! What Starts Here!!

leaving his mark on the game + the community 💙

rt to vote #wpmoychallenge + @camerondicker pic.twitter.com/4GDKqIluDI
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) December 4, 2025

P.S. — Hey there Coach!

the fourth head coach in @TexasSoccer history 🤘#HookEm | @TexasLonghorns pic.twitter.com/wb8quEHrAN
— Texas Soccer (@TexasSoccer) December 3, 2025

P.S. — We love our fans!

what a perfect week in The Mood with y'all 🤭🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/9vf1nhoG98
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) December 8, 2025

P.S. — How about Big V's career night in front of his family in town from Lithuania?

career night for Matas, and his family was here to see it 🥲🤘#HookEm | @MVokietaitis8 pic.twitter.com/INiMupnbwa
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) December 9, 2025

HEADLINES:

No. 14/14/13 Football lands eight on All-SEC Coaches' Teams:

No. 3 Volleyball lands four on AVCA Southwest Region team:

No. 14/14/13 Football's Taaffe recognized as a finalist for 2025 Burlsworth Trophy:

Video: No. 3 Volleyball highlights vs. No. 25 Penn State (NCAA Second Round):

Video: No. 3 Volleyball NCAA Second Round postgame press conference:

Video: Steve Sarkisian Cheez-It Citrus Bowl media availability (Dec. 7):

Video: No. 3 Volleyball NCAA First Round postgame press conference:

Video: Longhorn Weekly with Sean Miller (Dec. 4):

A True Competitor: Football's Trey Moore:

Men's Golf's Maas receives exemption into DP World Tour's Hero Dubai Desert Classic:

After long journey to Austin, Texas' Torrey Stafford leads Longhorns into NCAA Volleyball tournament (Austin American-Statesman):