Forty Acres Insider: June 10

Chris Del Conte head shot 2025

Longhorn Nation,

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, yes we are the Champions, my friends! What an epic National Championship it was for Coach White and Softball last Friday night in OKC. The thrilling ride this tough, talented and relentless squad took us on was filled with incredible Texas Fight. It started right here in Austin as our Longhorns rallied to victories through the regional and super regional rounds. We took the Women's College World Series by storm and stampeded into the Championship Series for the third time in four years, then sealed the deal on a historical first-ever Softball Natty in dominant fashion with a 10-4 victory over Texas Tech! The Eyes of Texas and The Nation were upon us as we raised that beautiful trophy (and they doused you coach!), held our Horns High, and chanted Texas Fight with y'all! It's an accomplishment and scene that will be etched in Longhorn Lore. And as the sensational Kayden Henry said so well after the game, it's a dream come true, a forever memory. What a joy it was to witness, and we had a heck of a time paying tribute to our Horns in their triumphant return to the Forty Acres on Saturday with a big 'ol celebration followed by Lighting the Tower Orange in their honor!

light the tower for your 2025 national champions! 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/rlW2gJRC4O
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) June 8, 2025

Friday was a MONUMENTAL DAY IN OUR WORLD OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS as well. As our Softball team was putting a bow on its first National Championship in program history, the much-anticipated approval of the House vs. NCAA settlement was made by a federal court in the Northern District of California, ushering in a new era for collegiate athletics and additional permissible benefits for our student-athletes. It's an exciting time for us and our student-athletes, and one which provides much-needed progress and stability for the future. As Commissioner Sankey so aptly put it, this "represents a significant milestone for the meaningful support of our student-athletes and a pivotal step toward establishing long-term sustainability for college sports." With our outstanding staff in athletics and leadership on campus, we will begin to carry out our game plan to implement the additional benefits that we have been working on for the last few years.

This landmark settlement provides for many additional benefits which will help our STUDENT-ATHLETES PURSUE A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION AS WELL AS A WORLD-CLASS ATHLETICS EXPERIENCE. This marks the first time in history that college athletics departments will be able to directly enter into Publicity Rights (NIL/Name, Image and Likeness) agreements with student-athletes. These new Publicity Rights agreements will allow us to utilize student-athletes' NIL to promote their participation and achievements, The University and Texas Athletics, and we will do this to the maximum amount permitted.

Rest assured, we will have The University of Texas at the forefront of change during this critical time, in this new era that we are embarking on, and the future landscape of college athletics. Student-athletes will still be able to benefit from Third-Party NIL deals with outside businesses, and our partner corporations. These NIL deals will now be reported through a new online platform called NIL Go to ensure they meet a set of established standards, developed by the newly created College Sports Commission. And if you haven't read about it, the COLLEGE SPORTS COMMISSION is now in place to begin its work overseeing compliance (instead of the NCAA) with new rules implemented as a result of the settlement, including the Publicity Rights Benefits Pool, Third-Party NIL deals, and roster limits. For more information on the College Sports Commission and the new policies, please visit www.collegesportscommission.org.

Additionally, the settlement will permit us to provide more scholarship opportunities for student-athletes. WE WILL FULLY FUND SCHOLARSHIPS UP TO THE ROSTER LIMIT ACROSS OUR 21 SPORTS. The critical element for us that won't be lost in all the conversation is the educational mission that will continue to be an integral priority here on the Forty Acres. This includes a fully funded world-class education for our student-athletes and all the opportunities that encompasses, coupled with the coaching, training, resources, exposure, and support that come with competing for elite athletics programs.

Trust me folks, this progress comes with us continuing to elevate our student-athlete experience, and we appreciate all you do in helping us achieve that. There will be continued conversation, adjustments to be made and a transitional period as well, but we have extraordinary conference and campus leaders like Commissioner Sankey, Chairman Eltife, President Davis, our staff, and outstanding coaches in place to take us forward. Longhorn Nation's pride, passion, and support have never been more imperative than they are today. We will continue to deliver a premier educational and athletics experience for our student-athletes, are in a conference that is at the forefront in all of this to help guide us, and as you know on the Forty Acres, WHAT STARTS HERE CHANGES THE WORLD. That is exactly what our student-athletes will continue to do!

pic.twitter.com/ZPt5pP75ik
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) June 7, 2025

Back to our spectacular Softball squad and the phenomenal Friday title-winning game that rolled right into a glorious Saturday celebration. Y'all sure did show up and show out as we gathered as one at Red & Charline McCombs Field to give our Horns their flowers and unveil that championship banner (and if you missed it or want to relive the event in all its glory, check it out on Longhorn Network any time!). There was the tourney's Most Outstanding Player and our ace Teagan Kavan, the mighty Mia Scott — who showed unbelievable grit and determination playing through a serious knee injury — knocking a back-breaking championship game grand slam (and defensive gems all tourney long!), alongside a team full of heroes and our fearless leader Coach White & his staff! This team epitomized THE PRIDE AND WINNING TRADITION of The University of Texas and there was absolutely nothing Weak or Timid about them. They overcame all obstacles, took on all comers and every challenge, never wavered in their mission, took dead aim and came out on top. It's a team that played for each other and one we will never forget. We are forever grateful for the way y'all supported them from start to finish with so much passion, pride and love for your Longhorns. You are just the absolute best my friends and deserve to take a bow as well!

Longhorn Nation, y'all really showed out#HookEm | @TexasSoftball pic.twitter.com/dPwPllmd7O
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) June 8, 2025

With Softball claiming the National Championship — joining Men's Swimming and Diving to make it multiple titles in the same season for the FIFTH STRAIGHT YEAR for us — it's coming down to the home stretch of the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup standings and we're once again right in the thick of it. All totaled, we've had SEVEN top-three NCAA finishes, TEN top-fives and TWELVE top 10s at the national championships this year. With our eyes on defending The Cup, Coach Flo and Track and Field will be in action at the NCAA Championships in Eugene this week as 20 Longhorns in 16 events look to secure some critical team points to help us claim the coveted Cup for the fourth time in five years. But with that in mind, there's no better time than the present to reflect on some truly impressive numbers from this year already. As we said, we've won multiple National Championships in each of the last five seasons and during the last five years, our Longhorns have claimed a total of 13 NCAA team titles by eight different programs. Excluding the COVID-shortened year of 2019-20, Texas has won at least one NCAA Championship in 10-straight seasons. Historically, the Softball crown makes it 68 all-time National Championships (64 NCAA Crowns) and of the 21 intercollegiate sports we sponsor, with Softball earning its first national title, 15 of those 21 programs have won it all. ALL WE DO IS WIN BABY!

With @TexasSoftball's win, our Longhorns have claimed 2 NCAA Championships🏆🏆 this year (joining @TexasMSD)🤘🏻🤘🏻

That makes it MULTIPLE National Championships in EACH of the last 5️⃣ seasons

Over the last 5 years, our Horns have won 1️⃣3️⃣ NCAA team titles by 8️⃣ different programs pic.twitter.com/TIuCZnwW4l
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) June 7, 2025

And before we get to all the notes, I thought you'd enjoy this clip of Coach Miller in action. He's been hard at work since the day he hit our campus on March 25 and summer workouts have officially commenced. I'm so excited about the future of Men's Basketball under his leadership! And speaking of leadership, this is a must read on the culture Coach Sark has built in our Football program!!

Softball rolls into OKC, leaves with first WCWS Championship!

What a 10-day stretch for our Softball program that culminated in our first NATTY! Returning to Oklahoma City to play in the Women's College World Series for the third time in the last four seasons, this year was different for Coach White and our ladies. The run to the 'ship started on the morning of May 29th, when Joley Mitchell became the first player in program history to hit a pair of homers in a WCWS game and Teagan Kavan threw a complete-game shutout to best Florida, 3-0, and give the Longhorns their third victory over the Gators this season. Two days later and just hours after the passing of her grandmother, Kavan struck out eight and did not allow an earned run during Texas' 4-2 win over Oklahoma in a winner's bracket contest. Needing just one more win to reach the WCWS Championship Series, Mac Morgan and Kavan combined to shutout Tennessee, 2-0, to send us back to the Championship Series for the second consecutive season. In the first game of a best-of-three series against Texas Tech, our two-time All-American catcher Reese Atwood delivered in the clutch with a two-out, two-run single WHILE THE RED RAIDERS WERE ATTEMPTING TO INTENTIONALLY WALK HER that provided the difference in Texas' 2-1 win. A seventh-inning rally in game two came up just a base short as Leighann Goode was stranded at third base in the Red Raiders' 4-3 win. In the winner-take-all game three, our Longhorns grabbed control from the start with a good ol' five-run first inning and that lead grew to 10-0 after Mia Scott's fourth-inning grand slam. The Red Raiders plated four runs over the game's final three innings, but Kavan and our defense put the finishing touches on the 10-4 victory and made sure that national championship trophy would be on its way back to the Forty Acres. I've got to give a big-time salute and a huge THANK YOU to the SENIORS on this history-making team! You are leaving the program in a better place, and y'all certainly raised the bar of expectations each and every year. And how cool are these numbers!? Friday's Game 3 of the WCWS between Texas and Texas Tech was the MOST-WATCHED NCAA Softball game EVER, drawing 2.4 million viewers with a peak of 2.7 million viewers according to our friends at ESPN! In addition, Wednesday's Game 1 had 2.1 million viewers, the most ever for a WCWS Game 1, and Thursday's Game 2 also had 2.1 million viewers, the most ever for a WCWS Game 2. I'm not great at math, but that's some pretty incredible exposure that more than 6.5 million viewers watched our three games in the Championship Series! And one more nugget, the total attendance of 119,778 for this year's WCWS was an ALL-TIME RECORD for the event.

no better feeling 🥹🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/lvlDdh8eQr
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) June 7, 2025

Baseball racking up the hardware with postseason awards

Coach Schloss and the guys had a banner year during the regular season and now they're bringing home some hardware for their hard work. Rookie Dylan Volantis burst onto the college baseball scene in his debut campaign on The Forty Acres, earning Freshman All-American honors from the NCBWA on Monday. Volantis, who was also named SEC Freshman of the Year, is a finalist for both the National Pitcher of the Year Award and Stopper of the Year Award. Congratulations to Dylan on an incredible freshman season! Junior Rylan Galvan cemented himself as one of the top backstops to ever put on the Burnt Orange and White. Galvan is one of three finalists for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award. The All-SEC First Team pick will fly out to Wichita, Kansas for the ceremony on June 26, when he is aiming to become the first-ever winner in program history of the prestigious award. Hats off to these fine young men and the rest of the Longhorns on a tremendous first year in the SEC!

that's our Freshman All-American 🇺🇸#HookEm | @DylanVolantis | @NCBWA pic.twitter.com/4vNGtrKId6
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) June 9, 2025

Swimming programs shine brightly at U.S. Nationals meet

How about the week that our past, present and future men's and women's swimmers had in Indianapolis at the U.S. Nationals meet?! Our Longhorn Aquatics program had 11 swimmers earn spots for Team USA on the World Championship Team and eight more claim berths for Team USA on the World University Games Team for a NATIONAL-BEST 19 total swimmers reppin' the Red, White and Blue this summer! Talk about a lot of Burnt Orange competing on the global stage! Former Longhorn Luke Hobson made history in Indy and took down Michael Phelps' U.S. Open record in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:43.73 to win the national title and qualify for Worlds. Luke is now FIFTH all-time in 200 free history, and he broke Phelps' record that had stood since the 2008 Olympic Trials in Omaha. Rising junior Rex Maurer smashed the U.S. Open record in the 400 freestyle to win the event at Nationals in 3:43.22, taking down Larsen Jensen's previous mark of 3:43.53 set at the 2008 Olympic Trials. Maurer's time solidifies him as the third-fastest American in history! The 11 Longhorn Aquatics swimmers who will compete for Team USA at the World Championships include: Carson Foster, David Johnston, Chris Guiliano, Regan Smith, Simone Manuel, Erin Gemmell, Luke Hobson, Rex Maurer, Shaine Casas, Jillian Cox and Campbell McKean. In addition, four Longhorn divers will also compete for Team USA at the World Championships: Hailey Hernandez, Bayleigh Cranford, Nick Harris and Grayson Campbell. The eight Longhorn Aquatics swimmers who will compete for Team USA at the World University Games are: Camden Taylor, Kate Hurst, Will Modglin, Nate Germonprez, Baylor Nelson, Piper Enge, Lindsay Looney and Alec Enyeart, while two additional Texas divers wear the Red, White and Blue at the World University Games in Taylor Fox and Jacob Jones. The World Aquatics Championships will be held in Singapore on July 11-August 3, while the World University Games is set for July 16-27 in Germany, so be sure to follow our social media platforms to keep up with their performances.

Congrats to our 8️⃣ @TexasMSD & @TexasWSD swimmers who at U.S Nationals last week earned spots on Team USA's roster for the World Championships in Singapore🇺🇸🤘🏻 pic.twitter.com/Qwzggzg6XI
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) June 8, 2025

One, two, three Men's Tennis Academic All-Americans and two-straight Team Member of the Year awards!

Folks, when we mentioned our educational mission earlier, let me tell you, this is what it's all about. For the second-straight year, one of our very own from Men's Tennis received the top honor in the land as THE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE in that sport. Last year, it was Eliot Spizzirri, and this year, Pierre-Yves Bailly was chosen as the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year by the College Sports Communicators. That's numero uno – the very best combination of excellence on the court AND in the classroom. It's beyond special, and to have it back-to-back years is downright spectacular. My man PY, as we like to call him, not only had the best season of his Texas career in being named first-team All-SEC and helping us get to yet another Final Four, he was the SEC Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and all he did was carve out a 3.91 GPA on the way to getting his economics degree from the McCombs School of Business. I mean, come on now. And I'm not even done with the academic honors for Coach Berque's squad…we had two MORE members of the Academic All-America team in Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas Brown, who both made the second team and both had 3.9-plus GPA's with Sebastian working on his degree in physical culture and sports, and Lucas in, ahem, aerospace engineering. Talk about out of this world! There are only seven selections per team, so that means three of the top 14 scholar-athletes in the sport were Longhorns! You might ask yourself, 'Does that make our beloved university the only one with three?' And you'd be right to do so, because yes, yes it does! We've also had at least two on the team in each of the last three years, and we couldn't be prouder of this group! And some late breaking news from this morning, our sensational Timo Legout was chosen as the ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year! The national tennis awards come out Friday, and I think we'll be hearing his name again soon after he finished the season as the No. 1 ranked singles player! A big Hook 'Em to all of you!

Congrats to Pierre-Yves Bailly – CSC Men's Tennis Academic All-America Team Member of the Year making him the top men's tennis scholar-athlete in the nation!

That's BACK-TO-BACK for Texas with Eliot Spizzirri last year!https://t.co/yqRif8DIDu #HookEm 🤘🎾 | @CollSportsComm pic.twitter.com/Ve9Gh5FBHV
— Texas Men's Tennis (@TexasMTN) June 4, 2025

Some much-needed love to a few of our all-time greats!

Oh, and hey, we've got to give a shoutout to four of our all-time greats who were announced as candidates on the ballot of some big-time honors last week. Our Longhorn Legend and Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer, the big guy, Casey Hampton is part of the ballot for potential inclusion in the 2026 NFF College Football Hall of Fame class. Additionally, our very own assistant director for player development for football, Michael Huff (a member of this year's class of the NFF College Football Hall of Fame), and two other Longhorn Legends — our now baseball broadcaster extraordinaire Keith Moreland and the late Steve McMichael (enshrined this year in the Pro Football Hall of Fame) — make it three UT greats on Texas Sports Hall of Fame ballot for the class of 2026. All are more than worthy and we're fired up to have them on those ballots!

Longhorn Legend Casey Hampton has been named to the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame ballot! 🤘 @cfbhall pic.twitter.com/7wRKDqLgrv
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) June 3, 2025

Cat Osterman inducted into CSC Academic All-America Hall of Fame

I'll leave you with another reminder of "What starts here changes the world." Longhorn legend Cat Osterman was one of four former collegiate student-athletes who were inducted last night into the College Sports Communicators' (CSC) Academic All-America Hall of Fame Class of 2025 as part of the All-Star Night of Honors presented by ESPN at the CSC Unite 25 Convention in Orlando. Created in 1988, the CSC Academic All-America Hall of Fame recognizes former Academic All-Americans who received a college degree at least 10 years ago, have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers, and are committed to philanthropic causes. Our four-time All-American, three-time USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year and two-time ESPY Award winner for Best Female College Athlete, Cat achieved so many milestones on the diamond during her time on the Forty Acres. And it's fitting that she is the FIRST representative from The University of Texas to earn a place in CSC's Academic All-America Hall of Fame. Hook 'Em to an all-time great Longhorn and true friend!

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, we are beyond grateful to have Chairman Eltife in our corner!

So proud to celebrate this ⁦@TexasSoftball⁩ championship with Kevin Eltife our Chairman of the Board of regents who are truly the wind beneath our wings! 👏🏼👏🏼🤘🏽 pic.twitter.com/8a2xmO5ZEH
— Chris Del Conte (@_delconte) June 7, 2025

P.S. — We've got to give a shout out to those that paved the way!

paved the way 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/Kvj4caEzCn
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) June 7, 2025

P.S. — 2025 Volleyball Schedule Announced!

see y'all soon 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/l2pW5EFxZJ
— Texas Volleyball (@TexasVolleyball) June 3, 2025

P.S. — Shout out to Coach Fields from the best in the game!

great big-picture message from Scottie that he learned from Coach Fields 🤘#TakeDeadAim | @PGATOUR

pic.twitter.com/PQtt2cNYqV
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) June 4, 2025

P.S. — What Starts Here! Congrats to our Longhorns who competed in the Arnold Palmer Cup!!