As the Texas Longhorns football program enters the new season atop the AP Poll, its athletic director, Chris Del Conte, is about to get a major raise.
Del Conte, who has been at the helm in Austin since 2017, is on the verge of signing an 11-year, $38.8 million contract with the university, according to college football insider Brett McMurphy. The deal is pending Board of Regents approval.
As McMurphy outlines, the contract would give Del Conte an 18.4 percent raise in guaranteed compensation and he will be eligible for $5.5 million in incentives through 2036.
It all amounts to a six-year extension on Del Conte's current deal. He will earn $2.9 million in 2026, with his salary rising to $4.25 million by the final year of the contract, according to Kirk Bohls of the Houston Chronicle. It will also make him the highest-paid athletic director in the country, surpassing Danny White at Tennessee.
Texas just finished its first academic year as a member of the SEC, and despite its newcomer status, Del Conte is already taking the lead on helping shape the conference's football future. As the SEC faces pressure from the Big Ten to go from eight to nine conference games, Del Conte is pushing the league for the same.
“I’ve always been a proponent of 9 league games because of our Red River game vs. Oklahoma in Dallas,” Del Conte said via McMurphy at the SEC spring meetings in May.
As Del Conte alluded to, moving the Red River game out of Austin leaves Texas with only three true home games during the 2025 conference season. An extra conference game would balance things out for the designated Red River home team each year.
But an AD's job is more than just football, and the Longhorns haven't exactly been slouches elsewhere during Del Conte's reign. Texas has won four of the last five Directors Cups, given annually to the top Division I athletic department in the country. The Longhorns' women's basketball program is coming off a trip to the Final Four, while the men just made the Sweet 16 and softball just won a national championship.
