Smack in the middle of the school year and amid the Texas Longhorns' College Football Playoff run, university president Jay Hartzell is leaving the school to take the same position at Southern Methodist University.

It's a shocking move, not necessarily because of the timing but because of the job. UT is the flagship public university in Texas, boasting nearly 54,000 students. By comparison, SMU is a private school with only 12,000 students. It carries far less influence in the state and, in terms of athletics, does not measure up in any meaningful way to what the Longhorns have done.

While this is an academic move, not an athletic one, Hartzell's legacy in Austin includes him being a “key figure” in the school's move to the SEC, as Yahoo college football reporter Ross Dellenger noted. Texas is in its first year in the SEC, while SMU, located in Dallas, is in its first year as an ACC institution.

“I am honored to serve as the next president of an exceptional institution like SMU in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing cities in the nation, and excited to see how I can make the greatest impact as a leader,” Hartzell said in a statement.

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University of Texas President Jay Hartzell delivers the State of the University Address at Hogg Memorial Auditorium Wednesday September 18, 2024.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Hartzell will retain his post at Texas through the end of the spring semester before taking over at SMU on June 1. In the meantime, he'll be able to see the Longhorns continue their run through the college football playoff. Texas will play in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night against Ohio State for a spot in the national title game.

That leaves the Longhorns two wins away from what would be the 12th overall national championship that the university has won during Hartzell's tenure. Hartzell became UT president in late 2020 and one of his first moves in athletics was to hire Steve Sarkisian as head football coach.

Since then, Sarkisian has methodically rebuilt the Longhorns football program, winning five games in year one and eight in year two, before Texas won the Big 12 last year and notched 13 wins (and counting) this year.

A source told Horns247 on Tuesday that despite Hartzell's departure, the Longhorn athletic department will continue to move forward.

“Hartzell has been a rock solid president at Texas and certainly got the importance of athletics, but you've got a visionary board of regents chairman in Kevin Eltife, who was at the forefront on Texas' move to the SEC and even on the hiring of Steve Sarkisian,” the source said. “As long as you have Eltife and [athletic director] Chris Del Conte working together, you've got the alignment you need to keep Texas athletics moving forward.”