Texas officially joining the SEC earlier this month has re-sparked a college sports debate. Who is the real UT? The University of Tennessee or the University of Texas?
The Southeastern Conference quietly ruled in on Friday when it released its preseason All-SEC teams. And the most powerful conference in intercollegiate athletics sided with the Volunteers.
In its release about preseason All-SEC teams, the conference used abbreviations to indicate which schools student athletes played for. The Tennessee abbreviation was “UT” while the Texas abbreviation was “Tex” as the SEC weighed in on the debate.
Texas did bode far better in the preseason predictions. The league’s media picked Texas to finish in second place and picked Tennessee to finish in seventh place this season. The Longhorns also landed 12 players on the three All-SEC teams while the Vols landed only two.
There’s little history between Tennessee and Texas on the gridiron. The two teams have only met three times, with the most recent meeting coming in 1969, and the Longhorns hold a 2-1 all time lead.
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On the hardwood, Tennessee men’s basketball has faced Texas nine total times with the Vols holding a slim 5-4 lead in the series. The two teams have met each of the last three seasons. Texas won the meeting in Austin in 2022 before Tennessee won in Knoxville in 2023 and won the rubber match in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Vols and Longhorns have met just nine times in baseball with Texas holding a commanding 7-2 lead which is unsurprising since the Longhorns boast one of the most historically strong programs in the country. The two teams have met twice during Tony Vitello’s tenure in Knoxville with the Longhorns winning in Omaha in 2021 and then again in a lone meeting early in the 2022 season.
Of course, the most compelling argument is that the University of Tennessee was established 51 years before Texas even became a state. Tennessee also earned its nickname as the “Volunteer State” first through its service in the War of 1812 but most notably in the Mexican-American War of 1848.
President James K. Polk, a middle Tennessee native, called up 2,600 Tennesseans to volunteer to fight the war. 30,000 answered the call, the most of any state. The United States won the Mexican-American War which led directly to the United States annexation of Texas.
Tennessee and Texas do not meet on the gridiron in the first year of the expanded SEC with the Vols instead facing Oklahoma in Norman.
8 Responses
I graduated from both the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas. I will state as a fact that EVERY book in the Perry-Castañeda Library is stamped “Texas University”. The main library at the school should know the correct name of the school. The University of Texas received the “University of Texas at Austin” name in 1967, prior to that date, the University never had an official name.
Amen
University of Tennessee is 90 years older than Texas. I’d say that settles it
Tennessee was in the SEC first and the longest. I my mind and heart there is only one UT and it is in Knoxville.
If it was not for a brave troop of Tennessee Volunteers back in history I am sure Texas would still be part of Mexico. UT belongs to Tennessee. Only saying.
The correct name of “The University of Texas” is so stated in the state constitution adopted in 1877 (correct: 1877).
Thomas Hatfield, The state constitution from 1876 says “The Legislature shall as soon as practicable establish, organize and provide for the maintenance, support and direction of a University of the first class, to be located by a vote of the people of this State, and styled, “The University of Texas”, for the promotion of literature, and the arts and sciences, including an Agricultural, and Mechanical department.” The word used is “Styled” not “Named”. It did not have an official name until 1967, and the official name is “The University of Texas at Austin”.
To go along with my comments dealing with the names of colleges, The University of Tennessee was so named in 1879 by the state legislature. The College was founded in 1794 as Blount College. In 1807, Blount College became East Tennessee College. Following being named the Land Grant University for Tennessee, the name was changed from East Tennessee University to the University of Tennessee. The University of Texas was founded in 1883. The first classes were held in the temporary capital building, as the neither the current capital nor the building going up where the current tower stands.