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Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns talks with athletic director Chris Del Conte after the game against the Kansas State Wildcats at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 26, 2021 in Austin, Texas.

The Texas Longhorns football program shocked the FBS and media alike when they canceled a planned series of home-to-home matchups with Arizona State. Now Chris Del Conte, Athletic Director for The University of Texas at Austin, has revealed what was behind the Longhorns’ decision to back out of the scheduled series with the Sun Devils.

The decision from Texas to terminate the series with Arizona State didn’t come out of thin air. It was driven by major changes in the college football landscape. For starters, the Southeastern Conference’s (SEC) move to require a nine-game conference schedule beginning with this year’s 2026 season has placed constraints on the number of non-conference matchups SEC teams can feasibly fit into their schedules. As a result, Texas is just one of many teams forced to reassess scheduled non-conference games to instead prioritize playoff-boosting matchups and/or traditional rivalries closer to home.

Texas AD Chris Says ASU Matchup Was Never Supposed to Happen

GettyTexas Longhorns play Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns in 2021 after the matchup was released by Arizona State Sun Devils

With the SEC’s changes in conference play requirements as the backdrop, Texas AD Chris Del Conte made an appearance on the On Second Thought podcast where he gave an explanation behind UT’s reasoning for the series cancellation. One of the most shocking claims he made was that the Longhorns never intended to follow through with the Arizona State matchup.

Simply put, Del Conte said, “It was not even supposed to be scheduled.”

Del Conte explained that the origins of the series boiled down to how he didn’t want to play an FCS opponent when the Longhorns had an opening in their schedule for the 2021 season. To help the Longhorns out, Arizona State released their 2021 scheduled game with Louisiana-Lafayette so that Texas could fill the open game slot.

As a result of the gesture from ASU, Del Conte said that the Longhorns agreed to a matchup with the Sun Devils for a future season. “We agreed, okay, we’ll play you down the road,” he said about the ASU series contract signed in 2021 after Texas accepted the released Louisiana-Lafayette game.

Del Conte Claims Cancelation Was Mutual Decision

GettyThe University of Texas Athletic director Chris Del Conte looks on before the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns at Sanford Stadium on November 15, 2025 in Athens, Georgia.

While speaking on the podcast, Del Conte revealed that canceling the scheduled series with Arizona State was a mutual decision that was made through a series of discussions about what is going to be in the best interests of both teams.

Recalling those mutual discussions, Del Conte said, “This past year, we started, hey, man, that game doesn’t make sense for either one of us, so we had a discussion. It was a mutually agreed upon. We’re not going to play that game so far out, and from my perspective, I never intended playing the game the first time anyway.”

Adding to the shock cancellation of the Texas-ASU matchup, Del Conte revealed that Texas actually backed out a while ago. He shared the news by saying, “So we actually canceled that game six, seven months ago. It just hit the newspaper now, but it was a mutually agreed upon thing.”

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