Case closed: Texas loses to Tennessee in the ‘UT’ debate for conference within SEC

It doesn’t take much to rattle up a college football fanbase — especially in the SEC.

Or even start a rivalry from nothing.

Both seemed to be true back in 2021 when a simple — and perhaps “silly” — debate was started between the Tennessee and Texas fan bases on which school would be the “UT” of the SEC once the Longhorns entered the conference after they departed from the Big 12.

On Friday, that debate seemed to have been put to a close when Texas was abbreviated as “TEX” in the SEC’s preseason team press release while the University of Tennessee was abbreviated as “UT.”

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Sure to the average fan, this can come off as a “silly” thing and lead to the ponderance of the thought: “Who cares? It has nothing to do with what happened on the field.” And that fan would be correct. But in the SEC, where football is religion so to speak, “It Just Means More” and the fan bases don’t pass up on the opportunity to win bragging rights other fan bases.

There is no real answer or conclusion as to why the SEC chose to abbreviate Tennessee as “UT” and Texas as “TEX” but one could pinpoint it to seniority — which could leave a sour taste and be looked at as “weak” reasoning, depending on if you are Longhorns fan or not. After all though, Tennessee was one of the founding teams of the SEC in 1932 and Texas just joined the conference.

Texas and Tennessee won’t play until 2026 during the SEC regular season.

How many Texas players made a preseason All-SEC team?

The Longhorns had 12 players earn individual preseason All-SEC honors on Friday, with offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. and kicker Bert Auburn earning preseason All-SEC First Team Offense and All-SEC First Team Specialist honors respectively. Texas finished with the third most total picks among all SEC teams behind Alabama (16) and Georgia (15).

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Quarterback Quinn Ewers was named to the preseason All-SEC Second Team Offense team. Ewers is coming off a strong sophomore season in 2023 where he led the Longhorns to the Sugar Bowl and the program’s first CFP appearance. Last season for Texas, Ewers completed 272-of-394 (69.0 %) passes of his passes while finishing with 3,479 yards and 22 passing touchdowns.

Here’s a full breakdown of the Longhorns that made preseason All-SEC teams:

• OL Kelvin Banks. Jr: First Team Offense

• PK Bert Auburn: First Team Specialists

• QB Quinn Ewers: Second Team Offense

• RB CJ Baxter: Second Team Offense

• WR Isaiah Bond: Second Team Offense

• DB Jahdae Barron: Second Team Defense

• DB Andrew Mukuba: Second Team Defense

• DB Malik Muhammad: Second Team Defense

• KS Will Stone: Second Team Specialists

• C Jake Majors: Third Team Offense

• DL Trey Moore: Third Team Defense

• AP Jaydon Blue: Third Team Specialists

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SEC doesn’t endorse Texas as ‘UT’ of conference, chooses Tennessee