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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- Hey, Bobcats, welcome to "The Current." This is Kelly Damphousse, President of Texas State University, and welcome to a special edition of "The Current," where we talk about things that are happening at Texas State University with alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the university. And today's a special time for us to talk about something really big, some of the biggest news to hit Texas State this summer, and that's Texas State's invitation to join the Pac-12. And to help me get through that, I'm actually happy to have Don Coryell, our Athletics Director and Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, and Brant Freeman is here, the voice of the Texas State Bobcats. And Brant's actually gonna take over for a little bit, but Brant, you're an alumnus. You graduated from here in 2005 or so.
- Yep, 2006.
- So you were 2006. You were a student here in 2001. You were on the five-year program, I guess. And so talk about what this means to you as an alumnus, but also as a staff member in the Athletics Department.
- Obviously, so significant. You know, I remember when I was first a student here, I think I was still a semester or two into Southwest Texas, you know, the days in the Southland Conference, you know, and towards the end of my time as a student, you know, the success that came with the Southland, the 2005 Southland Conference Championship, which I think helped catapult Texas State ultimately to the FBS, and I remember being a part then, you know, as an employee, as a broadcaster, of helping cover the move up to the FBS and going to the WAC, and how exciting that was at the time, and then shortly thereafter, going to the Sun Belt. You know, we're talking about two or three realignment periods ago now, and then to see this culminate, I just never imagined it, you know, whenever I first started out here as a student, that one day we would be here. And this is such a proud moment, not only as somebody who works very closely in athletics, but as you said, somebody that is a very proud alum of this great university.
- Well, we're glad to have you here, and we're glad for all you do, and thankful for all you do for Texas State to promote what we do. Every event that I go to that's connected to athletics, your voice is always there, including the Strutters Spectacular and introducing all the different acts, but thank you for all that. But I wanted to give you the opportunity to kinda lead this conversation, because you've been so involved in Texas State Athletics. And Donnie, thank you for joining us as well.
- Yeah. It's great to be here.
- It's great to have you here. I will say, Don's the architect of all this happening here, and so we're really proud of what he's accomplished here. So, Brent, take it away.
- Well, Kelly, thank you so much. I'm so honored to be able to talk with both of you about this very significant moment in Texas State University history and athletics, of course, as well, but now that it's been, you know, some time since the announcement, how much have the emotions settled in, Don?
- Settled in? They haven't yet. You know, we're still fired up, we're still really excited. Obviously there's a lot of work to do now. You know, we spent a lot of time, even over the July 4th weekend, you know, just with text messages and phone calls between coaches and staff, you know, about planning for this week and having more discussions about what we need to continue to do to be successful, so haven't had a chance to really kind of power down. I'm not sure that's gonna happen at this point. It's just been a whirlwind. It's been awesome for everybody. It was so much fun to be a part of this announcement last week, but, you know, now we kind of, you know, you start to change your priorities, right? You kind of go from the announcement to the implementation now, and that's really, you know, where we're starting today as soon as we get outta here.
- Kelly, have you had time to, you know, process the process itself here?
- Processing the process is a great question. You know, I wanna go back to the very beginning. This all kind of started with a conversation that Don and I had right after I was hired here. So July of 2022, I was meeting with all the cabinet members, and Don took me for a tour of the facilities, and we talked then about, you know, someday realignment is gonna happen again. Everyone kind of knew it was happening at some point. I don't think anyone thought it would happen the way that it did happen, but I just felt like Texas State was in a prime location, and the timing might be right for us, if things started happening, that we should be ready for it. And I asked him what he needed. He said, "I need this and this and this," and so we just started lining up all the dominoes for him to have the resources that he needed to kinda get us in that position. Probably the biggest thing that had to happen was our football program wasn't where it needed to be for reputational purposes, and he made, you know, the huge decision to hire G.J. Kinne to bring him in here, qualifying for our third and our fourth bowl game ever, but actually going to our very first one and winning that game, beating Baylor, almost beating Arizona State here in front of a packed house, and, you know, beating UTSA for the first time. All those things kind of happening, coalescing around us being in pretty good shape, of people thinking, "Well, maybe Texas State might fit into this." And then last summer there starts to be some rumbling about the Pac maybe continuing to exist, and then when they took some Mountain West schools, that opened up openings in Mountain West, and other conferences were interested, and got a lot of interest. And so, and then a lot of noise in September, and then not very much for several months, like not much happening. And to the Pac-12's credit, they said at the very beginning, "We wanna get our TV deal done before we add our eighth football program." So I was being patient, as patient as I could, but you had a lot of emotions, thinking, "Oh, is it gonna happen? Is it not gonna happen?" A lot of anxiety, a lot of phone calls, called a lot of presidents and chancellors, and Don was calling athletics directors and trying to make the case for Texas State in a subtle way. You don't really apply for these things. There's not an ad that you apply to or anything like that. You're trying to make a case for, you know, what is Texas State about. And a lot of people don't know about Texas State. They don't know much about San Marcos. If you don't live in Texas, you might not know about the geography being close to Austin and San Antonio, and so had to make the case. And then at the very end, it was a huge flurry, and then there's this huge sense of relief leading up to the announcement of the board meeting. And then anxiety over the weekend, because, you know, the board has to play a huge role in this. They're our fiduciary responsibility for the university, and I had to be on my A game and ready to answer all their questions Monday morning. And then I will say, we went into executive session, they asked some really good questions, talked about the whole process and the plan that we have, and then we came back and they voted just like that, and, man, it's over. And then it was just me and Beth at our lake house, and like, we go, "Well, I guess I'll go mow the lawn now." And so it was, like, super anticlimactic at the very end, but then it was like, "All right." You feel like the dog that catches the car. "Now what do I do now?" And then this becomes really operational for Don and his team, and for me it's more like conference-level stuff. Like, we have our very first board meeting tomorrow morning. It's seven o'clock their time, nine o'clock my time. I'm actually gonna enjoy not having the early mornings that they're gonna have. But, so, at our level, we're talking about bylaws and how do we put together this new conference, but the operational stuff will really happen with Don and his team, and I'm excited to see that all happen. We got a whole year to get ready for it, but I promise you, July 1, 2026 will be here before you know it. I mean, it's less than a year already. And we'll have waxes and waning in anxiety, and interest and excitement, but we're also excited about celebrating with folks, when students get back on campus, having a big celebration. Finishing the season strong is really important for us, and then getting ready for that next phase.
- Well, Don, you know, Kelly kind of walked us through the process. You know, there was certainly a lot of anticipation for this as well. You know, a lot of social media engagement, fans in the weeks, the days leading up, you know, there was a lot of smoke out there, a lot of rumors out there, but then finally when you get to make the official announcement, what was that day like?
- Awesome day. And you're right, there was so much speculation out there, you know, even we get caught up in it to an extent, right? You know, you see something on social media, "Man, is there any truth behind this?" or, "What's going on here?" But yeah, you know, phone calls from coaches, you know, over the past few months. "Hey, what's out there? Is this really gonna happen?" "Hey, I heard we got an invite." So, you know, so you're batting down speculation for months, and then to your point, to be able to kind of walk out of my office after that board of directors, board of regents meeting and get that approval. You know, I've said this a couple times, high-fiving down the hallway, right, anybody that was within reach, and then really kind of... And you were there, right? Kind of went right into that full staff meeting with all of our coaches, all of our administrators, people who've been here an awful long time, right? You know, our senior staff. I don't think there's anybody on our senior staff who hasn't been here at least six or seven years, and some that have been here 15 plus, right? And we've all kind of chased this, right? We knew this could be a reality for Texas State. We knew that we could do bigger and better things, and to be able to go in there, share that in the same situation with coaches who've been here for so long, you know, putting blood, sweat and tears into this program, it was a big payoff in the response from that group. You know, when you walk in and everybody's clapping and everybody's celebrating, just a great moment, and I'll remember that for an awful long time. And I think we're gonna see the same type of reaction. We already have already to an extent, with our fans, with our student-athletes, you know, with our students on campus, faculty and staff. I think everybody's really fired up about this move. Everybody's really excited about where we're going, and everybody's, you know, really excited about the competition that we're gonna be able to play moving forward, right? And that's probably the thing that I'm most excited about, the group of schools that are in this league. We all work in college athletics. You know, we followed these schools for a long time. A lot of iconic brands who historically have just been so good. And that's what you want as an administrator, as a student-athlete, as a coach. You want to face the best, right, and this gives us a chance to do that. We get to level up, you know? This is gonna be the top. This is gonna be a top five football conference in the country. It's gonna be a top five men's basketball conference. You look across the sports collectively, everybody's really good, and that's probably the thing I'm most excited about, is getting an opportunity to take a shot at these teams.
- You know, Kelly, Don highlighted what this means for athletics and what it will mean moving forward, but I'm kind of curious from the university's perspective, what does this move mean?
- What's really interesting about college athletics is that athletics allows you an opportunity to talk about your university in a way you wouldn't be allowed to normally, because there's a lot of attention on athletics, and people wanna know, "Hey, what's going on with the university that's associated with that team?" For the past week or so, Don and I have been on so many radio shows and TV shows and podcasts, and interviews with traditional media and social media, and every time I did that, I had a chance to talk about what great things are happening at Texas State. And, you know, if I had a dollar for every time a college president said that athletics was the front porch to the university, we'd have so much money I'd be able to build everything we need to build, and I wouldn't need to raise any NIL money. By the way, we don't, so I need to raise NIL money and raise more money for buildings. But college athletics really is the front porch, and also the rearview mirror for alumni, reasons to come back to campus, which allows us to raise money as well for scholarships for other things that are not necessarily associated with athletics. But the chance to tell people about how big Texas State is, that we have almost 41,000 students last year. We'll have 43,000 students this year, over 9,000 freshmen this year, which is bigger than many universities. We're the 24th largest undergraduate university in the country. Our Run to R1, the fact that we're gonna be an R1 institution by 2027. Talk about our beautiful college town, the fact that we've been almost every year named the best college town in Texas. We're one of the best college towns in America. To talk about all those things, and the beauty of the Hill Country and the beauty of our campus, and the diversity of our students, and about how we mirror the demographics of Texas here. It's a great opportunity for us to share what's going on here, which will help us recruit students nationally and internationally as well. Our brand is getting out there. Just like it did when we won our first bowl game in December of 2023, our out-of-state applications went up tremendously after that. When we won our second bowl game, our international applications are through the roof, our domestic non-resident applications are through the roof. Athletics allows us to tell the story of Texas State. It's a great story to tell, it's an easy story to tell, but it also allows us to celebrate, you know, the great things that are happening here. There's a lot of people who don't know much about Texas State or about San Marcos, and about the Hill Country and about this geography here that we're now able to tell that story.
- Yeah, and I'll add, I just love everything you're seeing, you know, from traditional media, social media. You know, when you're seeing images and videos of this move, it's not us celebrating our championships, right? It's not images necessarily of our volleyball program or our softball team. You see a lot of the city here in San Marcos. You see a lot of Old Main, you see a lot of Sewell Park. So I think it's great from our end to see that, you know, you're really pushing that university brand. This is not just about athletics. This is about the entire university, and that's a goal for us, and so, you know, we're pleased that they were able to contribute and help.
- And the media numbers were unbelievable.
- Oh yeah.
- Over 10 billion social media impressions of some kind. That means someone saw or read, or retweeted, or liked, or had the potential of seeing a story about us. Every story that gets written is viewed by hundreds and thousands and millions of people over time, people talking about Texas State. So social media, over 10 billion, 6 billion impressions in the traditional media, that's radio, TV, newspaper. Our brand awareness has just gone up tremendously in the past year, but especially the last month, and then last week especially. And it continues this morning. I was online and still seeing stories about Texas State. It'll wane a little bit now, but it's been a tremendous move for us to even be in the conversation, let alone accept the invitation.
- And I just love the Pac-12's reaction to some of the social, right? Everything's bigger in Texas. You know, they're posting the social numbers over the past few weeks, and they were really impressed with the announcement and the attention that it garnered.
- And their numbers were through the roof too.
- Oh yeah.
- It was the biggest announcement they've made in this new era of adding schools. We were like just blew everything outta the water. Now, part of it was, there was so much anticipation for so long about the eighth FBS team joining, and we're the only one coming in, so we kind of came in on our own, and so that garnered a little bit more attention, but it's just been unbelievable the attention people are paying to Texas State now.
- Yeah, I think that I saw a comment somewhere on social media that, you know, of all the schools that were impacted by realignment, nobody was impacted more in a positive way than Texas State, you know, with this latest domino falling. There's so much excitement about the future, you know, when Texas State reaches the Pac-12, but I also think it's important to embrace the history of this university of athletics. I think about the history of conferences they've been a part of. The Lone Star Conference back in the Division II days, when they won back-to-back national championships in football. Certainly the Southland Conference days, it was their first Division I conference in the FCS, then known as 1AA. And we know that the success football had towards the end of that tenure in '05, and in '08 winning conference championships. You know, the one year in the WAC was that first FBS year, but then the Sun Belt Conference. You'd first joined in 2013. That membership will end, June 30 will be the final day of 2026. Don, as you reflect on the time in the Sun Belt, you think about all the Bubas Cups, the last two years, three, the last four, several total, all the conference championships, all the great memories. As you reflect on the time in the Sun Belt, what stands out to you?
- It's just been an outstanding league. It's been a great league for us. The growth of the Sun Belt, also exceptional, right? You know, we've talked about it over the years, how good the Sun Belt is, and I really think they've changed their reputation as well nationally. You know, I played in the Sun Belt a long time ago. It was really at that point kind of a men's basketball only league, and it's just taken its football reputation and grown it so much over the past few years. We know, and you were in the full staff meeting, you know, I ended it with, "Hey, let's not forget where we're sitting right now, which is in the Sun Belt Conference," 'cause those guys are gonna be aiming for us. You know, they're gonna wanna take us down as we're leaving the league. We still got things we wanna accomplish in this league, right? So we wanna win another Bubas Cup. You know, we got a lot of championships that we wanna try and win on the way out here, but Commissioner Gill, the other athletic directors, first-class people, they run a great organization. We've loved our time in the Sun Belt, and we're gonna miss, you know, the relationships that we have in that league. But again, you know, this was a great move for Texas State and for the university, but yeah, the Sun Belt's been outstanding for the Bobcats. And I will, and I'll touch back on even like the history. This was so neat for me, really kind of the day of with the announcement, you know, to be able to reach out to some of our athletic alumni. I probably covered every conference you just talked about, right? You know, there was a text to Diamond Jim Duncan, who was, you know, a Lone Star Conference champion for us. You know, I reached out to several guys, Steve Smith, Paul Thornton, you know, Ken Huewitt, guys from the '80-'81 National Championship team, guys from the '05 team, you know, that we had a chance to connect with. David Bailiff on our staff here. You know, some of those really good Sun Belt teams that we've had over the years, you know, being able to reach out to those guys and say, "Hey, we've got some big news coming," you know, "Pay attention to what's happening here at Texas State over the next few hours." And we weren't able to say exactly what that was, but we were able to give them a heads-up that, "Hey, be on notice." And most of 'em already were, but the response that we got back was so positive, because I think, you know, they're in the same situation as us. You know, everything that they've built over the years, they love to see where this is going because of the foundation that they helped lay. And so that's always fun to be a part of, you know? Really respect and love the relationships that we have with our athletic alumni here.
- You know, Kelly, I think about this move coming up, and Don referenced, you know, all these great programs and universities that Texas State will now be grouped with in the Pac-12. You know, Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Oregon State, Washington State. You know, the list kind of goes on and on. I know you've had the chance to visit with those universities' presidents. What have those conversations been like?
- Well, the first conversations were really introductory. I knew some of them already. I was very good friends with one of the presidents, and so she was actually the first person I reached out to, and said, "Hey, would you mind sharing numbers with me?" And so you use your network. And remember, it wasn't just the one conference. There was other conferences involved too. So using the networks that I've established over time to interact with these presidents. And ultimately, presidents and chancellors are the ones who make the decisions. Commissioners are the nuts and bolts, and the athletics directors provide advice. I think there's a lot of athletics directors that wanted to be in Texas, for example, so they could talk about, "Hey, if we can get in Texas, that'd be really good for our athletics program." But the presidents and chancellors wanna have like institutions and like leadership on the board, because the board is composed of the presidents and chancellors, and they wanna make sure that the person who comes on to join them kind of fits the culture they're building there. And so it's been fun reaching out to them, getting to know them virtually. Again, I said earlier that our first meeting is tomorrow morning. But I will tell you, we had, as you know, a pretty tough situation in the Hill Country with the flooding and tragic loss of life, and the rescue and recovery efforts that are going on as we speak. Every single member of the Pac-12 board of directors reached out to me personally, and said, "Hey, we're thinking about you." The Pac-12 conference actually posted about the support of Texas State and the Hill Country. We're not even in the conference yet, and they are already starting to, you know, rally around us, and I think that says a lot about who they are and about how excited they are to have us a part of this new conference they're putting together.
- You know, Don, I wanna go back to something that you said too. You know, this coming year is gonna be about competing in the Sun Belt, but how do you juggle, you know, this final year in the Sun Belt Conference, while at the same time getting prepared for the move to the Pac-12?
- Well, I think at this point, you know, one of the things we really gotta look at, right, it's all about recruiting, right? And so you can turn your attention almost 100%, you know, to the Pac-12 and how you're gonna recruit in that league at this point. You know, we've signed all of our student-athletes, or at least the majority. Maybe have a few that we need to sign with a couple programs over the next month or so, but we're really set, in my opinion, for our rosters for the Sun Belt. So I would say the message is, from a student-athlete standpoint, you know, it's one foot forward, right, at a time. Let's concentrate on the Sun Belt, and winning, you know, as much as we can in this league and winning championships for our coaches. It's a little bit of both, right? You know, you gotta figure out what you're gonna do in the Sun Belt this year and how you're gonna be successful, at the same time, looking ahead to recruiting to the Pac-12, which we do think, you know, this is a big part of this move, right? I think it's gonna elevate our recruiting. You know, in this transfer portal world, I think this is gonna help with our retention. I truly do. You know, between the investment that we're gonna have in NIL, and being able to play in this league, I think we're gonna be able to retain our student athletes at a higher clip. I don't think they're gonna chase another conference. You know, I think they're gonna realize that, hey, it doesn't get much better than this, right, and they're gonna stay with us. From an administrative standpoint, you know, we're looking ahead, right? I mean, that's what we've gotta do right now. We gotta start planning for next year. And typically we're working, you know, a year or two out anyway on what we're doing, so this is pretty normal, you know, in terms of how we operate. But yeah, you know, we've already started the comparisons of the league, whether it's athletic training staff, mental health positions, coaching staff, strength and conditioning. We started that, you know, over the past weekend in terms of really kind of firming up what those numbers look like, just to make sure that, you know, hey, are we competitively where we need to be in a lot of things. And I think we are. I think we're gonna do really well. Our biggest focus right now from an administrative standpoint is gonna be NIL, right? I mean, that's what we've gotta do right now. We've gotta make sure that we're supplying our coaches with what they need to go out there and recruit, and it's gonna be a whole different ball game in some instances, and that's super exciting. And I think our coaches are excited about that, and I think our student-athletes are excited about that as well.
- You know, Kelly, one of the big words in realignment is "footprint," right? And I think about the Sun Belt Conference's footprint. Texas State is the most western team. When they first joined the Sun Belt, they were one of two Texas teams to be a part of it. UTA has since left, you know, but I felt like that Texas was an important part of the Sun Belt Conference's footprint. For the Pac-12, in the conversations that you've had, why was getting into Texas important for them?
- Well, there's two things. Both have to do with recruiting. So, in athletics, they know that a lot of football players and basketball players, and baseball players, and softball players, gymnasts, and so on come from the state of Texas. If you look at the numbers of people in the NFL, and NBA, and Major League Baseball, and people competing in the Olympics, you know, it's either California, Florida, or Texas is one, two, or three, and so recruiting student athletes is hugely important for those athletics programs. But they're also recruiting students to become just regular students at the university as well, and to have a footprint in Texas where they can come and recruit here. The demographics in Texas are great because we're growing like crazy. Other states are not growing at the same level, and so this will allow those presidents and their recruiting folks to come into Texas and say, "Hey, we're part of the Pac-12, and Texas State is part of the Pac-12. You know, why don't you come, you know, consider going to school at our university out here, and still have this connection to Texas State through there." So being the westernmost school in the Sun Belt... Now, I was at Arkansas State for five years, so this is the beginning of my eighth year on the Sun Belt board, and we always were worried about Texas State being out on an island there, and we talked about could we get another Texas school to make it easier for us to travel there. But I always kind of felt bad for Texas State being out there on their own. And then when I got here, I realized it's really tough here because we have to either really long bus rides or super complicated flights now. And so people are talking about the move to the Pac-12 being more challenging for travel. I think Don's sense is that we're actually better off in travel. Maybe we talk about that a little bit.
- Yeah, we've looked at that as well, and that's another thing that we'll continue to work on, right? That's a big deal for us is how we're gonna travel to the Pac-12 a year from now. But yeah, to Kelly's point, you know, I think we're gonna spend actually less time on the road potentially with our student-athletes, when you look at where we're flying to and how close those universities are to the airports. Not necessarily the case in the Sun Belt. You know, to Kelly's point, we do bus sometimes seven, eight, nine hours to games. Obviously that's not an option in the league that we're moving to. To his point also, you know, complicated road trips. You know, there's a lot of situations. Like I think you fly into Charlotte and bus three hours to App State. You know, you fly into Washington, D.C., and you bus a few hours to JMU. That's not gonna be the case moving forward, right? I think the longest drive after a flight might be an hour and a half or so, hour and 15 minutes, Salt Lake City to Logan, maybe Spokane to Pullman Washington to play Washington State. But we do think that our travel could potentially get easier. It's gonna be more expensive, right? We're gonna have to charter more, and we've taken that into account, and we've laid out our budgets for the next few years.
- You know, Don, I'm really curious, we mentioned the reaction that that's been out there from fans and social media, but what about people intimately involved with athletics, meaning like season ticket holders and Bobcat Club supporters. What has that response been like in the days since the announcement?
- Yeah, it's been great, and, you know, we're still collecting that information, but we had a really good week this past week in our ticket office, in our Bobcat Club memberships. We're up 15% already in season ticket sales for this year after essentially almost doubling our season ticket sales this past year, so the numbers look good right now. We'll have a clearer idea here in the next few months, you know, with kickoff around the corner for football, but, you know, I expect the interest to, you know, shoot through the roof, to be honest with you. I think our fans are really excited about the teams that we're gonna be playing. I think they're gonna be fired up to see Gonzaga come in here and play us in basketball, San Diego State in basketball, who was, you know, in a National Championship game a couple years ago, Oregon State in baseball. You know, and then you got your football teams, right? It kind of goes without saying, you know, Boise State probably leading the pack there, right, as the college football playoff representative. But I think the brands in this league are really gonna help drive interest, and I think our fans are gonna respond to that.
- Well, thanks, guys. I really appreciate you both being here. Brant, as an alumnus, and also an employee in our athletics department, and then Don, the architect of our renaissance in athletics, and also especially at this move to the Pac-12, really appreciate you guys being here. Thank you for being here as well, as you tune in on a regular basis to learn more about what's happening at Texas State University, learning more from our faculty, staff, students, alumni, about the wonderful things happening here in San Marcos, and Round Rock, in Queretaro, Mexico, and around the world and across the state. Thank you so much for joining us. States Up, everyone.