Sorry, Texas — Tennessee is the real 'UT,' and that's how it will be in the new-look SEC (2024)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Texas opted against an invitation to make the case for why it, and not the University of Tennessee, should be the official “UT” of the Southeastern Conference now that realignment has forced a decision.

This is not surprising. There is no case. University of Tennessee alums were among thousands of Tennesseans who fought to deliver and maintain statehood for Texas, decades before the University of Texas existed. The actual “Volunteers” made the Longhorns possible. There’s one UT, and it’s not the one that just joined the league that began in 1932 with the real UT and 12 other charter members.

Still, it’s polite to ask before making this official, which the SEC has already kind of done, even if the SEC won’t admit it. So, having been ghosted by University of Texas communications, I went to two alums of significant stature last week on the Tennessee Titans’ practice field.

Titans defensive linemen T’Vondre Sweat and Keondre Coburn were college teammates as well — at the school that shall henceforth be known as UTex — and of course, they agreed that it should still be “UT.”

We talked through the history, which included famous Tennessean Davy Crockett dying at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and 30,000 volunteers from Tennessee helping win the Mexican-American War after Texas was admitted as the 28th state in 1845. That’s more than 10 times as many volunteers as President James K. Polk requested from his home state.

“It is true,” Coburn said. “But all I know is how I was raised (in Tyler, Texas), and UT was the University of Texas. I don’t care about before, I just care about now. And the University of Texas is ‘UT.'”

Sweat said he wears his T-shirt with the big, burnt orange “UT” on it every chance he gets around Nashville. That’s great. To be clear, no one is asking these guys to stop calling their school whatever they want, and not just because they combine to weigh 698 pounds.

Texas alums, fans and employees aren’t going to stop calling themselves “UT.” The same is true at the University of Toledo and all other applicable institutions. University of Tulsa, University of Toronto, how about the University of Tasmania in Tasmania, Australia? Sure, even when your rugby team stinks.

But that doesn’t meaneveryone elsehas to play ball. The general public must make a choice now that Tennessee and Texas are going to be sharing fields and courts and comically long listings of conference standings that remind us how geographically deficient and generally dumb college athletics has become. The choice is clear.

Tennessee is UT. Texas is UTex. That’s still two syllables and it’s a relatively minor name change. It’s nothing like Facebook to Meta or Ron Artest to Metta World Peace or Prince to that cool-looking symbol.

SEC Snubs Unproven Rookie Member By Bestowing Official 'UT' Honors On Tennessee Over Texas — https://t.co/BMRPYZ648Hhttps://t.co/BMRPYZ648H

— BroBible (@BroBible) July 19, 2024

The Texas folks won’t like it when they hear it from others — this seems like it could really catch on at some Texas A&M yell practices, no? — but this is how it must be. The best case I can come up with for UTex is its No. 9 spot in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of public universities, compared with No. 51 for UT. But see, we’re already using these names in a sentence and there’s no confusion.

Also, lofty rankings bring to mind UTex football’s over-promising/under-delivering problem since its last national title in 2006. Of course, UT football has been worse and prone to episodes of acute embarrassment since the Vols’ last championship in 1999. UTex has a slight edge in overall wins, 897 to 851; UT all-time coach Robert Neyland has the edge over UTex all-time coach Darrell Royal.

Both have tradition and lore. Both are in good shape as they become conference rivals, the Longhorns coming off a College Football Playoff appearance under Steve Sarkisian and the Vols under Josh Heupel joining the Longhorns as contenders for the 12-team Playoff in 2024 and beyond. That’s why this needs to be settled.

Please think of the writers. Orange and burnt orange don’t meet in the 2024 or 2025 regular season, but an SEC championship clash after next season is feasible. Here’s a sample paragraph from that hypothetical game:

UTex outlasted UT, 35-31, with UTex quarterback Arch Manning outdueling UT quarterback Nico Iamaleava — possibly giving the UTex star the final nod over the UT star in the Heisman race. Iamaleava, projected to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, still threw for 445 yards for UT. But Manning, the projected No. 2 pick, and the UTex offense drove 75 yards for the winning score on the gassed UT defense. UTex made one more play than UT could make.

Now imagine all the extra keystrokes required and space wasted if “Tennessee” and “Texas” have to be typed out every time. And pray for better sportswriting if that game ever happens.

Let’s make the call now and agree it’s an easy one. If the aforementioned institutional history isn’t convincing enough, consider this from UT archivist Alesha Shumar: The University of Tennessee, founded in 1794 as Blount College, was one of the first schools of higher learning in this country to welcome women as students, in 1804.

“It blew me away when I first started to learn how progressive this school has always been,” said Shumar, citing a nondenominational policy from the start and the early welcoming of international students.

UTex, meanwhile, was founded in 1883, nearly half a century after thousands of Tennesseans helped make such a thing possible.

The SEC appears to be on board. In its July 19 release of preseason all-conference football teams, Vols players were accompanied by a “UT” and Longhorns players by a “TEX.”

An SEC spokesman told me I shouldn’t “read anything” into it, that there have been no “substantive discussions” about the “UT” debate and that there will be “no official ruling forthcoming.”

That’s the conference speak on the matter. But the choice of letters speaks volumes, in all caps. The SEC can be sneaky like that. The University Formerly Known as UT should know that as well as anyone.

(Photo of Tennessee offensive lineman Cooper Mays: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

Joe Rexrode is a senior staff writer for The Athletic covering all things Nashville and some things outside Nashville. He previously worked at The Tennessean, the Detroit Free Press and the Lansing State Journal, spending the past three years as sports columnist at The Tennessean. Follow Joe on Twitter @joerexrode