UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, right, a former Gilmer High School coach, and Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire are featured on the 63rd cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine.

Either Sunday or Monday the collegiate athletic schoolyear of 2021-22 will be concluding as either Oklahoma or Mississippi will capture the College World Series championship.

As the Rebels and Sooners compete in Omaha, it’s not too early to look ahead or for matter to take a look back on college scene.

COLLEGE FOOTBALLIt is always a joyous day when Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine arrives in my mailbox. I started reading The Bible of Texas Football around 1972.

This year’s magazine has East Texan Jeff Traylor, head coach at UTSA, on the cover along with new Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire.

As the headline says “Forged on Friday” both Traylor and McGuire have their roots in Texas high school football.

Traylor built a dynasty at Gilmer High School while McGuire did the same at Cedar Hill.

The magazine also has a wonderful tribute to founder Dave Campbell, who passed away in December.

Also, East Texans DeMarvion Overshown (Arp) and Tyree Wilson (West Rusk) are included on the All-Texas College Team.

Overshown, a Texas linebacker, is a first-teamer on defense, while Wilson, a Texas Tech defensive lineman, is on the second team.

Also, SFA wide receiver Xavier Gipson is second team as a utility player.

TEXAS WINS DIRECTORS’ CUPWhile the Texas football team has been down, the remainder of the athletic program has been top notch.

For the second straight year, the Longhorns have clinched the Learfield Directors’ Cup, an award given to the most successful overall athletic program in each division of collegiate sports.

On the strength of four national championships and 10 NCAA top-two finishes, Texas won the NCAA Division I honor.

UT snapped Stanford’s 25-year stronghold on the Directors’ Cup last year and now joins the Cardinal as the nation’s only programs to win it in back-to-back years. North Carolina won the inaugural Cup in 1993-94.

Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in NCAA Championships. Division I schools can score points in a maximum of 19 sports, four of which must be baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.

The Longhorns have accumulated 1,376.50 points, followed by Stanford, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Notre Dame and USC.

The final point totals will be announced following the College World Series. Other area schools and their places thus far include: 12, Oklahoma; 20, LSU; 25, Oklahoma State; 30, Texas A&M; 39, Texas Tech; 44, Baylor; 47, TCU; 82, Sam Houston State; 88, SMU; 92, SFA; 98, Houston; and 101, Rice. There are 292 schools ranked.

Texas won four NCAA Championships during the 2021-22 academic year, tying the school record for most team titles in a single season set in 1985-86. The Longhorns won NCAA team titles in Men’s Indoor Track and Field, Women’s Tennis, Rowing and Men’s Golf. The titles were back-to-back NCAA Championships for Women’s Tennis and Rowing, the fourth national crown for Men’s Golf, and Texas’ first-ever National Championship in Men’s Track and Field.

UT also set a single-season school record with six NCAA runner-up team finishes in Women’s Indoor Track and Field, Women’s Swimming and Diving, Men’s Swimming and Diving, Softball, Men’s Outdoor Track and Field and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field.

Texas has produced 12 top-five and 14 top-10 team finishes at NCAA Championships during the recent academic year. The top-10 team finishes included baseball, which advanced to its 38th College World Series. Texas and Oklahoma were the only schools to advance to both the CWS in baseball and softball. The Sooners have a chance to win both.

The Longhorns posted top-10 NCAA performances in volleyball (tied for fifth), women’s basketball (tied for fifth), baseball (tied for seventh) and men’s tennis (tied for ninth). UT also added NCAA top-25 showings in women’s golf (13th), men’s cross country (14th) and men’s basketball (tied for 17th) and received points from women’s cross country (tied for 32nd) and women’s soccer (tied for 33rd).

HOOP-IT-UPNow, looking ahead to basketball, matchups have been determined for the 2023 SEC/Big 12 Men’s Basketball Challenge to be played on Saturday, Jan. 28.

The 10th annual event will consist of 10 games as every Big 12 member faces 10 programs from the Southeastern Conference. This will mark the eighth consecutive year for all games to be played in one day. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise the contests. Each conference has five home games and five on the road.

Big 12 teams are 48-41 (.539) in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Big 12 leads 4-3-2 but the SEC has won the last two years.

The matchups include: Arkansas at Baylor; Iowa State at Missouri; Kansas at Kentucky; Florida at Kansas State; Alabama at Oklahoma; Mississippi at Oklahoma State; TCU at Mississippi State; Texas at Tennessee; Texas Tech at LSU; and Auburn at West Virginia.

Starting times and TV slates will be announced later.

ARMY-NAVYThe Army-Navy football game will be played in New England for the first time in 2023.

The contest will be played Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the New England Patriots.

The 2024 game will be at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, followed by M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore in 2025, the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2026, and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia in 2027.

Philly, the game’s traditional home, has hosted 90 times and was previously announced as the host this year on Dec. 10.

Next year’s game outside Boston will be played in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and the 225th anniversary of the USS Constitution’s maiden voyage. The only previous times the game was played outside the mid-Atlantic region were in 1926 (Chicago) and 1983 (Pasadena, California).

The Washington area will host for the second time, and Baltimore for the seventh.

New Jersey will host in 2026 as part of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the 19th time the game will be played in New York or New Jersey.

AAC’S NEW TEAMSThe American Athletic Conference’s six new members will enter the league in the summer of 2023.

North Texas, UTSA, Rice, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic and UAB will officially join the AAC on July 1, 2023. Each of those schools, all now in Conference USA, had their applications for membership into the American approved last October.

The American will compete as a 14-team league in football, and in men’s and women’s basketball, after the transition next summer. That will come at the same time current members Cincinnati, Houston and UCF depart to become members of the Big 12 Conference, which is also adding BYU.

The six new schools will put the American membership at 15 at the start of the 2023-24 academic year. They will join East Carolina, Memphis, Navy (football only), South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa and Wichita State (basketball and Olympic sports only).

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