Report: Texas athletic department restructuring results in layoffs

Monday was a tough day around the Forty Acres, as at least 13 employees of the Texas Longhorns athletic department were laid off, according to a report from the Austin American-Statesman.

The news comes six months after athletics director Chris Del Conte arrived from TCU and began to undertake a S.W.O.T. analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the Texas athletic department.

A behemoth organization that features nearly as many full-time employees as student-athletes, according to the Statesman, Del Conte has compared Bellmont to a “battleship” that is difficult to turn. And so while former athletics director Steve Patterson alienated many members of the athletic department, he never addressed the significant bloat in the organization.

Del Conte has now taken the first steps towards creating a more streamlined organization. For the employees who lost their jobs on Monday, it’s an unfortunate development, but one that is necessary to ensure a greater level of efficiency for the student-athletes at Texas.