Mississippi State basketball: Texas talks trash with T-Shirt giveaway

Vic Schaefer’s Mississippi State basketball team is playing the Texas Longhorns in Austin this weekend. Texas has decided to do a trash talking T-shirt giveaway to try and incentivize their fans to show up.

The University of Texas is trying to get fans to show up to its women’s basketball team’s game this Sunday. The Longhorns are hosting Vic Schaefer and his Mississippi State basketball team in Austin and, as a way of trying to get more fans in to see the game, UT is giving away some free shirts.

Encouraging more fans to come to university sporting events should be the goal of every athletic department. The issue here is that the shirts aren’t all that great.

It’s safe to say that the folks over in College Station, Texas would likely agree with me when I say that the shirts being handed out are a weak attempt at pandering to an old rivalry that is hardly played anymore. With these shirts, UT is letting its obsession with Texas A&M run its marketing decisions here.

The first 1,000 Texas fans at the game on Sunday will be given a burnt orange shirt that looks like this:

It’s hard to blame the University of Texas from trying to get more fans at the game, but the execution here is poor.

The attempt at associating MSU with Texas A&M based off of school color alone is an attempt at reminding Texas fans of their hate for a rival that they refuse to face anymore. This is all in an effort to bolster the number of fans present at a game that has nothing to do with A&M.

And yet, that seems to be the focus of their shirts.

But, the ultimate point is to bring fans to the game. Texas could use some help with that. Last season, Texas ranked 19th in the country in attendance at women’s basketball games with an average of 4,636 fans present per game. Mississippi State, for comparison, ranked 7th in the country with an average of 7,439 fans at each game.

The Bulldogs are also fresh off of two Final Four appearances in back-to-back seasons. Texas hasn’t made it past the Sweet Sixteen in the past couple of years.

The last time the Mississippi State basketball team took on the University of Texas Longhorns, Vic Schaefer led his Bulldogs to a 79-68 victory in Humphrey Coliseum back in 2016. The Bulldogs had little issue taking care of a talented Texas team that ended that season at 25-9.