It Begins

The UT Arlington volleyball team began the 2026 season this past weekend at the Razorback Invitational. After a 2-1 start, all three matches showed a team that looks much improved over last year's team. Now, if you remember, last year's team was 8-5 in the non-conference, but had a disappointing showing with a 3-8 record in Western Athletic Conference play. At one point, they were 8-2. However, if you look back at my posts, I saw cracks in the armor and that 8-2 start that gave me concern.

Before I continue, I just want to get a warning in that there's a real chance my volleyball coverage will not be as frequent or regular as the past two years. I work half my work week on the weekend for my regular bill paying job, so getting to physically watch the games will be a challenge. I volunteered to be the booster club president for the junior high school two of my boys attend. While it isn't set in stone, it does look like they will both start for their respective grade. In addition, my junior in high school has transitioned from junior varsity starter to varsity starter. There's a real chance there will be very little down time. That's to say nothing of This Day in UTA Football History, which usually requires around two hours, sometimes more, per entry. This week's entry will be a repeat, so there's not much to it, giving me time to give the volleyball team and its players their proper due.

Plus, I'm already behind. Before I get into the weekend's start, the United Athletic Conference released their preseason poll and just by looking it over and knowing what occurred last year, there's a real chance this will be the toughest slate since UTA left the Sun Belt Conference.

The coaches predicted the following finish:

That's one way to do it

I mentioned several months ago about Chicago State starting a football team. We were in the middle of an athletic year and I generally try to avoid more esoteric topics when games and competitions are in high gear. We aren't now and I want to briefly touch on their journey to a football team.

For those who aren't familiar, Chicago State is a poor, cash-strapped athletic program with declining enrollment. They have had a hard time finding a conference home for much of this century. They were in the Great West Conference, a coalition of wayward schools that did not have a formal path to the postseason. UT Rio Grande Valley's precursor, UT Pan American, was in that conference. Both schools took advantage of the Western Athletic Conference's desperation and CSU became a conditional member. Essentially, they paid the WAC to be a member. It really didn't help them overall, as they remained a cash-strapped program.

When the WAC added the Texas Four and later UT Arlington, along with other schools, the WAC declined to renew the conditions and the Cougars were independents again. They had no home in the late 1980's and early 90's, and again in the mid-2000's. The third time, they had decided no more.

2026 Schedule Detective

For those new to the blog or who need a reminder, in the summer, I try to piece together the upcoming basketball schedules from various sources. It usually is a combination of Rocco Miller on X, looking at certain team's releases and conference release of UT Arlington's current home. 

This year has been really quiet in that regard. I have yet to see UTA on anyone else's schedule. No guarantee games at a larger school, no certified home and home releases. I can speculate on who is a second game from a previous home-and-home, but like Oral Roberts showed, there was a year between the two games contract so nothing is set in stone.

With that said, the only official release I have is from the United Athletic Conference. This week, they released the conference slate and the former Western Athletic Conference turned UAC is doing away with what they have done the last few years. 

And I'm on board with it.

A Hint of Things to Come

A little over a week ago, I went to the website of the Western Athletic Conference to finish up some statistical attendance numbers from this past athletic year. However, WACSports.com was redirected to UACSports.com and the site itself was redesigned. 

The look was clean, but the colors were different and brighter. I like the more subtle look of the old site but do like the color scheme of the new one. It does reinforce several things that I had learned over the years but contradicts some persistent rumors that were false that just wouldn't go away. It also revealed some new information.

The first, and what I think is the most egregious persistent falsehood is the conference has not gone away, this is not a new conference. I've heard verbally and seen online that folks still think the WAC is now a defunct conference. The three holdover members of the WAC, Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT Arlington, have welcomed five former Atlantic Sun members and the Little Rock Trojans to the fold. It is no different than any other conference welcoming new members and saying goodbye to old ones.

Flag Football Proceeds

There's been some developments in UT Arlington's fledgling women's flag football program that kind of got lost in the spring sport shuffle of the previous three or four months. Some of the news is internal, some external and with that comes speculation.

In my last full post on the topic, seen here, it mentioned the American Southwest Conference, a Division III conference composed primarily of small private schools, will sponsor the sport. They were the first NCAA conference to sponsor flag football. I heard minor speculation that the ASC could be a home for UTA's newest sport. Without hearing anything from an official source, I had then and still have doubts. I speculated there would be a DI conference offering the sport within half a decade.

Turns out, that was too long. In April, the Big South Conference announced they would sponsor the sport, becoming the first at the highest level to take the plunge. What's interesting to me is how the schools in the Big South treat flag football.

Below Expectations

I teased today's entry in the introduction of the last post of The Maverick Rambler. There, I gave the spring recap, primarily because the bulk of the UT Arlington Athletic programs are spring sports (eight compared to three fall and four winter), but also because it sets the stage for today's entry. 

When I interviewed Athletic Director Jon Fagg over the summer, he mentioned at the end of the interview that fundraising was at an all-time high but due to a decline in international students in the graduate program, overall revenue was actually down. I've thought about that line often the last few months. Watching the results come in hammered that point and overshadowed the optimism I felt in the offseason.

But on the other side of the equation, there were reasons to have a sunny disposition. UTA had only six conference members in most sports to compete against this year. I had high hopes going into this season. It had been a while since the foes were so diminished. The 1986/87 season was the last one where the conference make-up was that small. That year, the men's teams were independents due to the University dropping football. So 1985/86 is the last year where the entirety of the department faced six conference opponents. In that year, men's cross country, volleyball and softball won conference titles.

Not so much this year. The following is a recap of the regular season finishes for all the programs:

Spring Recap

I've mentioned here and there on the Maverick Rambler that certain sports don't get the same coverage that others do, particularly the individual sports. It's usually because either they are result-driven sports like cross country and the best I could usually offer is the result (no better than UTAMavs.com) or it's not a sport I have a decent knowledge base in to comment on the team, such as tennis or golf. I understand the basics, but offering anything else would expose that knowledge deficiency. 

So today, I'm going to kind of rapid fire a little about the results with a smidge of commentary about the spring sports. It's at least enough to give them a spotlight, while also setting up the next entry later this month or early June. I'll go in chronological order.