Texas Football 2019 Shortcomings Seal Historic Championship Drought for Longhorn Athletics

The Texas Longhorns football team has been one of the sport's most storied programs since the game's earliest days, and the Texas men's basketball program has also been at the forefront of conference success in its own right.

However, this year's Longhorn football team's inability to win at least a share of the 2019 Big 12 conference title has now guaranteed that 2010-19 will mark the program's first decade without a conference championship in either men's basketball or football since Texas became a member of the Southwest Conference in 1915.

While, of course, the 2019-20 men's basketball season just tipped off in early November, this year's conference title game will not be played until 2020. As for Longhorns football, 2010-19 is also now the only decade Texas hasn't won a conference title in football alone.

Texas has seen a disappointing season by all accounts in 2019. The Longhorns entered Week 1 ranked No. 10 in the country. Fast forward to Week 14, and they are outside of the top 25 in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings with a 6-5 overall record.

In conference play, they have gone just 4-4, sitting at fifth in the Big 12 standings. The Longhorns are not even close to sniffing the Big 12 championship game either, with both the Baylor Bears and Oklahoma Sooners sitting at the top with 10-1 overall and 7-1 conference records, respectively.

Perhaps, the most disappointing of all has been junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who was a popular Heisman bet at the beginning of the season. Through team record and individual performance, he fell out of the Heisman race early.

Ehlinger has completed 64.8 percent of his passes with a 27-to-9 touchdown-interception ratio. By no means is this bad, but it is not an improvement from last season, much like many of the Texas faithful were expecting.

With Ehlinger unable to will his team to critical wins this year, Texas will again be watching the Big 12 championship on TV. Texas has not won the Big 12 championship since 2009, and they have won it just twice in the last 20 years.

Join FanDuel Sportsbook Today. New users get a risk-free bet up to $500. Join Now.