Reports from Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, in addition to Sam Khan and Chris Vannini at the Athletic, that Tarleton was in “deep and serious discussions” to join the Mountain West Conference surprised many. We expected the news that UTEP is headed to the MWC, but Tarleton?

After all, most of the country outside the non-FBS and Texas bubble has never heard of Tarleton. Others still remember Tarleton as that tiny agricultural school in Stephenville known for producing some of the greatest cowboys in history.

However, that tiny agricultural school has rapidly changed since it announced in October 2019 that it would depart NCAA Division II and the Lone Star Conference for FCS and the Western Athletic Conference.

Stephenville has become a college town with a student population of over 18,000, including over 3,000 new students, which nearly equals the entire population of Stephenville in the 2020 census (21,020). A founding member of the Texas A&M System in 1917, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said Tarleton is in its “Golden Age” during a ceremony to unveil the Texan Rider statue before the Texans' Week 0 contest against McNeese. The university is home to some of the best traditions in Texas, including the Purple Poo.

Simply put, Tarleton currently has the attendance, funding, and most of the infrastructure and facilities that would attract any FBS Group of Six conferences, and the Texans have a plan in place for the remaining infrastructure and facilities needed to move to FBS.

If attendance is your concern, Tarleton’s average of 18,697 fans in 2023 was the fifth-best in FCS and more than current Texas FBS schools UTEP (18,160), North Texas (17,761), and Sam Houston (8,298). What makes that attendance number impressive for the Texans is they attracted those fans to home games while still transitioning to Division I and weren’t eligible for the FCS playoffs.

Tarleton’s 2023 home attendance would’ve placed fourth in Conference USA behind Jacksonville State (20,033) and Liberty (18,911) and ninth in the Mountain West Conference ahead of Nevada (16,998), San Jose State (16,804), New Mexico (15,982), and Hawaii (11,251).

But what about Wisdom Gym, which only seats around 3,000 people? Tarleton is building a new event center scheduled to open in Fall 2025. The center will feature around 8,500 seats for basketball and up to 10,000 for concerts. It will house the men’s and women’s basketball, cheer, and dance teams and will be able to host FFA events, concerts, and other events. Wisdom Gym will become the primary home for the volleyball program.

Tarleton’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for Communications Jake Withee said during a recent interview that some supporters told him they forgot the new arena was being constructed until they saw the cranes working on the event center behind the fieldhouse on the ESPN2 broadcast during the Week 0 contest.

The growth doesn’t only involve football and basketball. The baseball and softball complex was outfitted with new press boxes, covered seating, a renovated turf field, and state-of-the-art lights. Tarleton built a beach volleyball facility to house its latest program, added a soccer program, built a facility for it, and built a new facility for the track and tennis programs.

What about the elephant in the room? Will the Texans be competitive against FBS competition in all sports? If on-field results are your thing, Tarleton has a solid resume. 

The football team finished second in the United Athletic Conference last season and is one of only three teams since 2004 to post a winning season during all four years of reclassification. Men’s basketball advanced to the CIT semifinals after finishing second in the WAC in 2023. Tarleton’s tennis program won a regular season WAC title and twice appeared in the WAC tournament title match. The baseball program became the first reclassifying institution in Division I history to win a conference tournament title when the Texans won the WAC tournament last year.

They accomplished all that while they were ineligible for the postseason. 

Some conferences value academics, so how will Tarleton’s athletic programs compare? The Texans posted a 990 out of a possible 1,000 in the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their first year, a record for any institution during their first year of reclassification. Only two programs posted an APR below 970 during Tarleton’s first three years of transition.

I was skeptical when I first heard that Tarleton was interested in moving to Division I in 2018. When I drove around Memorial Stadium in late August, I saw Dr. Hurley’s vision becoming a reality. This isn’t the Tarleton of 2018. This school is ready to compete for supremacy in a Group of Six conference.