I also strongly dislike the focus on college football but Texas has close to 100 universities as well as many additional research institutions (that can confer

I also strongly dislike the focus on college football but Texas has close to 100 universities as well as many additional research institutions (that can confer a phD) and many of those have serious research funding without a sports team. University of Texas systems has 14 universities alone, and only 1 football team. Personally, I think High School Football and funding is a much larger problem in Texas.