Longtime Southeastern Conference fans seem to be coping correctly now that the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners have wrapped up their first regular season in the league.

That includes Georgia Congressman Mike Collins, who used took the floor of the U.S House of Representatives to congratulate his Bulldogs on defeating Texas in the SEC Championship game. Collins didn’t stop there. He also demanded that Texas “be sent back to the Big 12.”

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT THE LONGHORNS

Austin American-Statesman: How former 5-star QBs Quinn Ewers, Cade Klubnik compare in college

Austin American-Statesman: Why setter Averi Carlson has Texas volleyball looking like a contender

Dallas Morning News: Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski a finalist for nation’s top assistant coach

247Sports: Texas Football: Most notable Longhorns snubbed on 2024 All-SEC Football Team

247Sports: Four Downs: Steve Sarkisian’s path to greatness, Tre Wisner’s opportunity, Texas hoops and more

Inside Texas: Kelvin Banks wins the SEC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy

ICYMI IN BURNT ORANGE NATION

Seven Texas players recognized on All-SEC teams

Texas DT Sydir Mitchell enters the NCAA transfer portal

Texas CB Jay’Vion Cole announces intent to enter the NCAA transfer portal

Texas DT Tia Savea enters the NCAA transfer portal

RECRUITING ROUNDUP

Austin American-Statesman: Why this portal loss for Texas football could really hurt in 2025

Austin American-Statesman: Why didn’t Cade Klubnik go to Texas? How Clemson landed its QB

247Sports: 2025 Texas Football Roster: Transfer portal activity, talent acquision entering Steve Sarkisian’s fifth season

247Sports: College football transfer portal: Top 10 edge rushers available as 2025 window opens

247Sports: Day 1 footage from the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game of Texas QB signee KJ Lacey

247Sports: Portal players that check boxes for what Texas usually looks for, scholarship breakdown: Offensive edition

Inside Texas: How power programs like Texas have to navigate the transfer portal and NIL

SEC SHOWDOWN

Dallas Morning News: The CFP is a fun, hot mess, but its imperfections should be corrected in short order

Good Bull Hunting: UAB QB Jacob Zeno to transfer to Texas A&M

Rock M Nation: What Mizzou’s early portal activity tells about the QB situation

Red Cup Rebellion: Nine Ole Miss players named to All-SEC Coaches team

Rocky Top Talk: Six Volunteers receive All-SEC honors

Roll ‘Bama Roll: Alabama Football 2025: Transfer portal watch and roster building

A Sea Of Blue: USC’s Sam Greene among a host of transfers set to visit Kentucky

WHAT WE’RE READING

SB Nation: The NFL’s 7 most disappointing players this season

SB Nation: The play that finally unlocked the Seahawks’ running game with Zach Charbonnet

SB Nation: How LeBron James inspired one line from Gracie Abrams’ biggest hit song

NEWS ACROSS LONGHORN NATION AND BEYOND

• Texas women’s basketball takes on Southern tonight at 7pm Central.

DALLAS — The Rangers have accomplished one of their primary offseason goals with a deal to re-sign Nate Eovaldi, the winning pitcher in their 2023 World Series clincher.

Texas has agreed on a $75 million, three-year contract with the righthander, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was subject to a successful physical.

Eovaldi became a free agent Nov. 4 after declining a vested $20 million player option for the 2025 season. The Rangers had expected that move, but said one of their priorities was to re-sign the Texas native who will turn 35 in February.

The two-time All-Star got a $2 million buyout from that option, which was earned by throwing more than 300 innings over his two years with the Rangers after joining them in free agency following 4½ seasons with the Red Sox.

His new deal came at the winter meetings on the same day Max Fried agreed with the Yankees on a $218 million, eight-year contract, the largest ever for a lefthander. Those moves leave 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner and four-time All-Star Corbin Burnes as the top pitcher still available on the free agent market. The righthander went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts for the Orioles this year, his only season in Baltimore.

Eovaldi will stay in the Texas rotation with two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, who made three starts at the end of last season after missing nearly 17 months following right elbow surgery. The Rangers won all six of deGrom’s starts at the beginning of the 2023 season before he got hurt that April.

Texas acquired Eovaldi and deGrom in free agency before the 2023 season. Eovaldi’s two-year deal then was for $34 million, with $16 million salaries each season, plus the buyout. That was after deGrom, now 36, signed for $185 million over five years.

When the Rangers made the run to their first World Series title in 2023, Eovaldi was 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA in six postseason starts. He was the winning pitcher in their World Series-clinching Game 5 at Arizona.

Eovaldi went 24-13 with a 3.72 ERA in 54 starts over the past two seasons, and had 298 strikeouts in 314⅔ innings. He was 12-8 with a 3.80 ERA in 29 starts this year. He threw seven scoreless innings at the Angels to win the season finale for the Rangers, who finished 78-84 and missed the playoffs.

Texas is the sixth big league team for Eovaldi, who is 91-81 with a 4.07 ERA in 294 career games (275 starts) since his debut in 2011 with the Dodgers. Besides the Red Sox, he also has pitched for Miami, the Yankees, and Tampa Bay.

DALLAS – Members of a bipartisan Texas House committee are preparing to once again hear testimony from death row inmate Robert Roberson.

Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. Doctors said the child died from shaken baby syndrome.

But Roberson’s lawyers called it junk science and claimed she possibly had pneumonia.

In October, the House committee heard testimony from the lead investigator and other evidence that was not brought up in the trial.

State Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican from Waxahachie, is on the committee.

“If we execute somebody without due process and fair trials, I mean, that calls into question the entire integrity of the entire criminal justice system in the state of Texas. And I will not stand for that,” he said.

In November, the Texas Supreme Court ruled lawmakers cannot block an execution. But the court said lawmakers should have the opportunity to hear from Roberson.

Committee members told FOX 4 the Texas Attorney General’s office has been silent. They accused AG Ken Paxton of intentionally being slow to respond to run the clock out.

“My fear is that politics is being put ahead of justice, and that is something that we should never tolerate in the great state of Texas,” Harrison said.

In a statement, committee chair Joe Moody said they intend to hear from Roberson next Friday.

“While time is limited, we don’t intend to let the clock ‘run out’ when the Supreme Court’s ruling has made it clear that a subpoena for him is proper and must be honored here,” the statement said.

When asked if he thinks the executive branch feels differently about the case, Rep. Harrison said he has no idea.

“I have no idea who gets them. I do not believe that anybody who has become as familiar of the facts of the case as I have can hold the position they do. And we’ve got literal falsehoods being pushed out by the executive branch. But now their official position is that a jury convicted Mr. Roberson of their words, beating his daughter to death. Well, if we know anything about the case, we know for a fact he did not, that this child was not beaten to death because we have photographs, and we have cat scans that were contemporaneous but that no jury has ever seen,” he said.

The Anderson County District Attorney has not filed for a new execution warrant.

By law, Roberson cannot be executed within 90 days of the Supreme Court’s November ruling.