With 2026 Texas Longhorns Football Fan Day now in the rearview mirror, the next chance for the Longhorn faithful to watch their team in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium will come in the season-opening game against Texas State.
After a six-game home slate in 2025, Texas will host seven games in DKR this season, four of which will come in Southeastern Conference play. Last year, Texas sold out season tickets for its home schedule for the fourth consecutive year.
Now, as summer approaches, Big Ticket and Longhorn Foundation purchases are around the corner for students to contribute to the 100,000-person environment. But for Longhorns a generation ago, student ticketing was vastly different compared to the current approach implemented by Texas Athletics.
Prior to the Big Ticket’s introduction for the 2014-15 academic year, and at least as far back as 1997, students obtained tickets through the Longhorns All-Sports Package.
Students, along with UT faculty and staff, were eligible to purchase the Longhorns All-Sports Package, an option that was later limited to just students with the Big Ticket. The cost of the package was significantly lower than any iteration of the Big Ticket. At the end of the package’s period in 2013-14, it cost $80.
First starting out at $175 in the 2014-15 academic year, the Big Ticket introduced universal print-at-home tickets, ending the Longhorns All-Sports Package’s ticket draw that had students wait in long lines if they didn’t pay the additional $70 for a season-long reserved seat.
The early years of the Big Ticket were very similar to the Longhorns All-Sports Package in the way that purchasers had a reserved seat allocated based on graduating class. That would change in 2017, when Texas Athletics split the student section between general admission and reserved group seating.
That year also marked the introduction of the Longhorn Foundation student membership. At its initiation, priced at $20, Longhorn Foundation came with minimal benefits compared to today’s version, listed as including “invitations to attend Texas Men’s Basketball and Football away game watch parties and the opportunity to earn Loyalty Points.”
In 2018, Longhorn Foundation moved to $25, and then added an “express line” perk that gave members an advantage in getting into DKR’s student section that became full general admission.
Fast forward to 2023, the year in which Texas’ early move to the Southeastern Conference was announced, and the Longhorn Foundation student membership was noticeably revamped.
The cost of the membership jumped from $25 to $100, allowing users to claim tickets ahead of standard Big Ticket holders and priority for the Red River Rivalry and postseason, but eliminating the express lane.
Benefits and other aspects of the Big Ticket have also continued to change, giving students less assurance of an enjoyable gameday experience. From removing reserved seating, to the implementation of a ticket queue — now online instead of in-person — and the axing of bringing in a guest at an additional cost, the modern Big Ticket is noticeably different from its original version.
In recent seasons, Texas Athletics has raised either the sticker price of the Big Ticket with football or the Longhorn Foundation. This past year alone saw the largest price spike since the changeover from Longhorns All-Sports Package, raising the base price for the Big Ticket and Longhorn Foundation membership to $250 and $130, respectively.
The prospect of another price increase for the 2026-27 iteration remains unknown publicly ahead of the student ticket process, with pricing anticipated to be released in the coming months.
