After more than two years of stewardship from Texas Longhorns interim athletics director Mike Perrin, the Austin American-Statesman dropped a bombshell scoop on December 9, 2017 that TCU Horned Frogs athletics director Chris Del Conte was set to take over that role for Perrin in Austin.
Hiring Del Conte from a Big 12 rival was major coup for a program that largely struggled to find effective leadership since making the ill-fated decision to hire Steve Patterson to replace the legendary but ultimately flawed DeLoss Dodds in 2013. Perrin had done an admirable job repairing the damage caused by Patterson, particularly with boosters, but was never a long-term solution.