UTRGV Athletics Unveils 2023-24 Annual Report

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics unveiled on Tuesday its 2023-24 annual report, detailing the successes of the 2023-24 academic year in areas including academic excellence, community service, historic support, student and fan engagement, hosting conference championships, rallying the entire Valley, competition, facility enhancements, licensing, media and social media reach, conference affiliation, and more.

The complete report can be found online at GoUTRGV.com and on issuu.

Some of the highlights include:
•Posting a department record cumulative GPA of 3.35.
•Ranking sixth in NCAA Division I in community service.
•Record ticket, corporate sponsorship, and fundraising revenue.
•Over 120,000 fans in attendance across all sports, setting records for multiple teams.
•Significant progress in execution of over $160 million in facility enhancements.
•Expansion in the consumables space.

Below is a letter from UTRGV Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque that highlights some of this past year’s accomplishments found in the annual report:

Greetings from UTRGV Athletics! I want to thank you for your interest in and support of UTRGV Athletics. As I begin my sixth year at UTRGV, I am enthusiastic about our future and proud of the young men and women that represent you, our university, and the Rio Grande Valley through Division I competition. 

We are blessed with a winning formula at UTRGV starting with President Guy Bailey, a supportive leadership team, a dedicated group of coaches, talented student-athletes, and a region that is cheering us on and investing in us every step of the way. Collectively, we are building something special in the Rio Grande Valley.

This was a historic year for UTRGV as we secured one of the 40 largest gifts in the history of college athletics – $20 million from Robert and Janet Vackar. In recognition of their generosity, our football stadium in Edinburg, which the university also acquired this year, will be named Robert & Janet Vackar Stadium. We are excited to see the stadium rocking throughout our inaugural 2025 season as fans have already placed 6,000 season ticket deposits!

The facilities for Vaqueros football will be unmatched as we also broke ground on the 45,000-square foot Vaqueros Performance Center in November and completed the first of two practice fields in June.

Speaking of facilities, since 2022, UTRGV Athletics has embarked on $160 million in facility upgrades impacting all 18 programs. Earlier this year, we opened the brand-new Vaqueros Golf Center at Champion Lakes in McAllen, completed the addition of the new operations centers at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex, undertook significant upgrades to UTRGV Baseball Stadium, and finished interior renovations at the UTRGV Fieldhouse while also beginning work on the new fieldhouse atrium. By 2026, every program will benefit from a new or completely renovated facility for our student-athletes, coaches, and fans to enjoy. 

A record number of fans enjoyed our upgraded amenities as we welcomed over 120,000 fans through our gates across all sports, including a program record 62,132 for baseball, ranking 39^th in NCAA Division I. Our best attended event of the year was in December, when women’s basketball hosted Texas at Bert Ogden Arena in front of a program-record 6,591 fans – the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s basketball game in the Valley and the second most to ever watch a college basketball game in the Valley.

Our student-athletes continue to excel academically, posting a department-record cumulative grade point average of 3.35 and combining for 128 academic all-conference honors. In addition, we achieved a record-high NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 990.
When it comes to community service, I could not be more proud of our young people. Our student-athletes combined to rank sixth in the nation in total community service, completing 5,042 hours, while seven programs ranked in the top 10 in their respective sports. As part of our service, we took our commitment to the entire Rio Grande Valley community seriously, hosting youth clinics in Brownsville and Harlingen and hosting the conference tennis tournaments in Harlingen.

As you review this report, I hope you are as impressed as I am with the success of UTRGV Athletics and the considerable growth we have witnessed over the years. As we continue to bolster Division I athletics in the Valley, I am confident the success we experience together will only enhance the brand and identity of our region. Part of the enhanced branding will come from competing in the Southland Conference starting this year, a conference with seven Texas members, the most in NCAA Division I.

Thank you for your loyal and continued support of our student-athletes and coaches. You are critical to helping us #RallyTheValley! 

V’s Up! 

Chasse S. Conque
Vice President & Director of Athletics

The complete annual report can be found here.