Racism Overshadows a Signature UT Austin Win

Racism Overshadows a Signature UT Austin Win

The University of Texas at Austin beat Ohio State in a thrilling finish at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 12, 2026. What should have been remembered as one of the season’s best wins instead became the center of a racism controversy within 48 hours.

What happened

Photos and video of the celebrating student section, which included a large number of South Asian students, circulated widely on social media after the game. Comments criticizing the number of non-white students in the pictures and videos amassed thousands of likes over the following 48 hours.

The most prominent voice came from Bo French, a Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission and former Tarrant County GOP chair. French posted a series of xenophobic comments on social media targeting the students of color celebrating at the game, triggering intra-party backlash weeks before the November election. In one post, French wrote that he’d “heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” referencing a photo of the students.

The posts drew a wave of responses online, including comments mocking the university’s demographics and questioning whether the students belonged there.

How students responded

Students in the section pushed back on the framing entirely. Sophomore Arsheeya Moyeen said anyone who was actually at the game would recognize the photo was taken completely out of context. Students noted the group’s makeup was largely a matter of chance — everyone waited in long lines in the heat before the game and simply ran to the closest open seats once let into the student section.

Sophomore Lisa Varghese called French’s use of race as a wedge issue “blatant racism,” arguing sports are supposed to be something that unites people rather than divides them. Another student, Moyeen, said she found the online reaction disappointing but not surprising, since this kind of rhetoric has become normalized.

The university and political fallout

University officials addressed the controversy indirectly in a Monday night statement, calling the students at the game “incredible fans” without naming French directly.

French did not back down. He defended his comments Monday on a conservative radio show, even as the backlash continued to spread across social media. The episode also drew criticism from within his own party — Senator John Cornyn was among the Republicans who publicly called out French over the posts.

Why it matters

This wasn’t an isolated flare-up. It’s part of a familiar pattern where a moment of shared campus pride gets hijacked by rhetoric questioning who “belongs” based on race, and where a political candidate’s comments end up amplifying that rhetoric rather than calming it. For students who were simply celebrating a last-second win, the fallout is a reminder that visibility — even in something as ordinary as a football crowd shot — can invite scrutiny that has nothing to do with the game itself.

Sources: The Texas Tribune, The Daily Texan, CBS Texas, Houston Public Media