While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

1. Circle the date, er, dates

Schedule this: We now know the kickoff for Texas’ first football game of the 2024 season, so we can begin the minute-by-minute countdown until the opener at home against Colorado State. We are under four months and counting. Just a short 108 days until kickoff. The Longhorns have the perfect schedule with tremendously challenging games against Georgia, Michigan and Oklahoma and tough, nasty rivalry games with Texas A&M and Arkansas, but five games that Longhorn Nation will consider automatic wins in three other nonconference games against CSU, UTSA and ULM and dates with Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. … You might also know that 98 games will be played in August, including blockbusters like Georgia-Clemson, Notre Dame-Texas A&M and Miami-Florida with an LSU-Southern Cal showcase on Sept. 1. How’s that for some impact contests off the bat? Love it. … Of the 15 teams with the toughest schedules this fall, 247Sports says eight of them have Texas on their schedules. One is Oklahoma, which faces five presumed Top 25 teams in its last seven games and finishes up with Alabama and LSU.

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2. Starting the college football season with a bang

Ratings bonanza: I really figure this will be one of the most fascinating college football seasons in years because the playoff format expands from four to 12 teams, six huge brand-name programs are joining the SEC and Big Ten, because the Pac-12 has dissolved before our very eyes, because Florida State’s and Clemson’s lawyers are billing overtime hours to arrange their escape from the ACC and because we have Nick Saban on our TV sets but no longer on a college sideline. I predict the first rumored coming-out-of-retirement story for Saban comes before Halloween. …  If you’re working at a high-level Power Five program and especially if you’re an athletic director of a school in the SEC or the Big Ten, here’s a file-it-away list for five up-and-coming coaches for these schools to consider — just in case: Washington’s Jedd Fisch (from Arizona), Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith (from Oregon State), UTSA’s Jeff Traylor, Houston’s Willie Fritz and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer. Texas State’s GJ Kinne belongs in that top 10 with also strong endorsements for Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and UCF’s Gus Malzahn. … The hottest seats in the nation belong to Florida’s Billy Napier, Arkansas’ Sam Pittman and Baylor’s Dave Aranda, but Miami’s Mario Cristobal’s might be warming up after a 12-13 record of late.

3. A sign of things to come with NIL

NIL heaven: What happens in Vegas stays in athletes’ pockets. At least in the near future. A one-of-its-kind, in-season college basketball tournament is being created to have eight teams, including Texas A&M, Alabama, Houston and Notre Dame, play at three different venues this November and to award $1 million payouts to those schools. CBSSports.com reported that the organizers hope to double that field to 16 in 2025 and beyond to a tournament to be called the Players Era Festival. And it gets better. Or at least bigger. A source told the website that players will also be eligible to “sign on to a 10% equity stake in Players Era in perpetuity,” meaning that these players stand to earn even more money as the event grows. Seven of the eight teams have been named with room for one more. I’m sure there are only about 300 other interested programs in getting on board. The games seem likely to show up on a streaming service rather than a cable network. Why not? Nice benefit for these, uh, amateur athletes.

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4. Looking at Texas baseball's home stretch

Texas baseball eyes the NCAAs: The Longhorns continue to impress and won their eighth Big 12 baseball series even though Oklahoma clinched the regular-season title by sweeping Baylor. Gage Boehm has seven saves and could conceivably flirt with matching Huston Street, Mike Hamer and Beau Ridgeway to make the top 10 for saves in a single season with 12. He has totally solidified the bullpen. … One projection for the NCAA Tournament has Texas pegged as high as a 2 seed in a regional, but at hostile — make that Hostile with a capital H — East Carolina. The Pirates may be the best mid-major power in that conversation with a terrific home-field advantage although they were bested by Texas for a College World Series berth two years ago in a riveting matchup. ECU currently holds the last of the eight national seeds, which allows those teams to host all the way to Omaha so long as they keep winning. My guess is it’s going to almost be impossible to miss getting sent to Texas A&M, Arkansas or ECU. … According to a mock Major League Baseball draft by ESPN, Longhorns first baseman Jared Thomas and shortstop Jalin Flores are projected to be the 64th and 76th best prospects in this summer’s draft. Also, Westlake second baseman Theo Gillen is the 22nd-highest prospect overall and the consensus third-best high school position player in this class. Levi Sterling, a right-hander out of Notre Dame, Calif., and a Texas commit, is the 55th-best prospect.

5. Texas track leaving the Big 12 in style

On track for success: When Texas men’s and women’s track and field head coach Edrick Floréal was asked recently what he’ll miss the most about the Big 12, he quipped, “Yeah, the trophies.” Little wonder. His men's and women's teams swept the league titles in Waco to make it five straight outdoor crowns for the women and the men’s second in five seasons. The Horns got gold out of Kristine Blazevica (heptathlon for the fourth year in a row) and Marilyn Nwora (second shot put title) and Akala Garrett (a Big 12 record in the 400-meter hurdles), three of the six Texas women’s champions. Of the 49 Big 12 titles over that era, Coach Flo claimed 15 of them. Oddly enough, he said before the meet he was feeling the pressure of producing. “I’m about two feet tall. I wish I would have been the guy that went first (Steve Sarkisian last fall) and got mine out of the way. I just want to get it over with. We won our fair share. We’ve lost our fair share, but I think we’ve been pretty consistent on top.” … Sounds like he’ll also miss the, uh, camaraderie because he suggests the SEC is a dog-eat-dog world. “I’m going to miss the Big 12 because it’s a little bit more relaxed. You’re going to war (in the SEC). It’s all guns blazing," he said. "The Big 12 is solid competition, but the vibe is not like you’re going to die this weekend if you don’t win. There’s definitely more venom in the SEC than there is in the Big 12.”

6. Texas' SEC schedule will bring back Rick Barnes

Highs, lows of the SEC schedule: We’re sorry Chris Beard and Ole Miss won’t be gracing Moody Center next season, but Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Alabama will. I fully expect Rodney Terry to sign another big man and soon. He certainly needs a fourth post in his frontcourt. Indiana State’s Jayson Kent, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound swing 4-man who has put up 10 double-doubles, once had a 20-rebound game and a dozen games with 10 boards or more, will be a big addition. But more help is needed. … Too bad Terry isn’t welcoming back Ron Holland for his second year of college play. Hell, he never even had him one year as the 6-foot-8 wing who was Texas’ top recruit but chose the G League Ignite team over the Longhorns and never arrived. In a year when Dillon Mitchell never developed his shot and Dylan Disu played far from the basket, Ze’Rik Onyema never made the transition to Power Five and Big 12 play and chronic injuries kept Virginia transfer 6-foot-11 Kadin Shedrick from playing major minutes. Texas could have used Holland’s playmaking and defense and probably would have beaten Tennessee in that close second-round NCAA Tournament game. Holland is now considered by some as the No. 1 pick in a very drab NBA draft class that some believe is the worst in more than a decade. The Athletic projects Holland as the top pick even though he made a dreary 24% of his 3-pointers in the G League and missed the last two months of the season. “It’s not a slam dunk, and you could make a credible case for several players, but Holland has been the top player on my board since the 2023 Hoop Summit,” the report said. "He still has the best overall résumé.”

7. Texas softball enters the NCAAs as the nation's top team

Numero uno: Texas softball earned the No. 1 seed nationally over nemesis Oklahoma and will play its NCAA games at McCombs Field for as long as it's alive, up until the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Mike White has made such major strides with the program that his Longhorns are now better positioned than ever to win a national title to go with the school’s record 14 Big 12 titles overall. Yes, OU looms after beating Texas in the conference tournament in its quest for a third straight WCWS crown, and I fully expect the two to settle the issue in Oklahoma City next month.

8. Whatever happened to ...

Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. Heck, I’m still wondering whatever happened to the Pac-12. ... Brian Cisarik, last week’s subject as the single-season Longhorns batting leader with a .429 average in 1987, is alive and well in San Antonio where he's a self-storage mogul. His former teammate Doug Lindauer still recalls how Cisarik broke the tension from heckling Razorbacks fans in a crucial SWC series for the title: “He broke into song singing ‘Lady in Red’ because he knew it’d make me laugh and relax. Just a world-class guy who could hit any pitcher he faced.”

9. Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the world ...

On the couch: Here’s the deal. I loved “Man in Full,” a limited series on Netflix starring Jeff Daniels as Atlanta real estate tycoon Charlie Croker, who's as eccentric as they come and who talks like President LBJ reincarnate. It’s a gripping portrait of a billionaire in bankruptcy and full of pride and arrogance. Loved every minute of it up until the final scene — it differed wildly from the conclusion of Tom Wolfe’s novel, on which it’s based — when it offered the most abrupt and unsatisfying ending perhaps ever in cinematic history. OK, I’m embellishing. But it begged for another season. Alas, only in our dreams. Gave it 8.5 ducks, but the ending 1 duck.

10. How to steal John Calipari's Fayetteville thunder

Crazy prediction: Barring a fast start by Sam Pittman, Arkansas makes a football move early and promotes — wait for it — Bobby Petrino.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football countdown begins none too soon