Texas likes to pride itself on being the biggest, toughest, and most competitive state in the union, but can any of its many sports teams bring back the glory to the Lone Star State? Here’s a look at some of the state’s biggest teams and whether or not they’ve got what it takes to win their respective championships. Whether it’s the Houston Rockets enjoying odds for the NBA championship of around +800, or the Longhorns favorites in some of the top Texas sportsbooks selected by CasinoBeats to become America’s top college football team, there’s room for optimism when it comes to some of the state’s best sides.
Basketball: Durant Gives Rockets Hope
In basketball, there is one Texas NBA team whose fans are the most hopeful of the state’s three sides, and that is the Houston Rockets. While their performance in this year’s competition was pretty good, making the playoffs for the first time in five years before getting knocked out by the Golden State Warriors in the first round, there is a lot of buzz around the team as the world gets ready for the 2025/26 season. And that excitement can be explained in just two words: Kevin Durant. The 15-time all-star made his way to the Toyota Centre in a trade that saw Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks move to the Phoenix Suns in return for the man who helped put the Gold in Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018. The move was part of a highly complex trade that saw 13 players, seven draft picks, and an undisclosed amount of cash, move across seven different franchises, and also bought Swiss star Clint Capela back from the Atlanta Hawks to the Houston side he left in 2014. Regardless, the arrival of Durant has given the Rockets a kind of swagger that has made Houston the fourth favorite, behind defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the New York Knicks, to bring home the glory in the upcoming season.
Moving across the state, things don’t look quite so good for the San Antonio Spurs or the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs are still reeling after the loss of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, and look rather unlikely to repeat their 2024 NBA Finals appearance, while the Spurs are very much in a rebuilding phase. While the side is getting better, it has some way to go before it can truly make an impact on a highly competitive Western Conference. However, basketball can certainly spring a surprise, so don’t be too shocked if the two teams do rather better than expected, even if they don’t make the postseason this time around.
Football: More Suffering For Cowboys, Encouraging Signs for Texans and Longhorns
If there’s one sport that’s synonymous with Texas, it’s football. The gridiron has reigned supreme in the hearts of millions of Texan sports fans for a long, long time, but can the state’s teams reign supreme in the NFL? Well, there was a time when the Dallas Cowboys really were America’s Team. The boys in blue, white, and gray were the most loved – and most feared – side in the whole of American sports. Unfortunately for the side’s supporters both inside and outside the Lone Star State, that was all a very long time ago.
The Cowboys may have dominated the 1990s, as Troy Aikman led a side to three Super Bowl victories, but ever since they won the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 1995, things started going downhill, and the side doesn’t quite look like they’ll reappear in the NFC Championship game, let alone the Big One, for the first time in 30 years yet. That’s not to say that there aren’t some reasons to be optimistic, though. For instance, the team has starting quarterback Dak Prescott back from injury and ready to team with explosive wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, a recruit from the Pittsburgh Steelers. In defense, however, the loss of defensive end Micah Parsons to Green Bay will loom large in the fears of Cowboys fans.
Things look a little better for their near-neighbours, the Houston Texans. The side is tipped to make it three AFC South championships on the bounce, with fans hoping CJ Stroud’s quarterbacking will match his eye-catching 2023 rookie year, where he became the fifth first-season player to pass for 4,000 yards. Meanwhile, new offensive coordinator Nick Caley’s ethos of simple but effective tactics could make things a lot easier for the side. Similarly, their defense remains a standout feature, with Derek Stingley Jr and Will Anderson Jr likely to inspire a great deal of concern in opposition wideouts and QBs, respectively. It remains to be seen whether or not the franchise can get as far as the AFC Championship game this year, though.
And it would be wrong to talk about football in Texas without talking about the college game. While an early-season loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes wasn’t exactly the best way to get things going, the Texas Longhorns started the season as the top-ranked team in the country and remain one of the top tips to be America’s best college football team this season, remaining favorites with some bookmakers still offering odds as low as +550.
The Best of The Rest: Astros Aiming For Ninth Postseason, Austin Looking To Retain Volleyball Crown
In other sports, baseball’s Houston Astros look more likely to make the postseason as AL West champs than the Texas Rangers – and if the Astros do make it, it will be the ninth time in a row, even if they are comparative longshots for the World Series. Meanwhile, women’s volleyball already has some Texan champions of its own, with Austin winning the inaugural LOVB Pro league earlier this year and fans hoping for a repeat in 2026. In Major League Soccer, both Austin FC and Houston Dynamo look like they could make the playoffs, even if they, again, aren’t among the favorites to win the whole thing, but Dallas FC has had a pretty mediocre year.
