page_title: Tarleton State University
section_title: Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: Tarleton State University / Student Life / Athletics
caption_attribution_description: Students graduating in December of 2010 at Tarleton State University's Wisdom Hall in Stephenville, Texas.
context_page_description: Tarleton State University is a public university in Stephenville, Texas. It is a founding member of the Texas A&M University System. Located southwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, Tarleton enrolled over 13,000 students in the fall of 2019.
context_section_description: Tarleton State University athletics currently competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Western Athletic Conference.  They were admitted into the WAC on July 1, 2020, therefore ending their 26 year stint at the Division II level with the Lone Star Conference. Their admission into the conference in 1995 marks their second period of membership, having previously participated from 1968 to 1975.  They were a founding member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) in 1976 and remained in that league until 1990.  From 1991 to 1994 Tarleton played as an Independent.
  Tarleton left the LSC and Division II in July 2020 to join the Division I Western Athletic Conference. Because the WAC does not sponsor football, Tarleton football will play as a Division I FCS independent.
  The teams are known as the "Texans".  Athletes were known as the "Plowboys" before the college became a four-year institution in 1961.
  When women's sports were introduced in 1968–69, those teams played under the "Texans" nickname, but due to the desire of that day's female athletes to play under a distinctive nickname, the women's nickname was changed the next school year. "Texanns", "Tex-Anns", and "TexAnns" were used interchangeably until 1972–73, when "TexAnns" was officially settled on. Following a campaign initially led by two players and a (female) student manager in the women's basketball program, Tarleton returned the "Texans" nickname to women's teams in 2019–20.
  The basketball and volleyball teams play at Wisdom Gym. The football team plays at Memorial Stadium. The baseball team plays at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex.  The softball team plays at the Tarleton Softball Complex.
  Tarleton State University fields six men's varsity sports and eight women's varsity sports in the Lone Star Conference:
  Tarleton fields teams in indoor and outdoor track for both sexes. The NCAA classifies indoor and outdoor track as separate sports, holding indoor championships in its winter season and outdoor championships in its spring season.
caption: Tarleton students graduate at Wisdom Gym in December 2010
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