The F1 U.S. Grand Prix and the Univ. of Texas football program are “on a collision course for the weekend of Nov. 15-17, 2013,” according to John Maher of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. The Big 12 Tuesday revealed UT is scheduled to host Oklahoma State on Nov. 16 at Royal-Memorial Stadium, the same weekend the second running of Austin’s F1 race has been scheduled. The OSU-UT game “should draw more than 100,000 fans,” while the three-day race weekend this year “drew about 265,000 fans, including more than 117,000 on Sunday for the actual race.” The football game would be on Saturday, the “same day F1 will hold its qualifying runs.” Having fans in town for both events “would put a big strain on restaurants, rental cars, shuttle buses and bars.” The “biggest conflict, though, probably would be over hotel rooms.” UT men’s Deputy AD Butch Worley said the school is "going to do everything in our power to make it a 2:30 game, so our fans can get in and out” without having to stay in a hotel. He added, “The Big 12 understands the issue.” UT men’s AD DeLoss Dodds said that UT “does not operate in a vacuum and that all Big 12 schools have issues to deal with when it comes to scheduling.” Maher notes F1’s final schedule is “expected to be adopted in December at a meeting of the world’s governing body for motor sports, FIA, in Istanbul” (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 11/21).
