A Texas-based nonprofit provides schools with visibility, recruitment resources, and chances to play at in-person competitions.
With Texas at the heart of collegiate esports, the Texas Esports Collective shines a light on high school students and current collegiate members, providing an opportunity to compete within their home state.
Founded in 2025 by Aaron Jaggers, the Texas Esports Collective is “a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs organized, school-based esports competition for the whole state.” With its focus on serving the Texas community, it hopes to encourage esports competition for students and schools at a regional level.
While Texas Esports Collective focuses on competition, the organization shares a cohesive mission and goal within their work. “Our mission is to build a verticalized, grassroots esports ecosystem in Texas, uniting K-12, collegiate, and beyond,” Jaggers stated.
With the collective’s focus on uniting the Texas community, it also focuses on inspiring young students, starting in kindergarten and progressing up to the high schoolers and collegiate level. TEC provides students with direct regional tournaments and league play for them to compete in.
The Texas Esports Collective is divided into two divisions: the Texas Esports Scholastic and the Texas Esports Collegiate. With each track serving a different audience, it follows the same track and similar formats while still being represented by the same organization.
For the Texas Esports Scholastic, it focuses on high school students and its programs. Within its system, it runs the Texas Esports Conference, which is a six-week fall mini-season, a nine-week spring season with regional match-ups, an in-person regional playoff, and a state championship, with events happening at university venues.
According to Jaggers, the format is built to feel like school athletics so coaches, parents, and other schools are able to intuitively understand it.
While being able to represent high school students, the Texas Esports Collegiate focuses on the collegiate student, giving high schoolers competing a direct path into the collegiate esports space with connections in their own organization.
In order to be eligible for the Texas Esports Collegiate, the college must be a two-year or four year college. In this format, everything is a tournament with three splits, similar to bigger leagues in the esports industry, during the fall, winter, and spring. With eight different titles to compete in, the collective focuses on the LAN events, stating “it’s LAN-intent[ional], meaning we aim for in-person play at Texas campuses, and member schools can bid to host.”
Jaggers shares more about the connection between the two pathways. “Scholastic players get visibility to Texas colleges through our recruiting portal, and collegiate programs get a pipeline of Texas high school athletes.” With a direct pipeline and connection to each other, the Texas Esports Collective creates an internal system for promotion within their community.
Inside of the Texas Esports Collectives, there are memberships that can be purchased per school and per academic year. With each membership, it offers different options between the Scholastic and Collegiate divisions.
- For the Texas Esports Scholastic membership, it costs a $500 flat fee which covers every title (Overwatch, Rocket League, VALORANT, Marvel Rivals, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), one Varsity and one JV team per title, both seasons, in-person finals, platform access on tec.rally.gg, onboarding certification, and the recruiting portal.
- For the Texas Esports Collegiate membership, it costs a $1000 flat fee which covers every title and every split, the San Japan pre-season, priority hosting and first access to host RFPs, a vote in season design, student event roles, and the recruiting portal.
For those wondering why they should purchase a membership, Jaggers states what Texas Esports Collective does to help you. “We build a schedule, run events, and pull together a community of like-minded individuals to support esports across the state. Members play free — so no extra purchase orders or charges in the middle of the year.”
Being a part of an organization such as the Texas Esports Collectives comes with a multitude of benefits. Some of these benefits include a network of Texas programs, in-person events (fall finals, spring playoffs, championships, San Japan, and the Metroplex Major), and opportunities for students beyond playing as a volunteer, intern, or even federal work study roles at these events.
With more benefits coming from the membership, Texas Esports Collective provides a full competitive calendar for one flat free, member recognition across social media platforms, materials required for onboarding including peripherals and merchandise, and shared infrastructure that is published for free.
With an organization like Texas Esports Collective, it is unique versus other leagues in many different ways. Because of its regional focus, it is Texas only based and a non-profit, which means the schedule will be created around the Texas school calendars and athletics to give students the opportunity to compete without conflicts.
The organization is also member-governed, meaning member schools differently impact and can offer changes to formatting, titles, and the calendar. Jaggers shares, “It’s your conference, not a product you subscribe to.”
Last but not least, there will always be in-person finals guaranteed. No online finals, but a LAN event for Texas schools across the state every championship.
In the future, Jaggers shares the long-term vision for the organization with one goal in mind.
“The long-term vision is an esports organization that is run by students and guided by professionals — providing an authentic opportunity for our young people to take ownership of esports in the state.“
Looking forward, the Texas Esports Collective is excited to share their future events, important dates, and when they will be taking place.
- Sept 15: Priority enrollment deadline for 2026-2027. Late additions are welcome through the year, but the fall roster locks then.
- Sept 28: Week 1 of the Texas Esports Conference fall mini-season. The collegiate fall split opens in October.
- Dec 5: Fall Playoffs and Finals, one day, in person.
- Feb 5-7, 2027: The Metroplex Major in Dallas-Fort Worth. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate headlining, with Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, and Rivals of Aether 2 side brackets, plus scholastic and collegiate crews. A full announcement is coming soon.
With many exciting events and a brand new season starting in the next few months, the Texas Esports Collective is ready to make a splash in the 2026-2027 school year.
For schools wanting to get involved or anyone who has questions, follow along at the Texas Esports Collective official website or follow them on social media and other platforms for more updates.
