Texas Longhorn Band Won't Participate At Baylor Game Due To 'Eyes Of Texas' Controversy

The University of Texas will not have its band performing against Baylor on Saturday. The dispute over "The Eyes of Texas" song looms large for the Longhorns, and now members of the band are refusing to play.

According to Andrew Zhang with The Daily Texan, an internal survey was conducted to see if band members would participate in the longstanding tradition. The results found that many would choose to skip the performance.

That development led to school band director Scott Hanna to issue a statement: “we do not have the necessary instrumentation, so we will not participate in Saturday’s game.”

The news of the decision isn't shocking. The band hasn't performed at any games this season due to COVID-19. Instead, the stadium has blared a recording of the song through loudspeakers.

It sounds like that will still be the case this week.

The controversy surrounding "The Eyes of Texas" began in the offseason and has continued into the fall. Many students, including some Texas athletes, actively tried to convince the university to stop using the song, due to alleged racial undertones.

The conversation became even more heated when Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger was the only player participating in the tradition following the loss to Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry.

We will see where this story goes from here.

Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.