While American football has long been considered “king” in the state, Texans today enjoy a wide variety of sports. Texans have a plethora of professional sports teams to cheer for. Texas is home to two NFL teams, the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans; two Major League Baseball teams, the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros; three NBA teams: the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Dallas Mavericks; two WNBA teams: the Houston Comets and the San Antonio Silver Stars; one National Hockey League team, the Dallas Stars. Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area is one of only thirteen American cities that have sports teams from the "Big Four" professional leagues. Other professional teams include the Arena Football League, and Major League Soccer, and the Mexican 1st Division.

Collegiate athletics have deep significance in Texas culture. The state has the most Division I-FBS schools in America, ten. The four largest programs are part of the Big 12 Conference: the Baylor Bears, Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders. According to a survey of Division I-A coaches, the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, the Red River Shootout, is ranked the third best collegiate rivalry in the nation. The rivalry between the two largest universities in the state, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas, is called the Lone Star Showdown.

.