San Marcos, Texas
🏀 Texas State Bobcats

Named one of America’s best small cities, San Marcos is a college town through and through. The area is the quaint, hilly home of Texas State University, boasting a southwest aesthetic and architecture with local flair that extends even to the institution’s grand athletic facilities at Bobcat Stadium and Strahan Arena. The latter is the school’s 10,000-seat gymnasium that’s named for Oscar Strahan, a notable basketball coach and athletic director at the university for nearly four decades.

The venue was built in 1982 towards the end of Texas State’s time in NAIA, originally a simple and square facility for a burgeoning varsity team. As the Bobcats grew in reputation and stature, advancing into the NCAA DI ranks, the arena was also expanded to provide a more comfortable environment for fans and players.

The building’s 2018 overhaul and expansion resulted in an additional 2,000 seats and a disjointed design that mixes and matches. While much of the arena is now more contemporary, featuring marble floors and whitewashed walls, step through certain parts of the concourse and the older, more worn parts of the structure become visible. This odd contrast makes the arena feel somewhat like two distinct venues.

The Bobcats have been around for quite some time, beginning play in 1920. After claiming an NAIA title in 1960, the team would move into Division II in 1983 and then up to DI four years later. Although they had a relatively successful start at this level, the Bobcats made their last tournament appearance in 1997. Despite the struggles since, they did win a pair of Sun Belt championships in 2021 and 2022, resulting in a short dance in the NIT. In 2026, Texas State moved to the Pac-12, meaning that some exciting new opponents and plenty of opportunities for glory lay on the horizon.