No, University of Texas didn’t pull scholarships from all student athletes who knelt during anthem

Claims that a Texas university is punishing student-athletes for kneeling during the national anthem are going viral on social media, but they aren’t accurate. 

"KNEELING: After the University of Texas, all students who knelt during the national anthem were rounded up and REMOVED FROM SCHOLARSHIPS," an Aug. 20 Facebook post said. 

The post included two images of women kneeling and this text: "All students who knelt during the national anthem were rounded up and removed from scholarships. Full story in comments." 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The Facebook post linked to a blog post in its comments, but the full story was not there.

Rather, an undated blog post with a single paragraph claimed the University of Texas had "recently come under intense scrutiny for reportedly revoking scholarships from five athletes who knelt during the National Anthem to protest racial injustice."

"Inspired by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, these athletes sought to bring attention to systemic racism and police brutality," the paragraph continued. "The university’s alleged action has ignited a heated debate on the delicate balance between free expression and adherence to institutional rules, placing UT at the center of a national conversation about the limits of protest in academic and athletic environments."

The University of Texas at Austin, the flagship school of the University of Texas System, didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the Facebook post. But we found no evidence to support its claims. For an alleged controversy "placing UT at the center of a national conversation," we couldn’t find any credible news stories to corroborate this post.

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In 2016, then-University of Texas System Chancellor Bill McRaven issued a memo to the presidents and athletic directors of the eight universities in the system that said: "While no one should be compelled to stand, they should recognize that by sitting in protest to the flag they are disrespecting everyone who sacrificed to make this country what it is today — as imperfect as it might be."

The memo came a few days after Colin Kaepernick, then a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, started sitting and then taking a knee during the anthem to protest the treatment of Black Americans after several unarmed Black men had been shot that summer. But McRaven had made a similar request before Kaepernick started protesting. 

A similar claim spread on social media in 2023, when a satire site posted a story about Texas pulling scholarships from three football players after they knelt during the anthem. That story spread without the caveat that it was fake, and a university spokesperson told USA Today it was false.

The images included in this post are a clue that this new claim is not legitimate. 

One shows the women’s basketball team at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville — which has school colors similar to the University of Texas at Austin — kneeling during the national anthem in 2021.

The other shows Kennesaw State cheerleaders who took a knee during a football game in 2018 in Georgia.

The NCAA outlines under what circumstances student athletes can lose their scholarships in its 2024-25 Division I manual, such as engaging "in serious misconduct warranting substantial disciplinary penalty" and voluntarily withdrawing from a sport for personal reasons. Kneeling during the anthem isn’t mentioned. 

We rate claims that the University of Texas rounded up student athletes and revoked their scholarships for kneeling during the national anthem False.