A few points.

The very worst of the students UT admitted, the investigation showed, were clustered in the districts of Branch, House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), and Sen. Kirk Watson, (D-Austin).

The high schools in those house districts are Highland Park and Alamo Heights—a couple of the best public high schools in Texas. Due to the top 8 percent rule (or whatever it is now), it is pretty difficult for students at those schools not in that top 8 percent to gain admission into UT. And honestly it's kind of unfair for them. Tons of kids who fall outside the top 8 percent get denied admission to UT while other kids who went to bad public schools can easily cruise into the top 8 percent but would have been average at best at Alamo Heights or Highland Park. Don't get me wrong, I think the top 8 percent is largely a good thing as it provides a strong incentive for students from worse off socioeconomic conditions to do well in school. But I can't really blame a kid for wanting to use whatever family connections they have to get ahead in the admissions process when clearly the system isn't 100 percent fair for everyone to begin with.

Beyond that, what would have made this article more interesting is if they were able to track the graduation/flunking out rate of these students. If these students (whom the article implies are completely unqualified to go to UT) aren't flunking out at a rate worse than that of students who were accepted through the standard admissions process, then I don't think the problem is quite as bad as the article is suggesting.

This sort of thing definitely happens at every single major university: people with connections will find a way in. I really doubt UT is worse than any other major flagship public university in this regard.