When Paul is looking for his room, a shot shows Sargie and Samurai fighting in their room ~ one of the walls of that room has a poster of The Hunt for Red October (1990) on it, produced by this movie's producer, Mace Neufeld.
The convict football team is made up of several real NFL stars, including Dick Butkus, Jim Kelly, Jerry Rice, and others.
In the movie, the fictional Texas State University plays a football game against the real Southwest Texas State University. In 2003, Southwest Texas State University changed its name to Texas State University. While the fictional Texas State University was filmed at the University of North Texas