The Texas Longhorns have had a whiplash-educing season in 2025.
With a 9–3 record, it’s easy to immediately dismiss the Longhorns from any discussion about inclusion in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Recommended Videos
But Texas closed out its regular season with a bang, taking down the previously undefeated and No. 3–ranked Texas A&M Aggies.
After that win, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made his case for his team’s inclusion in the big dance.
“We’ve got a really good football team,” Sarkisian said. “It would be a disservice to our sport if this team’s not a playoff team when we went and scheduled that non-conference game [Ohio State]. Because if we’re a 10–2 team, that’s not a question.”
READ MORE: Longhorns dominate in 2nd half to upset Aggies, 27-17
The Case for Texas
Texas finished the regular season with three wins against teams ranked in the top ten in the AP poll. They went 2–0 with double-digit victories against their biggest rivals — both of whom are locks to make the playoffs. They also beat a Vanderbilt team that finished 10–2 and will likely have a Heisman finalist in fan-favorite quarterback Diego Pavia.
The Longhorns have shown real progression throughout the season. After dropping their first SEC game to fall to 3–2, Texas went 6–1 the rest of the way, churning through a slate in the nation’s toughest conference.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning came crashing down to earth in September after entering the year with Heisman Trophy hopes, but he has come into his own in the months since that slow start. When you can finish a “let-down year” completing 61.4% of your passes with 32 total touchdowns, you’re doing something right.
And finally, let’s piggyback on Sark’s pitch: Texas’ 9–3 record includes the best loss in all of college football this season. With every passing week of Ohio State’s 12–0 dominance, Texas’ 14–7 loss in Columbus to open the season has looked better and better. Not only is Texas the only team to stay within a possession of Ohio State — they’re the only team to lose to the Buckeyes by fewer than 18 points.
If the goal of the CFP committee is to rank the “best teams in the country” — as it states in the “voting process” section on its website — Texas certainly seems to fit that criteria.
The Case Against Texas
Texas fans (and coaches) have been quick to remind everyone that they would be a no-brainer selection for an at-large bid if they had scheduled a lowly FCS or Group-of-Five program to open the season instead of choosing to play Ohio State.
And if you’re willing to grant Texas an assumed win in a game they would’ve surely entered as 40-point favorites, then this statement is true. But be careful — don’t let hypotheticals distract you from the reality of this team.
The Ohio State loss is not what’s going to stamp the Longhorns’ ticket to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl — far from it, in fact. The 11 games after that will.
Texas had arguably the worst loss of any team still making a playoff argument, losing 29–21 to a Florida team that went on to fire its coach and finish 4–8. Remarkably, the Longhorns accounted for half of Florida’s conference wins.
The aforementioned 6–1 record they compiled after that loss looks good on paper, but it didn’t come with many style points. The Longhorns escaped Kentucky with a 16–13 overtime win (the Wildcats finished 5–7 and fired their coach) and had to overcome a 38–21 fourth-quarter deficit to get past Mississippi State (who also finished 5–7, though their head coach survived the season).
After the Longhorns finally got a respectable win at home against Vanderbilt, they had a chance to make a statement on the road against a stout Georgia team late in the year. That didn’t happen, as they were walloped 35–10.
They ended the year on a high note, picking apart A&M for their biggest victory of the season, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who watched the campaign as a whole and came away satisfied. Their talent is evident — and at times overwhelming — but the flashes of brilliance reveal just how much meat the preseason No. 1 Longhorns left on the bone.
My Final Verdict
I don’t think Texas gets in.
They certainly had a path after Friday night’s statement, but they needed some games to go their way in rivalry week. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami, Vanderbilt, Utah, and Virginia all entered the weekend with 9–2 records.
Without question, Texas has the best 9–3 record in college football. If any of those seven teams lost, Texas would’ve almost certainly surpassed them, especially with their wins over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
All seven of them won.
15 Power Four teams now have 10 or more wins. Even with a 9–3 record, Texas will likely be ranked ahead of the Virginias and the Utahs of the world, but still, there just aren’t enough seats left at the table for nine-win Texas.
Being the best team on paper gives the Longhorns some weight, sure. But at some point, wins have to matter when you’re deciding who is “most deserving.” Some years, nine wins will be enough for an SEC team.
2025 is simply not one of those years.