AUSTIN — Every few minutes in this thunderdome of a college football stadium at the University of Texas, they're making cannons go boom, releasing orange smoke from sparklers that spray flames into the sky or turning the place dark so light beams from 100,000 phones can cast a disorienting neon cacophony even the Sixth Street saloons and honky-tonks can't match.
And that's nothing compared to the sensory overload Texas, the Southeastern Conference and their business partner ESPN are about to flood the airwaves with over the next week in their desperate attempt to get the three-loss Longhorns into the College Football Playoff.
You know it's coming. AfterTexas' 27-17 victory over No. 3 Texas A&Mhere Friday night, knocking the rival Aggies from the ranks of the unbeaten, in-state bragging rights won't be enough for Texas.
The push to get the Longhorns and Arch Manning into this playoff will be organized and relentless. And the opening salvo came moments after their on-field celebration at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium when Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian turned from football coach to politician.
"I think we're absolutely a playoff team," Sarkisian said. "We beat an undefeated No. 3 team in the country that a lot of pundits thought was the best team in the country, and we just beat them by two scores. That's a pretty dominant win for our team, and I don't know how many other teams can say they have wins like that. We've had some great wins. I get it. We didn't beat Ohio State, we didn't beat Georgia. But you look at other teams in front of us and look at their schedules, it's comical. What would their record be if they played those teams?"
pic.twitter.com/4AiwngsoRT
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb)November 29, 2025
This is a test for the selection committee. Are they supposed to care about a body of work which says that Texas' three losses — including a true toe-stubber to 3-8 Florida in early October — should probably be disqualifying? Or is their job to take Texas' best moments, including three very good wins over the Aggies, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, and project them as a late bloomer whose overwhelmingly talented roster could do damage in the CFP?
And from Texas' standpoint, the crux of the argument comes down to this: What would this look like if they hadn't taken on the challenge of playing current No. 1 Ohio State in the season opener and losing 14-7? What if, instead of going on the road to one of the toughest places to play in all of college football with a first-year starting quarterback and a new offensive line, they had scheduled Kent State and eased into the season?
"If we're a 10-2 team right now, this isn't a discussion," Sarkisian said. "But we were willing to go up there and play that game."
It's a compelling point because it's largely true, and you'll undoubtedly hear SEC commissioner Greg Sankey make it every time a microphone comes into his vicinity over the next week. It's undeniable that a 10-2 Texas with their three high-quality wins would probably get a playoff spot.
But Texas isn't 10-2.
And those what-ifs don't account for the cruel, sometimes unfair reality of college football: In a sport with only 12 data points, you are defined by neither your best nor worst moment. Instead, it's the totality of a complicated picture, and the 12-team playoff system is supposed to account for all of it.
If Texas misses out on the CFP, can they honestly say that playing Ohio State cost them a bid? Or by losing that game, did they merely fail to earn the extra margin for error that would have allowed them to lose to a team like Florida without much punishment?
"We went on the road to Ohio State and lost in a one-score game where we outgained them by 200 yards and no one else has been close against them," Sarkisian said. "But I think more importantly it's the message we want to send to the head coaches and athletic directors around the country.
"When you play five top-10 ranked teams and go 3-2 and schedule Ohio State out of conference, I don't think we want to punish us to do that because what will we do? We'll get out of those games like a lot of teams have done. They have nice, pretty records but they're not willing to play those games."
It's the exact same argument Alabama made, unsuccessfully, when it was left out of the playoff a year ago at 9-3, kickstarting an entire offseason of discourse around CFP expansion and how the committee uses strength of schedule.
And Sarkisian will come armed in every media appearance with all the stats about how difficult a road it was for Texas this year.
"We're gonna have a good shot to get in there because of Coach Sark," receiver Ryan Wingo said. "He's got a way with words."
But are his words enough to convince selection committee members that Texas, particularly with Manning's development over the course of the season, is a different team than it was in August? Or, more to the point, can he convince them Texas' trajectory should matter more than what it put on paper?
It's an attractive proposition, particularly for a television network that would love the ratings juice Manning brings. And it just might be enough to make the Longhorns the first three-loss playoff team in history.
"I feel like we've come a long way," Manning said. "We've played a lot of good teams. I hope this thing works out because we're trending in the right direction. We're a good team. We're only getting better. And if you let us in, we can beat anyone."
