On Friday Night, Steve Sarkisian's team picked up one of the biggest wins of the college football season, knocking off the 3rd ranked Texas A&M Aggies, handing them their first loss of the season. The Texas Longhorns finally looked like the team everyone thought they could be when they entered the season ranked as the best team in the AP Poll.
The win is massive for the Texas Longhorns, who end the season 9-3, which will certainly boost their ranking in the College Football Playoff poll. The win is pivotal for the Texas Longhorns as all attention now turns to whether or not the team will have a chance at making the Playoff.
How the Texas Longhorns could make the College Football Playoff
After the Longhorns picked up their biggest win of the season, Steve Sarkisian spoke on the field about why his team should make the Playoff.
"It would be a disservice to our sport if this team is not a playoff team."
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2025
Steve Sarkisian made his case for why No. 16 Texas should be in the College Football Playoff 😤 pic.twitter.com/bMjcBv5waf
If Texas is going to make the Playoff, the first question becomes how much the win alone will move them in the College Football Playoff rankings. Texas is already the highest ranked 3 loss team, but they could seemingly move ahead of #14 Vanderbilt who they've beaten.
More likely than not, the Texas Longhorns are going to need a truly chaotic rivalry weekend, and possibly some help during Conference Championship weekend. There are simply too many teams ranked ahead of Texas for the Longhorns to jump without losses.
The first place Texas will look is right ahead of them in the 15th ranked Michigan Wolverines, who face Ohio State this weekend. A loss from Michigan this weekend would allow the Longhorns to jump at least one place and maybe even a second if the win propels the Longhorns past Vanderbilt or if the Commodores lose against Tennessee.
At 10-2, it's going to be hard for the Utah Utes to get jumped by Texas after they beat Kansas on Friday. The committee dropping Utah wouldn't be a massive surprise, as its resume has been picked apart over the last several weekends.
The group where Texas truly needs to look for losses is the 8th through 12th seeds, as losses from the two-loss teams truly open the door for Texas. Oklahoma losing to LSU would give them 3 losses, and would bring Texas' head-to-head win back into play. Notre Dame is unlikely to lose to Stanford, but a loss by the Fighting Irish vaults Texas. The same can be said for Alabama and BYU, but Texas truly does need chaos.
Texas needs chaos this weekend to make the Playoff, and luckily enough, they've picked the perfect weekend for chaos.