How Close Is Texas to Really Competing for an SEC Championship?

The 2026 season inches closer and closer with every passing week of the offseason, and the start of the regular season is right around the corner, with no greater indication than SEC Media Days taking place this week and fall camp set to get started soon.

And for the Texas Longhorns and head coach Steve Sarkisian enter the 2026 season once again plastered with lofty expectations from both Texas fans and many college football analysts. Texas holds and will have to bear the weight of being seen as one of the top national championship contenders in the country.

Texas is no stranger to sky-high expectations, especially recently under Sarkisian, as the Longhorns have returned to national prominence and are projected to be one of the top teams in the SEC and in the country year in and year out. And now, heading into the 2026 season, the Longhorns are more than ready to win their first SEC title.

The Time is Now for Texas to Win its First SEC Title

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) runs with the ball against the Michigan Wolverines during the first half at Camping World Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Labeling any season as championship or bust is unwarranted with the many uncontrollable factors that go into a championship season, from injury luck to the opponents a team faces. However, the Longhorns' 2026 season could be the prime year for Texas to finally stake a claim on some SEC hardware.

The Longhorns undeniably have one of the top rosters not just in the SEC but in the country. Texas has one of the best quarterbacks in the conference in Arch Manning, who played like one of the best towards the back half of the 2025 season, leading the offense.

And on the other side of the ball, the Longhorns' defense has plenty of elite players now led by a new voice in defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, giving the defense a different attitude and playstyle to battle in the SEC.

In charge of leading the newly revamped Texas defense will undoubtedly be star edge rusher Colin Simmons, who led the SEC in sacks a season ago and is arguably the best edge rusher in the conference.

The Longhorns also have plenty of new faces who will be expected to provide an infusion of juice into the team. Players like Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smoothers, and Rasheem Biles, among others, bring incredible talent blended with experience on both sides of the ball to the Texas roster in 2026.

While games and championships are obviously not won on paper, the Longhorns have a major advantage with the sheer amount of talent that Sarkisian has stockpiled in his program.

Texas' SEC championship chances will hinge on the gauntlet of a conference schedule the Longhorns will have to face. A now nine-game SEC slate sees the Longhorns taking on some of the toughest teams in the conference: Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and LSU, among other matchups that could prove to be challenging.

The Longhorns have flirted with their first SEC title, making the SEC title game in their first year in the conference in 2024, and the 2025 season saw Texas finish in the upper half of the conference while falling just out of the title game picture.

Now, as they head into the 2026 season, no time could be better for the Longhorns to earn their first SEC championship as they check many of the required boxes of championship teams.

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