It Looks Like The Texas Longhorns Should Have Been In The CFP After All

With the way the first round of the College Football Playoff played out, should the Texas Longhorns find their way into the field?

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on in the first half against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns didn't get the opportunity to compete for a national championship after being one of the first teams left out of the College Football Playoff, being ranked at No. 13 in the final College Football Playoff rankings.

Texas now has the chance to end the season on a positive note and look to springboard itself with some momentum heading into the 2026 season, with one final game of the 2025 season taking on the Michigan Wolverines in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. FL.

However, the first round of the College Football Playoff played out this weekend, and with the slew of results, the Longhorns should be feeling like they should have deserved a spot in the postseason rather than ending their year in Orlando.

First Round Results Show Texas Should've Earned a Spot in the CFP

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) throws a pass during the first half against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

The Longhorns ended the regular season with one of the best wins in all of college football, knocking off the then-ranked No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies by double digits. The victory became the Longhorns' third win over a top 10 team this season, a feat that hadn't been achieved since LSU in 2019.

And even with their resume at 9-3, Texas was left out with the final two spots going to Alabama and Miami; the Longhorns were not even close for an at-large bid, with Notre Dame and BYU ranked ahead of them.

Texas should feel slighted with the way the first round of the College Football Playoffs went, especially with the results in the games featuring the Longhorns' two rivals.

The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas A&M Aggies were one-and-done in the postseason, with the Sooners giving up a 17-point lead at home to Alabama, and the Aggies only scoring three points in their loss to Miami at home.

The Longhorns beat both of those teams this season, knocking off the Sooners for the second consecutive year, and for the second straight time, Oklahoma did not find the end zone against the Longhorns. And as already mentioned, the Longhorns took down the Aggies in Austin on the final week of the regular season, also making it two straight wins over Texas A&M.

Could the Longhorns have given a better performance against Alabama or Miami? That's speculative, but in a postseason that's supposed to consist of the "12 best teams," not including Texas, which took down two of the teams that came out flat in their first round matchups, that ended up being an interesting decision by the CFP committee.

Furthering that point was what happened in the other two first-round games, with the Oregon Ducks and Ole Miss Rebels rolling over the Tulane Green Wave and JMU Dukes by a combined 92-44 points.

While the need to include the Group of 5 is understandable, the way Tulane and JMU were steamrolled over the weekend, their inclusion should continue to be questioned if the committee is looking to have the best teams in the postseason.