Texas Featured In Two Of ESPN's Most Anticipated Games Of The 2024 CFB Season
The college football slate for 2024 and beyond is unlike any we have seen before.
With programs like Texas, Oklahoma, USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington all moving to the SEC or Big Ten, college football fans will be treated to powerhouse matchups seemingly every week.
The Longhorns alone will be playing in three of college football's biggest games next season in terms of entertainment value and in regards to the College Football Playoff.
Two of those games were tabbed by ESPN as games that their analysts are most excited to watch.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian talks with Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) during a timeout in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, in Austin, Texas.
Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK
To start the year, the Longhorns will get a tuneup game against Colorado State, whose highlight of their season was nearly beating a 4-8 Colorado team in overtime. Texas will then hit the road and play in one of the most hostile environments college football has to offer, as they'll head to the Big House to take on the defending champion Michigan Wolverines.
A game that ESPN's Blake Baumgartner selected as the game he is most excited for, citing the fact that Texas should be still on a hot streak from their success this past season. He also pointed out that unlike in years past when Michigan has played Hawaii, Bowling Green, Or UConn, they will actually be tested early on in the season; a rarity for them.
"While the defending national champions will be undergoing a significant transition -- most notably with Jim Harbaugh off to the NFL -- Texas should be rocking and rolling heading into 2024 with a trip to Ann Arbor on the docket in Week 2, the programs' first meeting since the 2005 Rose Bowl. With his team, a play away from playing for the national title last season, Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers surely will be on many preseason Heisman lists, and the Wolverines get the early-season litmus test they haven't dealt with in the past," wrote Baumgartner.
Adam Rittenberg also chose a Texas game, but he has their SEC matchup against Georgia as the game he is most looking forward to. While it may take some getting used to, the Longhorns and Bulldogs are now conference foes and were two of the best teams in the country this past season. If Texas can win their first seven games, which would include beating Michigan and Oklahoma, this could very well be a No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup.
Rittenberg highlighted the fact that conference realignment has made matchups like this more common but did explain the ramifications of this game could be huge.
"Georgia likely will enter the season at No. 1 with an excellent chance to win its third national title in four seasons after claiming none between 1980 and 2021. A midseason trip to Austin will tell a lot, though, especially if Texas can build on its breakthrough 2023 season with quarterback Quinn Ewers back alongside several key transfer portal additions. The teams have met in the regular season only once, at a neutral site in 1958 at Texas' Memorial Stadium, but these types of clashes will be more common in the new-look SEC," Rittenberg wrote.
While we may be getting way too ahead of ourselves, if Texas can go at least 2-1 in their meetings against Michigan, Oklahoma, and Georgia they have a much lighter schedule down the stretch. While there are certainly no weeks off in the SEC, Texas' schedule is backloaded with four of the conference's weakest programs. The Longhorns will have a fantastic shot at making the playoff and a legitimate chance at contending for a title with wins in these monster games.
