Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t want to talk about it Monday. Late Friday night, he didn’t mind.
Sarkisian wasn’t interested in being a politician during his weekly Monday press conference. When pressed about the prospects of No. 16 Texas beating No. 3 Texas A&M and making an argument for a College Football Playoff as a 9-3 team, Sarkisian said “I’ll talk about that after the game. If we’re fortunate enough to win the game, I’ll talk about that after the game. I think that would be the better platform.”
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Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) give Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian the game ball after beating Texas A&M Aggies 27-17 during the NCAA college football game in the Lone Star Showdown in Austin, Texas, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025.
Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman
Well, Texas did beat A&M. In fact, the Longhorns’ 27-17 win at Royal-Memorial Stadium ruined the Aggies’ perfect season. After making the opening statement at his postgame press conference, Sarkisian immediately fielded the same question that he’d been asked on Monday. This time, he had a lengthy answer.
“I think we’re absolutely a playoff team,” he said.
What is Steve Sarkisian’s pitch to the CFP committee?
Sarkisian then added that Texas is the first team since LSU’s 2019 national championship squad to beat three top-10 opponents in the regular season. He argued that Texas has played one of the toughest schedules in the country. The fifth-year coach also said it would signal to football programs across the country that they shouldn’t play tough nonconference games if Texas gets punished for losing the season opener at Ohio State.
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“It’s the message that what do we want to send to the head coaches and the athletic directors around the country,” Sarkisian said. “You want us not to schedule Ohio State? Because if we’re a 10-2 team right now, this isn’t a discussion. We’re in the playoff. But we were willing to go up there and play that game.
“When you play five top-10 ranked teams in the regular season and you go 3-2, you beat three of them, and you schedule an Ohio State out of conference play, I surely don’t think we want to punish us to do that. Because what are we all going to do? We’re all going to get out of those games, just like a lot of other teams in the country have done and they’ve got nice, pretty records right now. They weren’t willing to go play these games out of conference. We’re willing to go play those games. I just hope we don’t get punished for doing that.”
MORE: Texas football beats Texas A&M in Lone Star Showdown, see the photos.
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Indeed, Texas (9-3, 6-2) does have three top-10 wins — over No. 6 Oklahoma in mid-October, No. 10 Vanderbilt in early November and No. 3 A&M on Friday. The CFP committee, though, had Texas just 16th ahead of Friday’s game. Weighing Texas down is its three losses, two of which were to top-five Ohio State and Georgia teams and another was that 29-21 flop Oct. 4 at Florida.
“I get it, we didn’t beat Ohio State. We didn’t beat Georgia, but we played five top 10-ranked teams out of 12 regular-season games,” Sarkisian said. “You look at what some of the other teams’ schedules were (that are ranked by the CFP committee) in front of us. Quite frankly, it’s comical. What would their record look like if they played those teams?”
About that Florida loss, Sarkisian argued “the team that played for the national championship last year lost to Northern Illinois at home.” Sure enough, Notre Dame went 11-1 last year in the regular season with one of those defeats being a 16-14 upset loss against Northern Illinois. The Fighting Irish eventually lost to Ohio State in the national title game.
Texas will find out Dec. 7 if it’s done enough to make the playoff field. Since the 12-team bracket will include five conference champions, Texas likely needs to snag a top-10 ranking in order to claim an at-large bid.
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Texas Longhorns linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith (26) signals the “thumbs down” to celebrate winning the Lone Star Showdown 27-17 over the Texas A&M Aggies at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 28, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Texas players also make the case for a spot in the playoffs
Not surprisingly, players also thing they are deserving of a playoff berth. Senior safety Michael Taaffe even repeated Sarkisian’s talking points about the Ohio State game.
MORE: See fan reactions to Texas football’s win over Texas A&M
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“I think college football is really happy that Texas played Ohio State Week 1,” Taaffe said. “I don’t think the committee is going to punish us for losing by seven to the No. 1 team in the country. You don’t schedule that game, we’re 10-2 and I think everybody thinks a lot different about if we should get in or not. So I’m pretty confident.”
Offensive lineman Trevor Goosby said he’ll leave the decision to the committee. Edge rusher Colin Simmons stated “If you let us in, you’re gonna mess up. I’m telling you right now, because we’re going to come. We’re coming.”
Added UT defensive lineman Hero Kanu, with a laugh: “We’re going to be the best politicians we can be. We do have (three) top-10 wins. … I think all that matters. I think we deserve a shot.”
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