With the current collegiate football season’s culminating matchups nigh, the Texanist feels like a moment of grateful reflection is in order—because this year, taken collectively, was a humdinger for fans of our Texas-based programs. And it’s still unfolding for two Texas teams: the Fighting Aggies, of Texas A&M, and the Red Raiders, of Texas Tech University. 

Within the field of the College Football Playoff’s first-round matchups, there’s last night’s game between number 9 Alabama (10–3) versus number 8 Oklahoma (10–2), in Norman, Oklahoma; number 6 Ole Miss (11–1) versus number 11 Tulane (11–2), today, in Oxford, Mississippi; and the number 24 Sun Belt Conference champion, the Dukes of James Madison (12–1), versus the number 5 Ducks of Oregon (11–1), also today, in Eugene, Oregon. 

But those games don’t much matter, not when one of our two “home” teams, the seventh-ranked Aggies (11–1), is set to kick off in a Kyle Field home stand against the tenth-ranked University of Miami Hurricanes (10–2) this morning. That’ll be the only playoff action for a Texas squad this weekend—the fourth-ranked Big 12 Conference champion Red Raiders (12–1) received a first-round bye and will meet either the Ducks or the Dukes on January 1 in Miami. 

At stake, of course, is the coveted 35-pound bronze, gold, and stainless steel College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy, which will be awarded to the winner of the big doings on January 19 (to also take place in Miami). An all-Texas national championship is a long shot—it’s never happened—but though there’s a lot of football to be played, as of press time, it remains a possibility. A possibility that, the Texanist must note, is only a routine possibility in our state.

Has there ever been a college football season like the one fans of our Texas-based teams recently experienced—er, are experiencing? Due to the complicated nature of heated rivalries and the strong emotions and intense schadenfreude involved therein, the Texanist can’t really say for sure, but he’s been around for a pretty good while and doesn’t, to the best of his admittedly foggy recollection, remember anything like the holistic success that took place this year, which still awaits its final resolution.

While only two of our thirteen statistically eligible Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs have made it this far, the bright spots for numerous contenders this season were many. The final CFP Top 25 ranking included five Texas teams. Last year there were two, Texas (ranked third) and SMU (ranked tenth). In 2023 there were also two, in 2022 there were three, and in 2021 and 2020 there were two each. The current CFP ranking system was only instituted in 2014; this is the first time since then that such a number of Texas teams have been so ranked. The same is true for the Bowl Championship Series ranking era, from 1998–2013. 

In other words, among modern-ish college football seasons, this one must certainly have made the highest diversity of Texans happy. Checking the standings now, this year Tech is, to reiterate,      number 4; A&M is, to reiterate again, number 7; Texas (9–3) finished just outside the playoff picture, at 13; the University of Houston Cougars (9–3) came in at 21; and the University of North Texas (11–2), who lost its conference-championship game against Tulane, landed at 25—this season being its first time entering the Top 25 poll since 1959. (For what it’s worth, SMU and TCU, despite not finishing in the money, both went 8–4 and 5-1 at home.)     

The Longhorns didn’t come close to living up to their stratospheric preseason expectations: They were the top-ranked contender, and their quarterback was the supposed Heisman Trophy shoo-in. Then they dropped undroppable games, namely one against an unranked Florida team, which ultimately sealed their fate as underperformers. But they did beat the hated Sooners in the Red River Rivalry (all-time, Texas leads 65–51–5), and then, on Black Friday, in Austin, they spoiled the Aggies’ perfect season with a 27–17 victory, an exciting spectacle that the Texanist witnessed with his own eyes. 

Had the Longhorns lost both or, perhaps, even one of those two games, the Orangebloods might well have found themselves calling for mass firings. And while there has already been some shaking up (the Horns just hired back former defensive coordinator Will Muschamp after getting rid of Pete Kwiatkowski and defensive passing game coordinator Duane Akina), the big postseason news came by way of Cooper Manning—the lesser-sung brother of Peyton and Eli—who just announced that his son, Arch, will officially be returning to Texas next season. Hope, like name, image, and likeness dollars, springs eternal. (In lieu of the playoffs, the Longhorns will settle for a matchup with Michigan in the perhaps appropriately named Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve afternoon.)     

For their part, the Cougars beat Rice handily for the coveted Bayou Bucket, and in November, they lost to TCU and then beat Baylor. They’ll face LSU in the Texas Bowl on December 27. Another great season, all told, which can also be said for the North Texas Mean Green, who whipped just about every opponent they faced this year, including rivals Rice and UTSA. They did lose a game to South Florida, but they rebounded and made it to the American Conference championship. That loss to Tulane dashed their playoff dreams, but when they meet San Diego State in the New Mexico Bowl at the end of the month, they should do so with pride. 

But again, was the 2025–2026 season indeed the most glorious of all Texas college football seasons? For the Aggies and Red Raiders fans, it is perhaps just a little too early to say. The Aggies would certainly take a national championship, and indeed, they might—but even if they do, it’ll be tough for them to compare their season with that of 1939, in which they ended perfectly at 11–0 (including a 20–0 shutout of the Longhorns in College Station) and with their most recent national-championship trophy. For the Red Raiders, adding a national championship to their Big 12 title would certainly be the high point of their program. They’ve topped their various conferences before, but it’s been a while—and, more notably, they’ve never made it to the CFP before this year. The Texanist, despite his own personal allegiances, which he will not get into here, wishes them well.     

The proper way to think about this question, though, is as a populist. For the average Texan—the one who might be gallivanting around Central Texas, or cheering along up north, or boostering in Houston, or even casually following along in the High Plains—odds are, they’re probably pleased with the way things have turned out. Which, as far as being a sports fan who wants to maintain a somewhat healthy mental disposition goes, is really all one can ask for. Meet a Texan on the street somewhere in our state and ask how they feel about the season. In all likelihood, in the Texanist’s estimation, they’ll say they feel pretty good.

So, no matter what happens in the playoff games to come, it’s going to be tough for any future Texas college football season to measure up to this one. But then again—at least in the Texanist’s bogglingly optimistic mind—to underrate the abilities of any of our university sports teams is a fool’s errand. This, after all, is football country.

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