Is Texas a College Football Playoff team? Sark thinks so, but does the résumé agree

Steve Sarkisian makes a great point for the Texas Longhorns to get into the College Football Playoff. Usually, I wouldn’t be an advocate for a three-loss SEC team to sneak in with an at-large bid, but this situation is a bit different. Texas manhandled Texas A&M in the season finale to add to the chaos of rivalry week on Friday night. It’s hard to argue with Texas’ résumé, but it’s fair to question that the loss to Florida should hold them back. 

“It would be a disservice to our sport if this team’s not a Playoff team when we and scheduled that nonconference game (at Ohio State). Because if we’re a 10-2 team that’s not a question,” Sarkisian said, per Matt Fortuna of The Inside Zone.

Why Texas’ résumé should land them in the College Football Playoff field

The Longhorns put together a strong non-conference schedule and should be rewarded to an extent. That said, the Longhorns went from the No. 1 team in the country to barely holding on in the AP poll before the CFP rankings gave them a chance to pull off the feat of getting in the CFP. Losses should matter just as much as wins, which is why it could go both ways. 

Though the loss to Florida will loom over this Longhorns team probably the rest of the year if they don’t get in, I think it’s hard to say their wins aren’t enough to get them in the CFP. With the regular season over, Texas has wins over the current No. 3 team (Texas A&M), No. 8 team (Oklahoma) and No. 14 team (Vanderbilt). 

Realistically, a road loss to Ohio State shouldn’t really hold them back, though getting whooped by Georgia isn’t a good look. At the end of the day, two of their three losses are against teams ranked in the top 5 of the CFP rankings. That’s a strong résumé and like Sarkisian said, if the Longhorns were 10-2, it wouldn’t even be in the conversation. 

Texas is on the outside of the CFP bubble, which means they still need help, but their résumé speaks for itself. There’s no other bubble team with the résumé Texas has this year. BYU’s best win is Utah, but they got blown out against Texas Tech; Miami has two bad conference loses to SMU and Louisville. 

Vanderbilt is the closest, though none of their best wins are against ranked teams. They lost to Texas head-to-head so even if they beat Tennessee on Saturday, that win shouldn’t have more strength, considering Vanderbilt is technically ranked above the Volunteers. The only other team that could make an argument is Michigan, but realistically they’d need a win over Ohio State and a Big Ten title game appearance to leapfrog Texas in my opinion. 

How much should the loss to Florida hold back Texas?

If Texas was a two-loss team, I would say the loss to Florida shouldn’t be a big deal, but the fact that they do have three losses, losing to a team that isn’t even bowl eligible is inexcusable for a team that’s looking to get into the CFP field. It was a road loss at that. The problem I have with a road loss to Florida for Texas is all of their big wins are at home and all of their big losses are on the road. 

Part of this ambiguous “eye test” the CFP selection committee discusses each week should be, one, how did the team look in a win or loss and two, how do they look in road games. Road wins should be more important than home wins when it comes down to deciding which teams have a better résumé. 

On top of that, they also struggled on the road against Kentucky and Mississippi State. It’s hard to ignore all of that when considering what the CFP selection committee should do about Texas. The win over Texas A&M should have a lot of weight to it, especially the way they beat the Aggies. The loss to Ohio State shouldn’t be bad at all, considering it was just by seven points. 

Losing to Georgia and Florida is going to be what holds this team back, and honestly, the loss to Florida is worse. If Texas proved they could play better on the road, I would say they’re a playoff lock. But when considering Texas for the CFP, everything is at play, and its losses and road performances aren’t a good look for the Longhorns.