Steve Sarkisian lays out Texas' CFP case: 'We're one of the best teams'

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian gestures after a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium. Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Steve Sarkisian lays out Texas' College Football Playoff case: 'We're one of the best teams'

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Nov 28, 2025 11:43 PM ET

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made his opinion about the Longhorns' case for a College Football Playoff bid clear following No. 16 Texas's 27-17 win over No. 3 Texas A&M on Friday.

The Longhorns ended the regular season with a 9-3 record. Two of those losses came to a pair of top-five teams on the road in Ohio State and Georgia, while the other came on the road to a 3-8 Florida squad.

Texas HC Steve Sarkisian makes his case

"I think this — if you really look at the body of work and you look at the Southeastern Conference and what we have to go through every week, you look at the non-conference schedule we played to go to Ohio State in Week 1 and lose by seven when we outgained them by nearly 200 yards, we got a really good football team," Sarkisian told ABC's Molly McGrath.

Steve Sarkisian makes his case for Texas being in the Playoff

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— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 29, 2025

"It'd be a disservice to our sport if this team's not a playoff team when we went and scheduled that non-conference game. Because if we're a 10-2 team, it's not a question. But we were willing to go play that game. So, is that what college football's about? Don't play anybody and just have a good record, or play the best and put the best teams in the playoff, and we're one of the best teams."

Texas will almost certainly need several of the teams above them in the CFP rankings to lose to have a shot at a playoff berth. Among them are No. 11 BYU (10-1), No. 12 Miami (9-2), No. 14 Vanderbilt (9-2) and No. 15 Michigan (9-2).

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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