Eight years ago, an Oklahoma Sooners team lost to a 5-7 squad led by Charlie Strong before making the College Football Playoff. Eight years later, a 10-2 team from Norman handed the Texas Longhorns a loss that could prevent them from reaching the playoff. The Longhorns just picked the wrong year to go 12-1.
The Texas Longhorns belong in the College Football Playoff. Whether they get there is up for debate, but a win Saturday they would likely have gotten them into any other past playoff. They simply face the most competitive playoff race in the history of the four-team tournament.
Four undefeated teams will stay ahead of Texas in the playoff poll this week, but how many more teams will rank ahead of the Longhorns?
Oregon’s place ahead of Texas has been a topic of discussion for much of the last month. The Longhorns are set to face their ninth bowl eligible team this week. In addition, the team beat Alabama by double digits in Tuscaloosa. Oregon’s best win to date is a victory over four-loss Oregon State.
Texas’ lack of dominance was perhaps the only flawed component of its resume heading into the final game of the season. The Longhorns looked to have answered that question with a 57-7 win over the bowl eligible Texas Tech Red Raiders. It was a Red Raider team that the Oregon Ducks narrowly defeated 38-30 earlier this year.
The playoff committee has an excuse to rank Texas higher than Oregon. We’ll see where they rank each team on Tuesday night.