Will Texas be bowl eligible after win over Kansas State?

After the longest losing streak in conference play in modern history for the Texas football program, it did feel good for new head coach Steve Sarkisian to close out the regular season slate with a win on Black Friday. Texas topped head coach Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium by the final score of 22-17 on the morning/early afternoon of Nov. 26.

This was the first win for Sark and the Longhorns since the road triumph over the TCU Horned Frogs and now-former head coach Gary Patterson back on Oct. 2 by the final score of 32-27. Texas had a six-game losing streak that mounted since that win over TCU last month.

Yet, following this win over Kansas State on Black Friday, the Longhorns finish up the regular season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12). No doubt, this was a tragic and confusing season for Sark and the Longhorns.

But somehow, Sark and the Longhorns are still technically able to make it to a bowl game. Since there are 82 bowl slots available in the postseason this year, there are still some remaining games available for the Longhorns to make it in.

Texas football can still get a bowl bid in Steve Sarkisian’s first year, despite the five-win regular season

A few of the other teams in contention for bowl eligibility this week are the LSU Tigers, West Virginia Mountaineers, TCU, Florida State Seminoles, and the Florida Gators. If Texas wants a shot to get into the postseason still, they will need as many five-win Power Five teams to lose as possible this weekend.

What Texas really needs are those schools with a good academic progress rate (APR) to lose as much as possible this weekend. The way that the Longhorns could make it into the postseason with five wins this season is with one of the better APRs in college football this year.

The good news here is the fact that the Longhorns were trending up in APR rankings through the last few years. The latest APR released came back in spring 2020, where Texas did crack the top 45 in the entire country. And the Longhorns had improved in the APR rankings throughout the two years prior to the spring 2020 release.

According to a report from hookem.com this week, Texas is looking good in the APR rankings in terms of the relevance to postseason eligibility this year depending on which teams are in the running with them coming out of the weekend.

All in all, the very fact that Texas is in this conversation of having to rely on a good APR to reach the postseason is not a great look for Sark’s first year on the Forty Acres. But the extra practices will definitely help Texas out heading into a big 2022 offseason for this coaching staff.

It will be really interesting to see how the rest of the weekend plays out for the five-win teams around the country. This adds an element of intrigue for Longhorns fans looking for their team to get a spot in the postseason this year.