Texas Football: Longhorns’ bowl outlook after title game weekend
With conference championship weekend now wrapped up in college football, we have a much clearer picture as to what the bowl outlook is for head coach Steve Sarkisian and No. 21 ranked Texas football (in this week’s AP Poll and Coaches Poll) will be for the postseason. The last piece that needed to fall in place for Sark’s squad to have a much better idea of their postseason fate was the College Football Playoff selection process.
Since the Selection Committee picked head coach Sonny Dykes and the No. 3 ranked TCU Horned Frogs for one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff coming out of conference championship weekend, it now looks like the Alamo Bowl will be the postseason destination for the Longhorns.
What would’ve really shaken up the bowl outlook for Sark and the Longhorns would be if the Selection Committee had passed over the Horned Frogs for the likes of the Ohio State Buckeyes and/or Alabama Crimson Tide for the final spot(s) in the Playoff field. But TCU wound up getting in as the three seed, with Alabama left on the outside looking in.
Steve Sarkisian and Texas football looking at an Alamo Bowl berth after TCU makes CFP
This pits TCU in the CFP Semifinals against the two-seeded Big Ten Champion Michigan Wolverines in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31, with the kickoff time set for 3 p.m. CT.
TCU was able to still get into the Playoff field despite falling short to the No. 10 Kansas State Wildcats in a wild Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 3 that went into overtime. But Dykes and the Horned Frogs pushing the game into overtime, and essentially making the outcome look similar to a coin flip, likely kept TCU in the Selection Committee’s good gracing on Dec. 4.
Moreover, with TCU making it into the four-team Playoff field, we now have a good idea of how the rest of the Big 12 bowl games will stack up. We’re going to see Kansas State represent the Big 12 in the New Years Six with a Sugar Bowl berth on the horizon.
That leaves Sark and the Longhorns with an almost-guaranteed selection in the Alamo Bowl to face a quality foe out of the PAC-12. Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects the Longhorns to face Sark’s old foe, the Washington Huskies, in the Alamo Bowl this postseason.
Texas wrapped up the regular season with a record of 8-4 (6-3 Big 12) following a 38-27 win at home at DKR on Nov. 25 over the Baylor Bears. Meanwhile, Washington finished up the regular season with a record of 10-2 (7-2 PAC-12) after a convincing 51-33 win in the Apple Cup last week over the Washington State Cougars.
Next. 3 5-Star recruits Texas could land in December. dark
The Alamo Bowl is set to take place on Dec. 29 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX, with the kickoff time set for 8 p.m. CT. If Texas does get selected for the Alamo Bowl this postseason, it would be the first time the program appeared in this game since the 2020 season.