Texas football bowl predictions: Where will the Longhorns play?

Week 12 of the college football season saw No. 7 Texas football keep its hopes alive for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. Texas downed the Iowa State Cyclones, 26-16, on the road at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Nov. 18 to move to 10-1 (7-1 Big 12) on the season.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns have one game remaining during the regular season before their postseason fate will be officially determined. Texas battles the Texas Tech Red Raiders at DKR in Austin on Black Friday (Nov. 24).

If the Longhorns beat Texas Tech on Black Friday at home, it will lock up a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game and remain firmly in the College Football Playoff picture.

However, a loss to Texas Tech this week could eliminate Texas from the Big 12 Championship Game (depending on what happens with the two-loss teams in the conference this week). And it would definitely eliminate the Longhorns from the running for a spot in the Playoff.

Texas football: Longhorns projected by a few experts to make the College Football Playoff

Among the major media outlets, a handful of experts/reporters around the college football landscape are projecting the Longhorns to make the Playoff. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and FOX Sports’ Bryan Fischer are projecting No. 4 Texas to face the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl in a College Football Playoff semifinal game.

247Sports and CBS Sports are projecting the Longhorns on the outside looking in for the College Football Playoff but making a New Year’s Six Bowl game. These projections either have the Longhorns playing in the Fiesta Bowl or the Cotton Bowl. ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura also has Texas projected to play in the Cotton Bowl.

If Texas were to make the Cotton Bowl, it would pit them against another at-large bid. Some of the possibilities mentioned in bowl projections from ESPN and 247Sports are the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Mizzou Tigers.

Texas-Ohio State would surely draw a large TV audience in the Cotton Bowl as one of the marquee matchups between two traditional blue blood programs in the postseason.

The goal for the Longhorns is simple: they must keep winning. If Texas beats Texas Tech and wins the Big 12 title in Arlington on Dec. 2, it needs chaos around the PAC-12 and ACC. An Alabama win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game would also help the Longhorns’ case, given its win over the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa earlier this season.