Curt Cignetti stacks his final top 25 rankings for 2025 in Texas’ favor

With the 2025 college football season officially over after Indiana won the National Championship, coaches and analysts have begun to drop their final top 25 rankings for 2025. The most notable so far is Indiana HC Curt Cignetti, and where he has Texas ranked is pretty intriguing.

While most outlets like USA Today have the Longhorns ranked somewhere within the top 4-5, Cignetti has them all the way down at No.8, but that shouldn't be necessarily seen as a bad thing.

Though it's not surprising to see some members of the college football world being lower on Texas than others, coaches' polls could be seen as a more accurate indication of where things stand.

According to SI.com's Texas Longhorns affilitate:

"Ranking the Longhorns No. 8 in the country, and ahead of Texas A&M who lost in the first round of the playoff, Cignetti made it clear that he viewed Texas as a team capable of competing with the best in the country. Coming from a coach that just navigated a historic championship run, that kind of recognition carries weight.

It also sets the bar even higher for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns next season. With respect from one of elite coaches in college football, anything short of an appearance in the College Football Playoff will below the program's expectations."

After Texas was officially knocked out of the College Football Playoffs, things were incredibly awkward and negative when it comes to how the rest of the world viewed Longhorns football. There was a real "Texas against the world" vibe out there, but this should honestly put fans' minds at ease.

The most decorated head coach in college football just ranked the Longhorns higher than most coaches have so far in their final top 25 rankings, ahead of programs like Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. All three of those teams have been ranked higher than Texas by most, and it's not hard to see why based on what happened in 2025.