Everything CFP Committee Chair Warde Manuel said about Texas after Week 13

The Texas Longhorns once again landed at the No. 3 spot in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, with a No. 2 seed projected based on the rankings.

As the end of the regular season, and the SEC Championship, rapidly approach, the rankings are becoming a more and more realistic drawing of what the Playoffs could look like. So, as Texas prepares to face Texas A&M for the first time in 13 years and hopefully punch its ticket to the conference title game, here is everything the CFP Committee Chair said about the Horns:

Warde Manuel on Texas' resume

"Thanks for your question. We don't, I don't, get into projections. We don't talk about projections when we get in the room, about the what-ifs, if people lose games then where will it put them? Obviously, you can see from the number of losses we had this week, it just depends on what happens. There was a lot to sort out this week with seven of the top 25 losing, two big upsets in the top 10.

"So we don't project what will happen. We just look at what happens overall amongst the teams this weekend to make our decision over the next two weekends really."

Warde Manuel on ranking teams by more than just their losses

"You know, it's a great question, and it's one that we debate. One of the things that we talk about is teams can only play the schedule they have in front of them against the teams that have been, from a conference standpoint, assigned. We can maybe be critical of non-conference schedules and those kind of things, but when it gets to the conference, particularly as these conferences have expanded, there are more teams to play throughout the conference. Teams can only play the schedule that's in front of them. They can only play the opponents that they have.

"So we take the stance that we're going to really look at these games, we're going to look at the stats, we're going to look at the strength of schedule, but we're also going to look at how teams are performing against the competition that they have.

"From our perspective, if it was just about strength of schedule, we wouldn't be needed. You could just take at the end of the season the top 12 teams with the highest strength of schedule and put them against each other. What we've been asked to do is to judge and to look at how teams are playing against the competition that they have and to rank them accordingly to how we see it, and that's the way I would explain how we take a look and we look at the differences even though the schedules and the opponents may be different."

Warde Manuel on if Texas A&M beats Texas

"You know, you're asking me a hypothetical again. I don't know how that would work out in terms of where teams would be and how it would be looked at in terms of Texas A&M and where they'll be ranked after next weekend if they do beat Texas. How the game goes and the championship and all those kind of things are really both hypotheticals.

"But we will assess, and if we determine at that time that teams need to move around and jump up depending on who lost in front of them, we've shown that we will make those adjustments as a committee and make that assessment and put them where we believe they should be."

The Longhorns are ranked No. 3 in the nation while the Texas A&M Aggies fell to No. 20 after their loss to the unranked Auburn Tigers in Week 13.

The game between the in-state rivals will be the 119th matchup in their long-lived histories. So far, the Horns have won 76 of the previous matchups, over 64 percent of the games, while Texas A&M has won just 37.

The two teams have tied exactly five times in the past. This will be just the eleventh time in history that both teams are ranked within the Top 25 when they meet on the field.

Texas' final game of the regular season is scheduled for Nov. 30 at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC. The Longhorns and the Aggies will kick off from Kyle Field after ESPN College GameDay starts the morning in College Station.

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