The No. 1 team in the nation doesn't come to Austin too often
Throughout the storied history of Texas football, the Longhorns have been ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll 14 different times for a total of 45 weeks. As the No. 1 team in the land, Texas boasts a 15-2-1 record at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, with the losses at the hands of TCU in 1961 and Arkansas in 1964 and the tie taking place against Baylor in 1941.
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In addition, Texas has battled No. 1 17 times and holds a 5-12 record against top-ranked teams. Seventeen matchups against No. 1 teams isn’t an odd figure, but rather the fact that Longhorns have welcomed a No. 1 team in the nation only thrice in those 17 instances stands out as a peculiar data point in the almost 100-year history of the venerable stadium.
And with the move to the SEC, the number of occasions a No. 1 team heads to Austin is likely to go up.
Those three instances were SMU in 1950, Ohio State in 2006, and Alabama in 2022. Texas only won the first of those contests, losing 24-7 to the Buckeyes and 20-19 to the Crimson Tide. The Horns would exact revenge in both instances as the Longhorns topped Ohio State in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl and Texas went to Tuscaloosa, Ala. one year later to get one over on Bama in their own house.
There are two main reasons why the No. 1 team in the nation has rarely ventured to Austin. The first being that Texas meets Oklahoma, the only rival that has shown the consistent ability to earn a No. 1 ranking across eras of college football, on a neutral field. The Longhorns have battled a top-ranked OU team on eight different occasions and hold a 2-7 record against the Sooners. Texas won the most recent Red River Shootout when Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 in 2008.
But that contest isn’t moving from Dallas any time soon. And during Texas’ life in the Southwest Conference and Big 12, that was about the only place the Longhorns would find an opponent ranked as the best team in the land.
Just three of those 17 matchups against No. 1 ranked teams were against Southwest Conference teams. The first ever Texas game against a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll was on November 12, 1938 when the Longhorns lost at TCU. A year later, Texas lost 20-0 to eventual national champion Texas A&M in College Station. The Horns wouldn’t play a No. 1 ranked team until 1950, when Texas earned a victory over SMU 23-20.
Even during their heights in the SWC, Texas never welcomed a top-ranked Arkansas. The highest ranked Razorback team to visit Austin was ranked No. 3 and fell to the Horns in 1978. Similar applies to Texas A&M. There were stretches in the 1990s when the Aggies were a top-10 and even a top-5 team. But A&M has not been ranked No. 1 since John David Crow was winning the Heisman in 1957.
No member of the Big 12, whether the old version or the new version, showed up in Austin ranked No. 1. Even the strongest of Nebraska, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and TCU never played on what was then Joe Jamail Field with the No. 1 beside their name. It was typically Texas who was No. 1 in Austin.
As the Longhorns move to the Southeastern Conference, the 17-game figure could change as soon as this year.
The Georgia Bulldogs are expected to be the No. 1 team in the country to start the season. Plus, when the Bulldogs are scheduled to arrive in Austin on October 19, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian expects Kirby Smart’s team to still be at the top of the polls.
“How many years would you say you’re going to play in the Red River Rivalry against OU in Dallas and the very next week come home and play Georgia, who will be the No. 1 team in the country,” Sarkisian said recently.
Welcoming the No. 1 team may be a new part of life in the SEC. Of the top 10 teams in terms of weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, the SEC boasts four of them: No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 9 Georgia, and No. 10 Texas. Within the top 25 of that same ranking, the SEC claims nine of the 28 teams.
In addition, Texas has shown a penchant for playing elite out-of-conference opponents. Michigan and Ohio State are the premiere non-conference games in the coming years, and both those teams have the ability to be No. 1 when they head to Austin.
That’s on top of teams like Georgia and others who have spent plenty of time ranked at the top who will make their way to DKR in the coming years. After three times hosting the top-ranked team in the land, Texas could see that number increase as soon as this year and double within the decade.
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Unless, the Longhorns are ranked No. 1 themselves,
