Steve Sarkisian: Texas may reconsider non-conference scheduling approach due to 9 SEC games, CFP snub

For the first time in the last three years, No. 13 Texas (9-3) found itself on the outside looking in on the College Football Playoff on Selection Sunday. Now, ahead its upcoming Citrus Bowl game against No. 18 Michigan (9-3) on New Year’s Eve, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian called out the CFP’s selection criteria and suggested Texas might reconsider scheduling elite Power Four opponents beyond 2027.

Prior to Selection Sunday, Sarkisian questioned whether the three-loss ‘Horns should have even scheduled its home-and-home series with No. 2 Ohio State (12-1), suggesting the season-opening loss (14-7) in Columbus was the lone reason the Longhorns were even on the Playoff bubble.

“Do you want us not to schedule Ohio State?” Sarkisian said following the regular-season-ending 27-17 upset of previously undefeated Texas A&M on Nov. 28. “Because if we’re a 10-2 team right now, this isn’t a discussion. We’re in the playoff. But we were willing to go up there and play that game.”

Three weeks later, Sarkisian openly called out the CFP selection committee for failing to follow its own voting protocol by effectively penalizing Texas for losing on the road to the Buckeyes, who went undefeated in the regular season before falling to No. 1 Indiana (13-0) in the Big Ten title game. Before the season, the College Football Playoff pledged to enhance how it assessed a team’s schedule strength metric “to apply greater weight to games against strong opponents.”

But when it came to Selection Sunday, the CFP’s final rankings were evaluated largely based on a team’s overall win-loss record, with only No. 9 Alabama (10-3) making the field with more than two losses, the last of which occurred in the SEC Championship game against a Georgia team it previously beat in the regular-season.

Steve Sarkisian: If CFP doesn’t value strength of schedule, Texas will reevaluate its future schedules

“You look at the principles of the CFP. The first bullet point is strength of schedule. We need to honor the criteria,” Sarkisian said Monday, according to ESPN. “If we can lay the foundation for that, then that will directly impact what we do moving forward. This year, we didn’t feel like they followed through with what the principles of the CFP were. That’s why we fought for our case, and I don’t feel bad about fighting for our case.

“If we’re not going to value strength of schedule, then surely that’s going to adjust what we do moving forward in our nonconference scheduling. We’re going to nine SEC conference games, so to think that we’re going to play a 10th game against an Ohio State and Michigan, and who knows else down the road, I hope we get credit for that. If not, then we really need to look after the ’27 season.”

As Sarkisian pointed out, the SEC will transition to a nine-game conference schedule begining in 2026, which will add an extra regular-season loss for half of the league’s 16 teams. That reality has many SEC athletic directors reevaluating their non-conference scheduling philosophy, with several programs already moving or outright canceling previously-scheduled games against Power Four competition.

And while Sarkisian reaffirmed his team will fulfill its contract agreement with both Ohio State and Michigan, which travel to Austin in 2026 and 2027, respectively, the Texas head coach made it clear any future non-conference games against elite Power Four competition will largely depend on whether there is significant change to the CFP voting criteria.

“We’ve got a two-year snapshot now coming up of what is the committee really looking at,” Sarkisian said, via ESPN. “What do they value? If it’s just records, then everyone’s going to race to the best record. If it’s quality football teams and who are the best football teams, regardless of what your record says you are, then that’s going to change some things. So we’ll see how it goes.”