Mike Elko reacts to Steve Sarkisian pushing for Texas to make College Football Playoff

Fresh off last Saturday’s Lone Star Showdown rivalry win over previously undefeated Texas A&M, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian went on a bit of a media blitz trying to make the case his three-loss Longhorns deserved a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff field. Unfortunately, it appears Sarkisian’s efforts fell on deaf ears, after the CFP selection committee ranked Texas at No. 13 in its penultimate Top 25 rankings released Tuesday.

And with no more games remaining for the Longhorns (9-3, 6-2 SEC), another significant bump on Selection Sunday seems highly unlikely, especially with five other SEC teams currently in the 12-team field. That final number could change depending on the result of Saturday’s SEC Championship Game between No. 3 Georgia (11-1, 7-1 SEC) and No. 9 Alabama (10-2, 7-1 SEC), especially if the Bulldogs win by a wide-enough margin that the selection committee is compelled to drop the Crimson Tide down a spot or two.

But as far as second-year Aggies head coach Mike Elko is concerned, no amount of politicking is going to change how the 12-member Playoff committee views the resumes of the SEC’s CFP contenders, be it No. 7 Texas A&M or its two bubble teams: No. 13 Texas and No. 14 Vanderbilt.

“Uh, I don’t really care (what happens with Texas). No disrespect to Sark, I do like and respect him, but I don’t care what anyone else is doing,” Elko said during during Wednesday’s National Signing Day press conference. “I think that when you look at the out-of-conference record for this conference, it speaks volumes about what it means to play in the SEC. I think the hardest challenge that the committee has is identifying the difference between mid-level and low-level teams from conference to conference.

“I think that’s very challenging, and I think if you hooked anyone (on the CFP committee) up to a lie detector test, they would tell you that regardless of record, when you play teams in this conference, you are challenged week-in and week-out, and that is unique to this conference. Home venues, being on the road, atmospheres, crowd size, it’s just unique to this league. And I know a lot of people will say a lot of things because of the conference they now represent, but I don’t think that’s actually what they ever thought if they were in this league.”

Whether Texas would be considered among the SEC’s “mid-level and low-level teams” according to Elko is up to interpretation, but it’s clear the Aggies head coach isn’t losing sleep over where the rival Longhorns end up on Selection Sunday.