PLAYOFF BOUND! No. 3 Texas to face Washington in the College Football Playoff
For the first time in program history, the Texas Longhorns are College Football Playoff bound.
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The Longhorns, fresh off a 49-21 dismantling of the Oklahoma State Cowboys to win the Big 12 Championship, were named the No. 3 seed by the College Football Playoff selection committee and will play Washington in the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Central on New Years Day 2024 in New Orleans, La.
The other teams in the four-team field are No. 1 Michigan, and No. 4. Alabama. The Rose Bowl is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central on New Years Day 2024 in Pasadena, Calif.
This is the Longhorns first appearance in the four-team College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014. Texas has not been a contender for a spot in the four-team field until this season, as its previous highest-ever standing in the CFP ranking until this year’s campaign was No. 14 during the 2018 season. 2024 will be the second appearance by the Longhorns in a New Years Six bowl since the inception of the CFP, joining a Sugar Bowl appearance in 2018.
A Week 2 win over Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium, a record with a single blemish via Oklahoma, and a Big 12 Championship during the Longhorns’ last year as members of the league were enough for the CFP selection committee to choose Steve Sarkisian‘s program over other contenders. Texas will be the third Big 12 team to make the College Football Playoff. Oklahoma, who is heading east for the SEC with Texas, has four appearances and TCU has one.
The No. 3 seed ends a 14-year stretch of the Longhorns being absent from the national championship picture. Not since Texas fell to Alabama after the 2009 season has the program been relevant in talks about end-of-season rankings save for a No. 9 finish in the AP poll in 2018.
But this Texas team, thanks to quality play in all three phases, earned the right to play for a spot in the CFP National Championship thanks to a 12-1 season with a conference championship.
Whether the Longhorns will play for the program’s fifth national championship on January 8 in Houston depends on the outcome of the contest between the Longhorns and the Huskies.
But the Longhorns have a chance at it now after making the four-team field for the first time.
