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Where Texas ranks in ESPN's list of the best College Football Playoff teams

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook12 hours agojosephcook89

ESPN’s Bill Connelly released a ranking of all 64 teams to make the College Football Playoff on Monday, and the two Texas Longhorns CFP teams were placed in the middle of the pack.

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Connelly ranked the 2023 Longhorns as the No. 38 team to make the College Football Playoff and ascribed the No. 36 ranking to the 2024 Longhorns. Both Steve Sarkisian CFP teams sandwiched the 2022 TCU Horned Frogs that made a run to the national championship game.

Here’s what Connelly had to say about the 2023 Longhorns that finished 12-2 and fell to the Washington Huskies in the 2024 Sugar Bowl. 2023 Washington was the No. 29 team in Connelly’s rankings.

Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns gave Alabama its first double-digit home loss of the entire Nick Saban era. They beat seven other bowl-eligible teams by an average of 24 points and pummeled Oklahoma State by 28 in the Big 12 championship game. They returned to relevance in a major way, but they couldn’t slow Michael Penix Jr. and Washington in the Sugar Bowl. The Huskies quarterback threw for 430 yards and made Texas’ first playoff stay a one-gamer.

Here’s Connelly on the 2024 Longhorns that went 13-3. Texas defeated Clemson in the first round and topped Arizona State in the quarterfinals before falling to Ohio State in the semifinals. 2024 Clemson was the No. 63 team, 2024 Arizona State was No. 52, and 2024 Ohio State was No. 9.

With a dynamite defense and an occasionally wobbly offense, Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns went 13-0 against teams not named Georgia or Ohio State in 2024. They narrowly survived Arizona State in the quarterfinals thanks to clutch late play from quarterback Quinn Ewers, and they were driving to tie their semifinal late against Ohio State before a Jack Sawyer scoop-and-score touchdown sealed their fate.

Texas battled multiple other CFP teams since the first playoff in 2014. The list includes…

2. 2019 LSU – national champions
9. 2024 Ohio State – national champions
17. 2021 Alabama
22. 2025 Ohio State
29. 2023 Washington
31. 2017 Oklahoma
33. 2025 Georgia
34. 2024 Georgia
37. 2022 TCU
41. 2023 Alabama
44. 2015 Oklahoma
45. 2018 Oklahoma
50. 2025 Texas A&M
52. 2024 Arizona State
56. 2019 Oklahoma
57. 2025 Oklahoma
63. 2024 Clemson

The top 15 was…

  1. 2020 Alabama
  2. 2019 LSU
  3. 2022 Georgia
  4. 2023 Michigan
  5. 2018 Clemson
  6. 2021 Georgia
  7. 2017 Alabama
  8. 2018 Alabama
  9. 2024 Ohio State
  10. 2014 Ohio State
  11. 2016 Clemson
  12. 2015 Alabama
  13. 2019 Ohio State
  14. 2019 Clemson
  15. 2016 Alabama

The 2025 College Football Playoff is set to begin on Friday when Oklahoma welcomes Alabama. On Saturday, Miami will battle Texas A&M, Ole Miss will host Tulane, and Oregon will welcome James Madison to Eugene in first-round battles.

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