By Scott Salomon
I know that you are not supposed to make assumptions. However, in this instance, I believe it is fair to play the assumption game and speculate as to who should get the fourth and final seed in the College Football Playoff.
Let’s go ahead and assume for arguments sake that Texas defeats Oklahoma State in the Big XII Championship Game. Let’s also further assume that Florida State defeats Louisville in the ACC Championship Game.
That would leave Florida State undefeated and Texas, with one loss.
In my humble opinion, Texas should get the fourth playoff seed and Florida State should get a trip to the Orange Bowl as the top team in the ACC.
While we are at it, I am willing to go one-step further.
Texas is also better than a one-loss Georgia team or a one-loss Alabama team and should qualify for the tournament.
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Why does Texas deserve the fourth spot, you ask? Here it goes.
Georgia or Alabama will lose the SEC Championship and the loser should be eliminated right off the bat. With a loss Alabama would be a two-loss team and they are out. If they win, Georgia has one loss, late in the season and they should be knocked out. You should not be able to lose your last game, your conference championship and still qualify for the Playoff.
Further, in the event Alabama wins, you have to remember that the Longhorns defeated Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa 34-24 when Bama was ranked eighth in the polls. The game was not even as close as the score indicated.
The Longhorns are certainly deserving to play in the four-team tournament. This is the biggest game that the Horns will have played in since 2009 National Title Game.
The Longhorns wins speak for themselves. Aside from the win in Tuscaloosa, the team also defeated No. 25 Kansas State with its backup quarterback. Its lone loss came against No. 12 Oklahoma in the Red River Classic and that was due largely in part to a series of mistakes in play calling and game management by Texas Head Football Coach Steve Sarkasian.
Florida State had an impressive season-opening victory over what appeared to be a tough LSU team which was ranked as high as the fifth best team in the country at game time. However, defeating LSU this season does not qualify for a prize or any style points this season as LSU seems to find a way to defeat themselves with regularity. Brian Kelly can’t win the big game and this would qualify as one as it set the tone for LSU’s below par season.
That was probably Florida State’s most impressive win on the season. The ‘Noles won the game 45-24. Two of FSU’s wins were against juggernauts like Southern Mississippi and North Alabama. The Noles actually trailed North Alabama 12-0 in the first half, before Jordan Travis got injured.
Mike Norvell and the Seminoles also won a home game against a surging Duke team 38-20, which was ranked 16th at the time, but played most of the game with quarterback Riley Leonard, who had a bum ankle. He was not the same player as before the injury and it showed on the field.
Florida State is also playing without Travis, the ACC Player of the Year, at the quarterback position. That will severely neutralize the high-powered Seminole receiving corps led by Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson. Tate Rodemaker just does not have the grit or the tenacity to pull out a big game and there is a significant chance that they lose to Louisville as a result. If the Noles played Texas, head-to-head, they would get crushed without Travis.
This is clearly Texas’ time to shine.
“It’s a great thing for us, it’s a great opportunity for our players, and I just can’t wait to get to Arlington and to see our fans and the energy that they provide,” Texas coach Steve Sarkasian said on Thursday afternoon. “Hopefully we provide our own energy for them as well, and it should make for a great game and a great environment.”
that’s the beauty of being at Texas 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/9YSIFp1HBa
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) November 30, 2023
Sarkisian was asked if he had an idea of when he expected for Texas to be in the conference championship game when he took over the job.
Sark said that he spoke with Pete Carroll, who told him: “You can do what they’ve done before, but you have to be prepared to expect the same results. Or, you can dive into doing it your way and there may be some bumps along the way, but in the end you may get different results and possibly better results if you get people to buy into your way.”
Sarkasian followed the Frank Sinatra “My Way” mantra and developed the Longhorns into winners. He recruited well and turned those prospects into players. The Longhorns deserve to play for the opportunity to win a National Championship.
Sark continued to illustrate how Texas became the team that they are today.
“I get Year 1 we had some hard fought losses and some excruciating, tough losses, and that season went the way that it went,” Sarkasian said. “As we went into Year 2, I’ll be honest with you, I was disappointed because I felt like we had an opportunity to go play for a Big 12 Championship and we didn’t get it done.”
And then came 2023.
“That’s why when we went into this year with Year 3 and coming out of spring practice and having seen some of our new players and what we had returning, I felt like this was a championship caliber team and that’s why I didn’t really shy away from it,” Sarkasian boasted. “I wanted our players to get accustomed to the expectations, and the expectations were that we were going to be a good team, that we were going to compete for a championship. So lets get comfortable in that arena.”
Sarkasian also spent time addressing the media and talking to the CFP Committee through the journalists assembled and made a good case as to why the Longhorns deserve a shot at the playoffs if they take care of business on Saturday against the Cowboys.
Steve Sarkisian on having to politick for his team to earn a spot in the CFP:
"I've got a responsibility to our team, and I think every other coach feels that way. We want what's best for our players. If I need to advocate for our team and politick for our team to try to get us…
— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) November 30, 2023
“I’ve got a responsibility to our team, and I think every other coach feels that way. We want what’s best for our players,” Sarkasian said. If I need to advocate for our team and politick for our team to try to get us into the playoffs, I’m going to do that because that’s my job as their coach: to put them in the best position to be successful.”
