Steve Sarkisian wants Texas to change its non-conference scheduling philosophy

Heading into conference championship games next weekend, the No. 16 Texas Longhorns are expected to be on the outside of the 12-team College Football Playoff rankings looking despite three wins over top-10 opponents, the first time a team has accomplished that feat in the regular seasons since the national champion LSU Tigers in 2019.

At issue are two defeats — the bad road loss to Florida to open conference play and the season-opening loss to No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus.

And it’s the latter that is looming large in Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian’s mind as he considers future scheduling decision with the SEC moving to a nine-game conference schedule next year.

In a Monday appearance on SEC This Morning, Sarkisian was asked if the Longhorns will change their non-conference scheduling philosophy.

“I think we have to. At the end of the day, now we’re going to nine conference games,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to be mindful of the fact that we’ve played five top-ten ranked teams. The next closest team that’s ranked ahead of us has played two. There’s multiple teams in front of us that have played none. At that point, if we’re just staring at a record, we’ve got to put ourselves in a better position to get a better record.”

So if the College Football Playoff committee considers the impact its decisions about weighing records more heavily than schedule strength, they should be mindful that punishing teams for playing tough non-conference opponents will have ripple effects through future schedules, causing fewer high-profile games like Texas playing Ohio State.

“All I care about is that we’re trying to put the best teams in and not get caught up in the record,” Sarkisian said. “Ultimately, if we just keep staring at the record, then all we’re going to try to do is get a good record. I don’t think that’s what we want in college football. We want teams competing against the best teams. That’s what makes our sport great. That’s why the SEC is such an awesome conference, because of the quality of teams in this league top-to-bottom.”

For the Longhorns, the schedule over the next several seasons will only get more difficult as a conference game replaces a buy game against a weak opponent and home matchups against the Buckeyes and Wolverines scheduled for the next two seasons.

In 2028 and 2029, Texas has a home-and-home series with Notre Dame, which could be in jeopardy if Sarkisian and athletics director Chris Del Conte decide its against the team’s best interest to play the Fighting Irish. If Notre Dame considers the series a risk to its own College Football Playoff hopes in those seasons, it could become easy to reach a mutual decision to cancel those games.

In 2030 and 2031, Texas only has a single game scheduled in each season against UT system schools before playing a home-and-home series with Arizona State, the type of game that could replace the high-profile matchups the Longhorns have scheduled over the last decade.

It would be a big loss from a fan perspective, both Texas fans and fans of the sport, as the committee makes critical decisions this year that will reverberate well into the future.