The Texas Longhorns football program and its fans feel as if their 10-3 2025 squad was punished for playing and losing a difficult out-of-conference game versus Ohio State to start the season. That extra tick in the loss column was seen as the thing that kept Texas out of the College Football Playoff. Texas went 9-2 in the regular season from that point on, losing at Florida in October and at Georgia in November. Along the way, the Longhorns defeated several top-15 teams and all three of their main rivals. Texas finished the season with a bowl win over Michigan to improve to 10-3.
If Texas had scheduled and defeated a different Big 10 team like Purdue, who went 2-10 in 2025, then the argument is that 9-3 record would have turned into a 10-2 mark on par with playoff teams like Miami and Oklahoma. Instead, Ohio State defeated Texas 14-7 to start the year. With the CFP selection committee’s apparent blind emphasis on wins and losses without much thought as to who those wins and losses were against, fans everywhere wondered whether it was worth keeping difficult games on the schedule.
Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte wondered that too.
The thought for Texas was, what’s the point of creating great regular season matchups if the risk from losing them outweighs the reward in winning them? The SEC requires one non-conference game against a Power Four opponent. There’s no rule that says that opponent has to be a national power.
One solution, per Del Conte, is to expand the College Football Playoff. That way scheduling high-profile out-of-conference matchups is not as risky for the teams involved.
“I will tell you that college football is built around your regular season,” Del Conte said Wednesday at his annual town hall. “Do you guys really want nice, good games in DKR? We could play three cream puffs and we can play an SEC schedule. But if the playoff is going to expand, which I prefer the playoff expands, you want to then have great games and value those great games as long as we have an opportunity to get into the postseason.”
He’d continue, “I prefer to expand that playoff a little bit. I prefer to preserve the regular season by playing great games and not dumbing down your schedule and playing nobody with the hopes that you can get into the playoff because you played nobody. If we can strengthen our regular season and keep that where our fans are engaged and want to see great games and have an expanded playoff, that’d be awesome.”
Texas fans have looked closely at future matchups with Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame when thinking about creating an easier schedule more conducive to chances of making the CFP.
The Michigan and Ohio State games aren’t changing for multiple reasons. The first being Texas already ventured to Ann Arbor and Columbus and Del Conte doesn’t want to take away the opportunity for Longhorns fans to see those teams in Austin.
The second is those games were key components in Texas’ move to the SEC one year early. By leaving the Big 12, Texas left a conference that has Fox as one of its main television partners. Fox wanted opportunities to have UT on its airwaves so the Michigan series had its locations flipped to give Fox, also a Big 10 television partner, a Texas game in 2024.
Of course, Texas wants a measure of revenge against Ohio State after back-to-back losses in 2024 and 2025. Plus, it wants to keep a streak going against the Wolverines.
“I’m not about to give those games up,” Del Conte said. “I want a little piece of their rear end in DKR. So Ohio State comes in and Michigan comes in. That’s the reason where we are where we’re at.”
The future of those games are not up for debate. Others, namely the Notre Dame games in 2028 and 2029, may not be as safe.
Del Conte didn’t say anything specifically about the Notre Dame series, but it was obvious those games were up for discussion when he said “we will sit down and see what that looks like as far as getting into the postseason tournament.”
According to documents obtained by Inside Texas via open records request, if Texas wanted to cancel that series, Texas would owe Notre Dame $500,000 if the notice of cancellation is received two or more years before the scheduled date of the game. That means Texas has until September 9 of this year to get out of the series with the Fighting Irish for half-a-million dollars.
If Texas sends notice after September 9, 2026 but before September 9, 2027, then UT would owe $1 million. Any notice to cancel sent within one calendar year of the scheduled game would cost Texas $1.5 million.
Notre Dame hasn’t curried favor with the rest of the college football world considering the special carveout the Irish received for next season. These factors, both those related to Notre Dame and those about matters outside of South Bend, Ind., have led Del Conte to a conclusion about scheduling.
“We have to expand that playoff,” Del Conte said. “We have to have more opportunities for teams. At the same time, we’ve got to honor the strength of our regular season. If that does not happen, we are going to be forced into a position. Don’t play anybody, give it a go, and see what happens at the end to get into the tournament. Not every schedule is equal. The SEC is a gauntlet. Not every conference is the same. So how do we do that?”
Del Conte didn’t give a number related to how big he wants the CFP to be. And, it’s not going to expand for the 2026 season. The deadline for determining whether it will be larger than 12 in 2027 is later this year.
Plus, the SEC and the Big 10 don’t seem close on a number. Reports have recently surfaced saying the Big 10 could be in favor of a playoff as large as 24 teams, mirroring the FCS’ 2024 team system. Every other conference reportedly prefers to stand pat at 12 than go to 24, with 16 as their likely preference.
Del Conte mentioned Wednesday he’s “just one vote.” But his vote would be to expand the College Football Playoff in order to reward teams like Texas for keeping challenging non-conference games on the schedule.