Texas stays at No. 13 in the penultimate CFP rankings, leaving the Longhorns outside the 12-team field.
The College Football Playoff committee released its penultimate rankings on Tuesday night, and while the top of the board stayed steady with Ohio State holding firm at No. 1, the Texas Longhorns didn't get the bump they were hoping for.
Texas remains at No. 13, sitting just outside the 12-team postseason cutoff with only one more ranking left before Selection Sunday.
The biggest headline is the committee's confidence at the top.
Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia, and Texas Tech currently hold the four first-round byes in the projected CFP bracket.
Behind them, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M round out the next tier of contenders.
But for Texas, the focus is on what’s directly ahead, and whether the Longhorns have enough juice left to climb into the final 12.
At 9-3, Texas slots behind Miami, BYU, and Notre Dame, all of whom remain in the mix and currently inside the bracket.
The Longhorns' resume remains intriguing with three top-10 wins (Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt), but also three losses that keep them from controlling their own destiny.
If the bracket were set today, Texas would be the first team out.
The field currently includes Tulane at No. 20 and North Texas at No. 24, both of whom earn automatic qualification by winning their conferences.
That pushes Texas down the board even further, meaning the Longhorns now need one of two things to happen:
- A team inside the top 12 loses this weekend, creating space.
- The committee re-evaluates Texas' strength of record and rewards its elite wins.
Looking at the projected matchups, Texas A&M would host No. 10 Notre Dame in one of the most compelling first-round games, with the winner moving on to face No. 2 Indiana.
Oklahoma, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Texas Tech all appear comfortably locked into their positions, barring late-season chaos.
And chaos is exactly what Texas needs.
The Longhorns are stuck in a strange middle ground, clearly better than several teams ahead of them in terms of quality wins, but hamstrung by the committee's emphasis on losses and by the automatic-bid structure of the 12-team format.
There’s still a path, but it’s tight.
With the final rankings set to drop on December 7, Texas will spend this week scoreboard-watching and hoping the committee rewards what the Longhorns did at their best, not what happened in their worst moments.
Selection Sunday is coming ... and Texas is officially on the brink.