This has been quite a year for college football, and as per usual, the Lone Star State has made quite a showing in the penultimate college football rankings, released last night.
Of the top 25 college football teams in the nation, five are from Texas. At No. 4, Texas Tech. At No. 7, Texas A&M. At No. 13, it’s UT. At No. 21, University of Houston. And at No. 24, UNT, the Mean Green.
But while Texas landed at No. 13, the likelihood of going to the playoffs seems slim, while the Mean Green, ranked down at No. 24, may well wind up in the playoffs.
If you’re wondering how that’s possible, you’re not alone.
Danny Davis, veteran sports writer at the Austin American-Statesman, joined the Standard to break it all down. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: It is confusing and there’s always complaints about who gets tapped to to be in the playoffs. Let’s talk about who actually makes these selections. Who are the wizards of odds, as it were?
Danny Davis: Yeah, there’s a a committee. Committee currently has thirteen members. These are ex-head coaches, athletic directors, big wigs in the college football world.
And yeah, they pretty much sit in a room – I’m sure they get some nice catering – and hammer out who they think should be the teams in the playoffs. So whether it’s through an at-large bid or through a conference champion.
So there are certain spots that are reserved for conference champions, right?
Yes, which is why North Texas at No. 24 right now has a chance to get in, because they can win their conference champion and be one of the… It’s the five highest-ranked conference champions. So if they were to win their conference championship, they would be one of the five highest-ranked champions, which is why they could get in even though they’re 24th twenty fourth.
But Texas, which is ranked 13th, but is not playing for the SEC title, cannot get in that way.
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I’m sure there was some gnashing of teeth in Longhorn Nation yesterday because here we have Texas A&M, which is ranked at No. 7, and they were undefeated for most of the season, and yet UT beat A&M in that classic season rivalry last weekend.
I think a lot of Longhorns fans hoping that that might impress the committee enough to let ’em into the playoffs. Not impressive enough?
I guess it impressed them a little bit ’cause they moved from No. 16 to No. 13, but they were unable to make the jump.
Texas pretty much has to be in the top ten because of those five automatic bids. They had to pretty much be in the top ten to get an at-large bid into the playoffs. So they had a long climb and it just wasn’t enough.
The committee is really holding against Texas that they have three losses, one of which is to Florida, a Florida team that I believe went 4-8 this season. I think that that’s really being held against them.
There’s no other team in the playoff that’s gonna get in with three losses. Alabama might if they lose in the SEC championship game, but it seems like the committee is pretty much saying more than two losses, you’re not getting into this playoff.
And so Texas, despite having some pretty good wins on its resume and playing some top teams in Ohio State and Georgia, just those three losses are too much.
Not only that, we don’t really know how the playoffs are gonna ultimately shake out because we have some championship games coming up this weekend. We’re gonna have to wait till Sunday, right?
Yeah, the committee will release its final rankings on Sunday morning. I think it’s around 11 o’clock central time.
There is some action this weekend. You know, Alabama and Georgia are playing the SEC championship, Texas Tech and BYU. BYU is right on these two. I think they’re ranked eleventh, so they kinda need to make a little movement.
The ACC, the American, all those conference championship games need to still still be figured out. Big 10… Although that’s [No. 1, Ohio State] and [No. 2, Indiana], so that one really doesn’t matter. Whoever loses, that game’s still in the playoff.
But yes, there could be a little bit of movement. I just don’t think there’s gonna be enough movement for a team like Texas, which is at No. 13 and pretty much needs to move three spots to find the room because I think the committee, even if you lose in your conference championship game, is probably going to not hold that too much against you since you are playing an extra game.
You know, thinking back to the start of this football season, any surprises? I think one of the biggest surprises for fans of football in Texas gotta be the fact that Texas was right up there – No. 1, No. 2 spot – before the first games were played.
Yeah, I think, for the season, if you’re gonna tell me that four Texas teams had a shot at the playoffs going into this last week with A&M and Tech pretty much guaranteed in, I don’t think many people would have picked North Texas in that bunch.
But I think Texas would have been been the first pick, but they’re kind of on the outside looking in. They’re gonna be watching the Red Raiders and the Aggies play for a national championship or, you know, get on that road and maybe have to watch the Mean Green as well. And that just wasn’t expected.
So that’s a huge surprise around this state. It’s a huge surprise here in Austin, but that’s I guess why you play the game and not do it on paper or have the media decide before the season starts.
