Chris Del Conte: 'I don't know how we're not' in the College Football Playoff

On Saturday, the Texas Longhorns took care of business in the Big 12 championship game, comfortably defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys 49-21. The victory answered the question of how would Texas fair in their final season in the Big 12.

However, there is still one massive question that needs answering: Will the Longhorns be a part of this year’s College Football Playoff field?

The sentiment among fans and members of the program is that Texas has proven itself worthy of one of the four seeds in the College Football Playoff. But being worthy doesn’t necessarily equate to earning a spot. Still, Texas’ athletic director, Chris Del Conte, is not interested in all the pessimistic perspectives on the program’s chances. Following their win over Oklahoma State, the Longhorns AD made a definitive proclamation on the Longhorns’ College Football Playoff case.

“I don’t know how we’re not,” said Del Conte, according to Max Olson of The Athletic.

There are three more Power-5 conference championships to be decided: SEC, ACC, and Big Ten. Del Conte does not need to see the results of those three title games to know that his Texas Longhorns are 100 percent worthy of one of the four College Football Playoff seeds.

Breaking down the ‘ideal scenario’ for Texas to make the College Football Playoff

The top four this week were as follows — No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Washington and No. 4 Florida State. All four enter Championship Week undefeated, and remember, the Huskies already won their conference title.

Georgia and Alabama will be the biggest game to watch in Atlanta in the SEC Championship. A Crimson Tide victory would present a very interesting decision for the committee and surely generate some discussion ahead of Sunday’s reveal.

But that might not help Texas’ case, according to Dinich. The Longhorns need to cheer for Louisville in the ACC Championship against Florida State, which is already without starting quarterback Jordan Travis and could be without Tate Rodemaker. If FSU loses, Dinich said, that spot is Texas’ for the taking.

Things get complicated if Georgia loses, though.

“I think the most ideal scenario for the Longhorns is to have Georgia beat Alabama and to have Florida State lose,” Dinich said. “Now, you can certainly have Texas get in with Alabama as an SEC champ, and Texas can get in with Georgia. But you’ve got to eliminate Florida State. And the reason I say it’s more ideal if Georgia wins is because then, you’re also not competing against a one-loss Georgia that doesn’t win the SEC.

“We’ve said this before. No top team in the committee’s ranking has ever fallen out of the top four on Selection Day. If that were to happen to Georgia, it would be unprecedented. That way, Texas avoids that debate with the committee’s top team if Alabama does win.”

Texas’ Week 2 victory over Alabama is a huge piece of the Longhorns’ resume, and that’s the reason they came in ahead of the Crimson Tide in each rankings reveal so far. That will again be a deciding factor when the committee finalizes its rankings.

“I’m telling you guys, I know this for a fact, that head-to-head win continues to loom large,” Dinich said. “Selection committee chair Boo Corrigan said earlier this week that it doesn’t matter when it happened, doesn’t matter that it happened in Week 2. It’s as relevant today as it was then. And the strength of schedule for Texas is very strong in the committee’s statistics, as well.

“So we’ll see what happens, but there’s a lot of games left to be played, guys. This could be very easy or very difficult with more than one somebody pretty angry.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article