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ESPN's Heather Dinich on College Football Playoff: 'I think that Texas has a problem'

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•11/21/23
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Quinn Ewers (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

The latest edition of the College Football Playoff rankings have been released and one thing is becoming clear. There’s a logjam of quality teams that could have an argument for a top-four spot, so someone is getting left out.

ESPN analyst Heather Dinich believes there’s one team that should be especially worried at this point.

“I think that Texas has a problem,” Dinich said on a live rankings reveal show on ESPN on Tuesday night.

“We keep talking about the head-to-head between Alabama and Texas, and yes it will continue to resonate through selection day. But Texas is looking up at every other Power Five conference. So while they have an edge against the Tide, to me their best path to actually getting into this thing is two-fold.”

Right now there are five undefeated Power Five conference teams, in order of their College Football Playoff ranking: Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Washington and Florida State.

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Then there are three one-loss teams behind them: Oregon, Texas and Alabama.

So what exactly would have to happen for one-loss Texas to move up from No. 7 into a spot in the top four? Dinich outlined the most likely scenarios for the Longhorns.

“One, it would help them if Alabama did win the SEC, because then they could say they have a win against the SEC champs,” Dinich said. “But they need more help. The easiest path would probably be for Florida State to lose, because then you have Alabama, Texas, the Big Ten champ and the Pac-12 champ. But to me this isn’t clear-cut. And Rece, it honestly kind of feels like a package deal. You either get them both or you don’t get either of them. Because Georgia wins the SEC and Florida State’s undefeated, the Pac-12 is in and the Big Ten is in.

In other words, Texas still needs some help.

The Longhorns close out their season with a rivalry game against Texas Tech, followed by a likely Big 12 Championship Game. That’ll have to be enough to vault Texas forward in the College Football Playoff rankings, assuming results elsewhere favor Texas.

In any case, it should make for a fascinating finish to the regular season in college football.