Steve Sarkisian shares scheduling mindset if Texas misses College Football Playoff

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian shared if his mindset around scheduling would change if Alabama were to make the College Football Playoff ahead of the Longhorns, despite their head-to-head result.

Ultimately, Sarkisian explained that he doesn’t think about scheduling difficult non-conference opponents as it relates to the Playoff but as it relates to developing a stronger team overall.

“I don’t look at it like that,” Steve Sarkisian. “I look at those games as what a great opportunity for our players. You know, we try to recruit great competitors here. They want to play in big-time games, they want to play in big-time environments. Naturally, we have our normal conference schedules as we go, and we’re clearly making the transition from the Big 12 to the SEC, but for our players knowing that, hey, in the next four years, they’re playing Michigan and Ohio State at home and on the road. I think our players are excited about that.”

Beyond conference realignment, one major change that could come to scheduling is the College Football Playoff. With the Playoff expanding, the resume required to make the Playoff will change too. That format is also going to include games on-campus that will be important to account for.

“And hopefully we can be able to recreate what we’ve been able to do, put together a quality team that can go play on the road in any environment, and I think when you do that early in the season, that gives you confidence for games later in the season that are needed when you need those tough wins on the road,” Sarkisian said.

Ultimately, Steve Sarkisian doesn’t know how college football will look once the Playoff expands. However, he does feel Texas got plenty out of the trip to Alabama this season.

“So, again, I don’t know what’s going to happen with the CFP,” he continued. “But what I do know is man, we got a lot of value in going to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this year and winning that game, and I think that that’s helped us put ourselves in position to win a Big 12 championship Saturday.”

CFP committee considers recency bias in Texas-Alabama debate, head-to-head meaningful

CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan recently warned again against recency bias in the Texas-Alabama debate and emphasized that head-to-head is meaningful.

“Head-to-head is head-to-head, no matter when the game is played, and that’s how we look at it. Yeah, same thing. Again, it is close. As we look at it, you can look at any part of what we’re doing when you get here in the different groupings and everything that we do, but two really good teams that have had really good years, done a great job by Sark and by Coach [Nick] Saban, and we’ll just continue to evaluate,” Corrigan said.

“Yeah, we make sure that we do talk about that. That’s something that is brought up and made sure. Specifically I remember the conversation of some teams lost early, some teams lost in the middle, some teams lost late, and making sure that we’re checking all that at the door as we go through this and looking at everything and looking at — 13 weeks is what’s important. And from the very beginning of the committee, the first, second, third week matters as much as it does at the end, but you’ve got to look at overall where they are after 13 weeks.”