On Texas Football: The biggest non-conference games for the Big 12 this season
On the latest video episode On Texas Football’s Saturday Conversations with Paul, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Paul Wadlington discuss the Big 12 Conference’s non-conference football schedule for the 2023 season.
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Two big games are scheduled for Sept. 2, the second week of the 2023 season, as Texas plays at Alabama and Oregon plays at Texas Tech. The Longhorns and Red Raiders are considered the favorites in the Big 12 this year.
“These are great bellwether games,” Wadlington said. “They are great indicators of who the real pretenders and who the real contenders are going to be in this final season in the Big 12.”
Texas is going to find out quite a bit about themselves when it travels to Tuscaloosa for an evening game on Sept. 2.
“I mean, Alabama just does not lose these games under Nick Saban,” Wadlington said. “The last time this has happened was against Louisiana-Monroe and that upset hasn’t been replicated since and Nick has upgraded the program slightly since that that occurred.”
The Longhorns opened as eight and a half points underdogs to Alabama, a number Wadlington said he could not ignore.
“Texas plus eight and a half which, full disclosure, I bet aggressively,” Wadlington said. “And now it’s Texas plus seven. So Vegas is trying to give me money right now, Bobby, to cancel my bets. I think I’m gonna hold on to my Texas plus eight and a half and all my various permutations. I think it’s gonna be a fantastic game a great bellwether for Texas, and frankly a great bellwether for Alabama.
“Texas’ skill players have matured, you know,” Wadlington added. “Texas has a real shot in this game. I certainly would not write off the Longhorns at all. In fact, I think you’re gonna see some smart money move down line, probably under seven as we get closer to game time.”
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Burton called Texas-Alabama the top non-conference game of all of college football.
“That’s where Texas wants to be,” Burton said. “It’s definitely a difficult matchup. But given the tightness of the game a year ago, and what Texas has coming back. It’s interesting to me that you have this titanic-type matchup with two storied programs so early.”
Both Wadlington and Burton questioned the need for either Texas Tech or Oregon to play each other in the second game of the season.
“What’s interesting is that the two teams are more recent to the party,” Burton said. “They’re not of the same ilk as Texas and Alabama in many ways. They’re not as storied but they do have some panache from a national perspective. Why is Oregon going to Texas Tech in the first place?”
Wadlington said it was a little weird.
“Why is Texas Tech playing Oregon, as that program over the past 20 years has played a grand total of eight P-5 non con opponents,” Wadlington asked. “They’ve been scheduling the Little Sisters of the Poor and when they do schedule a non-con opponent, it’s typically Arizona, right? It’s someone that’s not exactly killing it. And so props to Texas Tech for raising the bar on their schedule and their program.”
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There’s plenty more to glean from the video so you owe it to yourself to go watch it in its entirety.