Texas vs. Michigan likely to be the Longhorns' first true road top-10 matchup since 2008
Texas beat a top-10 team last year in Alabama, but the Longhorns were not a top-10 team themselves. That fact extended a strange streak associated with the program.
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A Texas team ranked in the top-10 has not traveled to the home of another top-10 team in the AP poll since November 1, 2008. That’s a date that sticks out in Longhorns’ fans memory for all the wrong reasons, as it’s when No. 1 Texas lost 39-33 to the No. 6 Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock.
That could change this Saturday, as the new AP Poll comes out today after the Labor Day weekend slate. Texas was ranked No. 4 and is unlikely to move. Michigan entered the 2024 campaign ranked No. 9, and nobody ahead of the Wolverines dropped their season-openers.
That should set up a top-10 road trip that’s 16 years in the making.
Some of this data was used last year, but it’s still applicable before the Longhorns head to Michigan.
There have been a number of occasions where Texas entered the home of or played a neutral site game versus a top-10 team, only for the Longhorns themselves to be just outside the elite group of 10 or unranked altogether. Those trips include:
- 2010 – No. 21 Texas vs. No. 8 Oklahoma – L 28-20
- 2010 – Texas at No. 5 Nebraska – W 20-13
- 2011 – No. 11 Texas vs. No. 3 Oklahoma – L 55-17
- 2011 – No. 22 Texas at No. 6 Oklahoma State – L 38-26
- 2012 – No. 23 Texas at No. 7 Kansas State – L 42-24
- 2013 – No. 23 Texas at No. 9 Baylor – L 30-10
- 2013 – Texas vs. No. 10 Oregon – L 30-7
- 2015 – Texas at No. 4 TCU – L 50-7
- 2015 – Texas vs. No. 10 Oklahoma – W 24-17
- 2017 – Texas at No. 4 USC – L 27-24
- 2017 – Texas at No. 10 TCU – L 24-7
- 2018 – No. 19 Texas vs. No. 7 Oklahoma – W 48-45
- 2018 – No. 14 Texas vs. No. 6 Georgia – W 28-21
- 2019 – No. 11 Texas vs. No. 6 Oklahoma – L 34-27
- 2020 – Texas at No. 6 Oklahoma State – W 41-34
- 2021 – No. 21 Texas vs. No. 6 Oklahoma – L 55-48
- 2023 – No. 11 Texas vs. No. 3 Alabama – W 34-24
That’s a 6-11 mark for the above games.
Since the 2008 Texas Tech game, Texas is 1-4 as a top-10 team versus another top-10 team. Those games?
- 2009 – No. 3 Texas vs. No. 10 Ohio State – W 24-21
- 2010 – No. 2 Texas vs. No. 1 Alabama – L 37-21
- 2018 – No. 9 Texas vs. No. 5 Oklahoma – L 39-27
- 2019 – No. 9 Texas vs. No. 6 LSU – L 45-38
- 2024 – No. 3 Texas vs. No. 2 Washington – L 37-31
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The chance to start a winning streak against AP top-10 teams comes Saturday at 11 a.m. Central in the Big House.
