College football’s early season is at its best when programs stop hiding and actually schedule like they mean it.
That’s why Saturday night’s Ohio State-Texas matchup at Darryl K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium matters beyond the two teams on the field. It’s the kind of non-conference game that gives the sport some teeth, and in a climate where too many schools are trying to protect themselves at every turn, it stands out.
Texas already felt the sting of that approach in 2025. The Longhorns finished 9-3 in the regular season and 6-2 in SEC play, landing 13th in the final CFP rankings after putting together a résumé with some real highs and some costly lows. They beat three top-14 teams, including two playoff teams, but the losses told the story.
One came in Columbus, and that one was easy enough to excuse. Texas lost by seven on the road to the team that sat No. 1 in the country for the next 14 weeks.
The other two defeats were harder to swallow. Texas lost at Florida in late September, when the Gators were 1-3 and finished 4-8, with Texas standing as their only win over a team that ended the year with a winning record.
Then, after winning four straight and climbing back into the top ten of the CFP rankings, Texas got rolled by Georgia 35-10 in Athens.
Even with those losses, the conversation around Texas kept circling back to the Ohio State game. After Texas beat No. 3 Texas A&M to finish the season, people kept arguing that the Longhorns might have had only two losses if they hadn’t scheduled the road trip to Columbus.
Now the rematch of sorts is here, and Texas is still willing to keep taking on big non-conference tests. The Longhorns have committed to playing Michigan in Austin next season after going to Big Ten venues in the last two years. In December, Steve Sarkisian said "I think anything beyond that is up for discussion."
At the same time, Texas has already shown it’s willing to pull back elsewhere. In February, the school canceled its home-and-home series with Arizona State, with those games set for 2032 in Tempe and 2033 in Austin. The SEC’s move to a nine-game conference schedule was cited as the reason.
Texas also has Notre Dame on the books, with a home-and-home scheduled for 2028 in South Bend and 2029 in Austin. Those games appear likely to stay intact, at least for now, since so much of the scheduling calendar is locked in years ahead.
The larger problem is bigger than one school. College sports, and college football in particular, are being run by people chasing money and advantage first, and that’s pushing the sport toward fewer meaningful non-conference games. The Big Ten’s coast-to-coast footprint, the push for a 24-team College Football Playoff, and the different ways conferences divide CFP money all feed into the same self-protective logic.
The Big Ten splits the full pool evenly across the conference. The SEC and Big 12 use tiered systems that reward the teams that make the CFP.
The ACC lets the school that made the Playoff keep the whole thing. None of it feels especially stable, and the uncertainty has already helped kill one of the sport’s biggest rivalries: Notre Dame and USC will not play for at least the next four years, with both schools pointing to the risk of a loss damaging their CFP hopes.
That’s the real cost of all this. Non-conference games shape the season, and the CFP era has shown that almost every year.
Stanford’s loss at Northwestern in 2015 mattered. Penn State losing to Pitt and Oklahoma losing to Ohio State in 2016 mattered.
Ohio State’s loss to Oklahoma and Auburn’s loss to Clemson in 2017 mattered. Ohio State’s loss to Oregon in 2021 mattered.
Texas losing to Ohio State in 2025 mattered.
And yes, those teams can all point to the same argument: if they had scheduled a softer opponent, paid out a big check, and taken a stress-free win, maybe the Playoff would have looked different.
That’s where the pushback should come in. Calling that approach smart doesn’t make it right.
It’s selfish, and it’s soft. College sports got to this mess because everyone kept looking out for themselves and nobody wanted to think about what was best for the game.
Saturday night gives fans the opposite. It gives them a real heavyweight game in one of college football’s most iconic settings, with more than 100,000 people in the building, Scarlet and grey on one side, burnt orange on the other, under the lights on ABC.
If you wanted to introduce someone to college football, this is the kind of game you’d show them. Not a neutral-site playoff game in an NFL stadium.
This. And the people running the sport ought to remember why.
In Other News...
Ohio State Gets Its First Real Title Test At Texas
Ohio State handled its opener the way a top contender should, rolling past Ball State 56-3 to get the 2026 season started on the right foot. Texas was just as efficient in its first game, beating Texas State 59-7, and now the Buckeyes are headed into a far more revealing Week 2 matchup in Austin.
With both teams sitting in the AP top four, Saturday at Texas Memorial Stadium already feels like an early measuring stick for the national race. It will also be the third straight season these programs have met, with Ryan Day and Steve Sarkisian again overseeing a matchup that should say plenty about where Ohio State really stands this fall. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio States Right Side Suddenly Faces Pressure Entering Texas
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Phillip Daniels has been part of the conversation at right tackle, where every snap now carries extra weight with a bigger stage ahead. Coaches and analysts are also watching the depth behind the starters, especially after Joshua Padillas role was limited to center against Ball State, leaving the Buckeyes with less clarity than they would like as they head into a matchup that should say a lot about how ready the line really is. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Heads To Texas With Another Statement Chance
Hero Kanu has a rare perspective on the Ohio State-Texas matchup, having worn both jerseys and seen the pressure on both sides of a game that has quickly taken on real national weight. As the Buckeyes head to Texas, the meeting comes with plenty of recent baggage, even before anyone starts talking about rankings or October momentum.
The teams have already crossed paths in a pair of high-stakes games, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has framed the rivalry-less rivalry as the kind of test that demands full attention without letting the season get hijacked by the moment. For Ohio State, it is another statement chance on a stage that has already produced some memorable finishes, with Kanus background adding one more layer to a matchup that still feels like it has unfinished business. [Read more 🡒]