Texas’ path to Atlanta just got sharper, and a lot more urgent.
With the SEC confirming on Monday that the Dec. 5 game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the 35th and final SEC Championship Game, the Longhorns’ push for a first trip to the league title game now carries even more weight. The conference is closing the book on a format that started in 1992, the same year Alabama beat Florida 28-21 at Legion Field in Birmingham.
Texas is still in the mix, but the margin is thin. The Longhorns are 4-2 in SEC play and trail Georgia at 6-1, with Alabama and Kentucky both sitting at 5-2. Tennessee is also 4-2, which keeps the race crowded as the league heads into the stretch run and teams battle for the two spots in Atlanta.
The Longhorns have three conference games left to sort it out. They travel to LSU on Nov. 14, come back home to face Arkansas, then finish the regular season on the road against Texas A&M on Nov.
- If Texas runs the table, it would finish 7-2 in SEC play and give itself a strong shot at the championship game, though tiebreakers could end up deciding plenty in a packed standings race.
That’s the catch for Texas: it can’t control the rest of the league. Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky all still have chances to pad their position, while Tennessee is level with the Longhorns but doesn’t own the tiebreaker because of Texas’ head-to-head win. In other words, the Longhorns have very little room for error if they want to stay alive for Atlanta.
The SEC title game has a long run behind it. After starting at Legion Field, it moved to Atlanta in 2994, where the Georgia Dome hosted it for 23 straight seasons before Mercedes-Benz Stadium became the home in 2017. Through its first 34 editions, the game helped send 14 SEC teams on to national championships.
The expanded College Football Playoff gives more teams a path to the national title, but it doesn’t erase what a conference championship still means. For Texas, getting to the SEC Championship Game would mark another step in its move into the league and a chance to chase its first SEC crown.
The Longhorns have spent the last two seasons carving out their place in the conference. Now they’ve got three games, a crowded race and a deadline attached to one of college football’s biggest stages.
In Other News...
Texas Just Proved Something Huge About Steve Sarkisians Team
Missing a starting left tackle and a key receiver on the road against a ranked SEC opponent is usually the kind of setup that exposes a teams flaws. Instead, Texas went into Missouri and walked out with a 34-20 win, with Arch Manning throwing for 297 yards and three touchdowns while the Longhorns kept finding answers around the absences of Trevor Goosby and Cam Coleman.
Steve Sarkisian has talked all season about toughness and connection, and this was the kind of night that gives those words real weight. The offense adjusted, other players filled the gaps and Texas kept its composure when the game could have tilted the other way, which is exactly the sort of proof a team wants in November before the bigger questions arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Faces Its Biggest Road Test Yet With Playoff Pressure Rising
Texas left its last outing with a little more balance than it had shown earlier, beating Missouri by two touchdowns and looking more in sync on both sides of the ball. That kind of complementary football matters now more than ever, because the Longhorns are moving into the part of the schedule where style points and survival start to blur together.
Next up is a trip to Death Valley, where LSU is favored by 3.5 points after dropping a home game to Alabama in a finish that turned quickly once the Tide strung together three unanswered touchdowns. For Texas, this is the kind of road test that can sharpen a playoff rsum or expose how much work still remains, and the margin for error is getting smaller by the week. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Escaped Missouri But One Problem Still Followed The Longhorns
Texas left Columbia with another impressive rsum win, but the trip also reinforced a familiar concern that has been hanging around this team. The Longhorns beat No. 18 Missouri 34-20, extending their run of success against elite competition and adding another ranked victory to a stretch that has made them one of the most battle-tested teams in the country. Emmett Mosley Vs fumble recovery helped ignite a 21-point rally, and Jonathan Cunninghams blocked punt set up a field goal, the kind of momentum plays that can flip a road game in a hurry.
Even with those sparks, the performance did not fully erase the questions surrounding Texas up front. The offensive line was again a talking point, and the postgame comments from players and coaches made clear the issue is still part of the conversation after the win. Texas got the result it needed, but the way it got there left one problem very much in view as the Longhorns move deeper into the season. [Read more 🡒]