Chris Del Conte’s persistence has finally paid off. After years of lobbying for a nine-game SEC schedule, the Texas Longhorns’ athletic director will see that vision come to life starting in 2026. And while it brings a more balanced slate for Texas, it also raises the bar for what the Longhorns will need to navigate if they want to stay in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Let’s start with the basics: Texas’ 2026 SEC schedule is a gauntlet. The Longhorns are set to face Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, LSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M. That’s four home games, four road games, and the annual neutral-site clash with Oklahoma in Dallas - a setup Del Conte has long argued for to fix a structural imbalance in Texas’ SEC rotation.
Here’s the issue he was trying to solve: because the Red River Rivalry is played at the Cotton Bowl every year, Texas was getting stuck with just three SEC home games every other season. That’s not ideal when you’re trying to build consistency - or sell out a 100,000-seat stadium. The new nine-game format guarantees four SEC home games every season, giving Texas a more equitable setup and fans a more consistent slate of marquee matchups in Austin.
Del Conte once described his push for the scheduling change like “applying constant heat” - a colorful analogy that fits the intensity he’s brought to reshaping Texas’ future in the SEC. But now that the change is in place, the heat’s shifting to the Longhorns themselves.
Because make no mistake: the 2026 schedule is a step up in difficulty.
According to ESPN’s SP+ rankings - a predictive formula that blends efficiency, explosiveness, field position, and finishing drives - the average ranking of Texas’ 2025 regular-season opponents was around 61st. In 2026, that number jumps to 34th.
That’s a massive leap, and it puts Texas in rare company. None of last year’s College Football Playoff teams faced a schedule that tough.
You don’t need a spreadsheet to see the difference. In 2025, Texas padded its non-conference resume with three Group of Five teams - Sam Houston, San Jose State, and UTEP - that combined to go 7-29.
In 2026, one of those slots is being replaced by an SEC opponent. And the non-conference games that remain?
They’re no longer pushovers.
Texas opens the season with Texas State, Ohio State, and UTSA. That trio is a far cry from last year’s cupcake lineup.
Both Texas State and UTSA went 7-6 and won bowl games, and UTSA didn’t just win - they dominated Tulane, a team that made the Playoff. And Ohio State?
Well, they’re still Ohio State - a perennial powerhouse and one of the toughest outs in college football.
So what about the SEC side of things?
Interestingly, on paper, Texas’ 2026 SEC opponents actually won slightly fewer conference games than their 2025 counterparts - 3.79 wins per team compared to 3.88. That would suggest a marginally easier slate. But that’s where the numbers can be deceiving.
This is the transfer portal era, where rosters can flip overnight and preseason projections can become meaningless by October. LSU, for example, went 3-5 in the SEC last season, but with Lane Kiffin now at the helm and the nation’s top-ranked transfer class coming in, there’s little reason to expect another down year.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss - which won seven SEC games last year - just lost Kiffin. That’s a major shift.
Arkansas and Florida are also breaking in new head coaches, adding even more uncertainty to the mix.
In short, last year’s win totals may not tell the full story of what Texas is up against.
And then there’s the matter of where these games are being played. In 2025, Texas’ two toughest matchups per SP+ - Ohio State and Georgia - were both on the road.
In 2026, the Longhorns will again face three teams that finished in the SP+ top 10, but two of those games will be at home. Ohio State and Ole Miss are both coming to Royal-Memorial Stadium, while the Longhorns will travel to College Station to face Texas A&M at Kyle Field.
That’s a more favorable split, especially when you consider the home-field advantage in the SEC is no joke. Playing top-tier teams in front of your own fans can be the difference between a win and a missed opportunity.
But here’s the kicker: the margin for error is razor-thin.
The College Football Playoff remains fixed at 12 teams through 2026, and in its first two seasons under the new format, no at-large team with more than two regular-season losses has made the cut. That means Texas, with a tougher schedule and no extra playoff wiggle room, has to be nearly perfect - or at least very, very good.
Del Conte may already be setting his sights on pushing for playoff expansion next, but for now, the Longhorns will have to play the hand they’ve been dealt. And in 2026, that hand is full of heavy hitters. The road to the postseason is getting steeper - but for a program that’s always aimed high, that’s just part of the climb.