Paul Finebaum: Texas Longhorns' Steve Sarkisian Will Win First National Championship
![Texas Longhorns Head Coach Steve Sarkisian speaks during the Coaches' Press Conference at AT&T Stadium, Jan. 9, 2024. Both coaches answered questions from the media during the conference, and will face each other in the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semi-final game on Friday. Texas Longhorns Head Coach Steve Sarkisian speaks during the Coaches' Press Conference at AT&T Stadium, Jan. 9, 2024. Both coaches answered questions from the media during the conference, and will face each other in the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semi-final game on Friday.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3000,h_1687,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/longhorns_country/01jjr093dnpvkwn6rfdy.jpg)
With Ohio State's win over Notre Dame in the first National Championship of the 12-team College Football Playoff era, the Big Ten has won back-to-back national titles for the first time since the 1940s. And while the common narrative has been the SEC's dominance is at an end, Paul Finebaum has the conference retaking its place back on top next season.
During his recent appearance on the "McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning" radio show for WJOX-FM, the SEC Network talking head predicts that Texas Longhorns' Steve Sarkisian will join the exclusive club of active head coaches to have won a national championship.
“I would pick Steve Sarkisian,” Finebaum said. “I think he’s probably set up the best of any of those who don’t have a title. We’re still getting used to Ryan Day being a national champion. It changes the narrative a little bit, doesn’t it?”
If the Longhorns can climb back to the mountaintop, Sarkisian would join Georgia's Kirby Smart, Clemson's Dabo Swinney, and Ohio State's Ryan Day, as the only active FBS head coaches to have won a national championship.
And after watching the Buckeyes finally get over the hump with Day at the helm after a few years of falling short, who's to say the Longhorns aren't the next program to ascend the mountain?
After back-to-back years of falling just short of making the national championship game for the first time in over a decade. Texas looks to be in the situation that Michigan and Ohio State found themselves in, a program on the cusp on winning it all.
For the Wolverines being on the cusp meant losing two straight years in the semifinal before finally breaking through in 2023 with a win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl prior to beating Washington for the national title last season. The Buckeyes had made a national title game under Day back in 2020 but lost to Alabama before losing to eventual national champions Georgia in 2022 in the semifinal.
Despite losing starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and a number of other key pieces from last season's team, the Longhorns are still expected to be national championship contenders in 2025, as they kick off the Arch Manning era.
Now, whether or not, the Manning era means the Longhorns will get over the hump and their first national championship since 2005, will be the question. However, at least for now, Sarkisian seemingly has Texas in the position to do so.
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