Texas Longhorns Earn College Football Playoff Bid, Will Face Washington Huskies In Sugar Bowl

The Texas Longhorns are heading to the College Football Playoff, where they will face the Washington Huskies in the Sugar Bowl

Matt Galatzan | Dec 3, 2023

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Texas Longhorns

AUSTIN, TX -- Following a wild conference championship weekend, including a dominant 49-21 Big 12 title game win over Oklahoma State, the Texas Longhorns are officially heading to the College Football Playoff.

During ESPN's CFP selection show on Sunday morning, it was revealed that the Longhorns had earned the No. 3 seed, and will be heading to the Sugar Bowl, where they will face the No. 2 seeded Washington Huskies.

The other playoff semi-final will take place between the No. 1 seeded Michigan Wolverines and the No. 4 seed Alabama Crimson Tide.

This will be the Longhorns' first trip to the CFP since its inception in 2014. And it was exactly the outcome that Steve Sarkisian and his team were petitioning for after their drubbing of Oklahoma State.

"This may be a little bullish of me saying, but we'll play anybody in the country. I'm not shying away from that part," Sarkisian said Saturday after the win. "I feel very comfortable if we get into this tournament, we'll play anybody. We'll find out if we're good enough or not. But I feel like we have the team, the culture, the scheme, and the versatility of this team to play against anybody."

Texas RB Keilan Robinson scored two touchdowns against the Cowboys on Saturday / USA Today Sports

The game will be a rematch of the 2022 Alamo Bowl, in a game where Washington and Michael Penix Jr. took down Quinn Ewers and the Texas Longhorns 27-20 in San Antonio.

Should the Longhorns win vs. Washington seeding will also set up a potential rematch for the Longhorns with Alabama in Houston for the national championship.

The Longhorns beat the Crimson Tide 34-24 in Tuscaloosa earlier this season, becoming one of just two teams to go into Bryant-Denny Stadium in the last eight years and beat Alabama, joining Joe Burrow and the 2019/20 national champion LSU Tigers.

That win was also arguably the biggest deciding factor in the Longhorns earning their spot in the CFP, and their national championship opportunity.

Kick-off between the Longhorns and the Huskies is set for 7:45 pm CT at the Caesar's Super Dome in New Orleans.

Texas Deserves A Spot In The College Football Playoff

Published Dec 3, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.