Longhorns Country

Texas Longhorns Rank As ESPN Favorites to Win National Title

Despite all the outside noise, the Texas Longhorns are the favorites to win the College Football Playoff, per ESPN.

Matt Galatzan

Nov 16, 2024; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) celebrates after making a final first down to end the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Texas won 20-10. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
Nov 16, 2024; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) celebrates after making a final first down to end the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Texas won 20-10. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
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The No. 3 Texas Longhorns are coming off of a tough 20-10 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville on Saturday.

The game was never truly in doubt, but it was not the dominant result that many Texas fans were hoping to see out of their team following their blowout of Florida.

As a result, the noise surrounding Texas' legitimacy as a top-three College Football Playoff team from rival media and social media detractors has only grown.

"They haven't played anybody," being the consistent critique.

Obviously, the Longhorns don't care about that noise. They are in control of their own destiny for both the SEC Championship and the CFP. Win out, and they are in.

"Honestly, I don't pay attention to that stuff," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said last week. "All I know is, we play the teams that are in front of us, and they're good. So I don't know if people don't think they're good or not. That's not for me to decide. We just try to play the best football that we can."

Either way, until they hoist the SEC Championship trophy, those detractors are not going to go away.

That said, the Longhorns do have one thing working in their favor - ESPN.

According to ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI), which is a computer-generated model of team strength, and a predictor of a team's future performance, the Longhorns are the odds-on favorites to win the national championship.

In its most updated rankings, the FPI has Texas with a 93.2 percent chance to make the playoff, a 32.3 percent chance to make the final, and a 19.8 percent chance to win it. They are followed by Ohio State at No. 2, who is predicted to have a 94.3 percent chance to make the playoff, a 29.3 percent chance to make the title game, and a 16.3 percent chance to win it.

However, ESPN also favors Texas in another factor - its overall resumé.

Though many see Texas' 38th-ranked strength of schedule as a major flaw in its CFP claim, ESPN disagrees, ranking the Horns with the country's fifth-best overall resumé behind Oregon, Georgia, Ohio State, and Penn State.

In fact, their strength of schedule ranking is higher than that of the nation's No. 1 team, Oregon, and is substantially higher than that of other playoff contenders such as Indiana, BYU, Miami, Notre Dame, SMU, Boise State, and Colorado.

The Horns remaining strength of schedule also ranks No. in the country, and they rank No. 4 in game control and No. 5 in average win probability.

Of course, computers do not predict the outcome of what happens on the field, and the Longhorns will have to take care of business to get where they want to go.

That will start this Saturday in Austin at 11 am against the Kentucky Wildcats.

You can see the full ESPN FPI Top 25 below:

  1. Texas
  2. Alabama
  3. Ohio State
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Georgia
  6. Ole Miss
  7. Penn State
  8. Oregon
  9. Tennessee
  10. Miami
  11. Indiana
  12. Clemson
  13. South Carolina
  14. Texas A&M
  15. SMU
  16. USC
  17. Louisville
  18. Tulane
  19. LSU
  20. Colorado
  21. Boise State
  22. Iowa
  23. Iowa State
  24. Missouri
  25. Kansas State

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Matt Galatzan
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.

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