Texas HC Steve Sarkisian sends blunt message about SEC’s nine-game conference sche…
Texas · Mississippi StateSteve Sarkisian looked well beyond Saturday’s game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs during his weekly Zoom press conference on Thursday. His focus went to December, when the College Football Playoff selection committee will have to sort through a Southeastern Conference with no team left unbeaten in league play.
The No. 11 Texas Longhorns are 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. Back-to-back 27-24 losses to the unranked Oklahoma Sooners and Florida Gators came before last Saturday's 34-27 win over the then-No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels.
Across the league, every team has at least one conference loss. Only the Kentucky Wildcats (5-1) and Georgia Bulldogs (4-1) have fewer than two, while nine SEC programs sit in the AP Top 25.
Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images The other reservation we had about the ninth game was that it's eight more losses for our conference.
KEY POINTS
- Texas HC Steve Sarkisian sends blunt message about SEC’s nine-game conference schedule.
- Nov 15, 2025; Athens, Georgia, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on in the first half against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium.
- The question put to Sarkisian was what the conference's first nine-game schedule will do to its playoff chances.
- "Well, I think from a coach's perspective, and when I refer to coaches, I'm referring to the 16 head coaches in our conference, I think we all had some reservations about going to the ninth conference game for a variety of reasons.