OTF Premium Notre Dame series, future Texas non-conference games in limbo due to CFP unknowns

[Jeff Howe]

Chris Del Conte and Steve Sarkisian have been in lockstep regarding Texas’ non-conference football schedule.

The Longhorns will honor their home-and-home agreements with Ohio State and Michigan, with the Buckeyes coming to Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sept. 12 and the Wolverines heading to town on Sept. 11, 2027. Beyond those two return bouts from marquee non-conference games played during the 2024 (a resounding 31-12 victory over the reigning national champions at the Big House) and 2025 (a 14-7 loss in the Horseshoe) seasons, nothing is set in stone.

That includes a scheduled home-and-home with Notre Dame.

Texas is scheduled to travel to South Bend in 2028, while the Fighting Irish are scheduled to travel to Austin in 2029. At the SEC spring meetings in Destin on Wednesday, Del Conte indicated the Longhorns aren’t locked into what would be the 13th and 14th all-time meetings between two of college football’s most iconic brands.

“They’re tentatively on the schedule right now,” Del Conte said.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the future format and access into the College Football Playoff, Texas is in a tough spot regarding the two scheduled games with the Irish.

The school’s television partners (ESPN and NBC) wouldn’t hesitate to put the Longhorns and Notre Dame in primetime. The 2015 meeting — a 38-3 loss for Texas during a Saturday night season opener in South Bend — was seen by 4.1 million viewers on NBC. The 2016 game in Austin — a memorable 50-47 double-overtime triumph played on Sunday night during Labor Day weekend — drew more than 10.9 million viewers on ABC, making it the fourth most-watched college football game of the season.

Still, if CFP expansion doesn’t appropriately reward teams willing to schedule tough non-conference games, there’s no incentive for Texas to schedule Notre Dame or another high-level power conference opponent.

CFP executive director Rich Clark went through the CFP selection process on Tuesday. The exercise didn’t significantly clear things up for Del Conte, who saw the Longhorns rewarded for scheduling Alabama and Michigan in 2023 and 2024, only to be excluded from the 12-team field last season due, in large part, to suffering a season-opening road loss at the hands of Ohio State.

“It's hard to determine what the metrics are as a 9-3 and 10-2 schedule to say, these guys [won] 10 games, but they lost to these two teams. [Are they] better than a team that lost three games and didn't just schedule who they played?” Del Conte said. “I need more clarity on that.

“It's part of the criteria,” he added. “It's hard to determine how it's being considered because you also have human nature in the room.”

Del Conte didn’t make any not-so-thinly-veiled references to Texas Tech, like the one Sarkisian made last Thursday in Houston. What was missed amid Red Raider nation taking umbrage with Sarkisian’s comments to an audience of staunch Longhorn supporters, however, is what Del Conte echoed on Tuesday: the reality that the lack of equitable scheduling in college football eliminates the incentive to play non-conference games against the Big Ten and SEC opponents Texas has had on the schedule in each of Sarkisian’s five seasons as head coach.

“One of the things that makes college football great is your non-conference schedule and what your regular season is,” Del Conte said. “When you play in games of that nature, you should get rewarded for that. When you have a really watered-down schedule — and the thing that gets college football so different is not every schedule is the same. In the NFL, you know exactly what it is — there's 32 teams, they play it all out correctly. In our sport, it's hard to judge one league from the next in terms of their strength of schedule and who you play. It was great for us to have our coaches hear what they look for, but you also left there murky as hell, too.”

Although Greg Sankey said on Wednesday that a 16-team CFP is the format the SEC prefers, schools will continue to cancel future games against Power Four opponents until a new format is agreed upon. To that end, Del Conte didn’t commit to preferring the 12-team format, but he indicated he doesn’t want the powers that be to expand for the sake of expanding.

“It’s changed so quickly,” Del Conte said, noting college football went from using the BCS to crown a national champion to a four-team playoff to the current 12-team format in the span of 12 seasons (2013-24). “We’re in our second year of that opportunity. I do think there needs to be some time to see how this plays out, but in the NFL, there’s 32 teams — 14 make it. In Major League Baseball, there’s 30 teams and 17 make it. The percentages — you look at the NBA (16 of 30 teams make the playoffs, with the last four spots in each conference determined by a series of play-in games).

“I think it’s right for people to ask what the right number is, but at the end of the day, I’m also looking at it that we have young kids that, if you’re not playing in the playoff, they’re not playing in the bowl game,” he added. “They’re looking for different opportunities with how the transfer portal works now. We’ve had so much change in such a short amount of time that I do think we need a little bit of time to evaluate that. It’s not just, ‘Hey! Let’s jump to this!’”

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[Dawson Yarbrough]

If we would have played Rice week 1 last year, we had a decent shot at making a semi final at least. I know the playoff might be expanding, but it still angers me that the committee only looks at the loss column. 
 

The game against ND would be amazing, but I value a chance at a championship more. Cancel it. 

[HonkEm]

I hear CDC, but I’m sorry - Texas shouldn’t dumb down the schedule because the CFP can’t get its act together. Fans want Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame in Austin, not another round of Rice/UTSA/Wyoming. If the committee punishes teams for playing real games, then the committee is the problem. Texas shouldn’t shrink its brand because the system is confused.

Fix the freaking system, and make it happen - keep scheduling like Texas. 

Edited 2 hours ago by HonkEm

[Danimal]

2 minutes ago, HonkEm said:

I hear CDC, but I’m sorry - Texas shouldn’t dumb down the schedule because the CFP can’t get its act together. Fans want Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame in Austin, not another round of Rice/UTSA/Wyoming. If the committee punishes teams for playing real games, then the committee is the problem. Texas shouldn’t shrink its brand because the system is confused.

I'll take Rice in September if it better positions us to play Ohio State in the winter. I think most Texas fans see it that way too.

[HonkEm]

3 minutes ago, Danimal said:

I'll take Rice in September if it better positions us to play Ohio State in the winter. I think most Texas fans see it that way too.

I get the logic, but that’s exactly the problem -Texas shouldn’t have to choose between great home games and the playoff. We’re Texas. We can walk and chew gum. I’ll take Ohio State in the winter and Michigan/Notre Dame in September.

If the CFP punishes teams for scheduling real opponents, then the CFP is broken. Fans shouldn’t have to sit through Rice/UTSA/Wyoming just because the committee can’t evaluate strength of schedule. Fix the system so Texas can keep scheduling like Texas.

Edited 1 hour ago by HonkEm

[Califashorn75]

I really hate Notre Dame but the joy in beating them would be sweet. 

[GoHorns1]

Cancel the games and never schedule ND for  any sport, until ND plays by the same rules as all others teams and joins a P4 conference!
 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by GoHorns1

[HookEmLonghorns]

I’d be against canceling any other big name team, but screw Notre Dame right now. Until they stop demanding special treatment their fans need to suffer through watching 10+ boring blowouts every regular season. We’ll have a ton of great games without them.

[Rick]

45 minutes ago, HonkEm said:

I get the logic, but that’s exactly the problem -Texas shouldn’t have to choose between great home games and the playoff. We’re Texas. We can walk and chew gum. I’ll take Ohio State in the winter and Michigan/Notre Dame in September.

If the CFP punishes teams for scheduling real opponents, then the CFP is broken. Fans shouldn’t have to sit through Rice/UTSA/Wyoming just because the committee can’t evaluate strength of schedule. Fix the system so Texas can keep scheduling like Texas.

That's what we all would prefer, but until it's fixed we need to play with the system as it is. A few high profile games like Texas-ND getting canceled would be a powerful catalyst for getting things fixed.

[HonkEm]

10 minutes ago, Rick said:

That's what we all would prefer, but until it's fixed we need to play with the system as it is. A few high profile games like Texas-ND getting canceled would be a powerful catalyst for getting things fixed.

I get the idea, but Texas shouldn’t have to blow up great home games just to shame the CFP into competence. Fans shouldn’t be punished because the committee can’t tell the difference between Rice and Michigan. Fix the system - don’t neuter the brand

[HonkEm]

32 minutes ago, GoHorns1 said:

Cancel the games and never schedule ND for  any sport, until ND plays by the same rules as all others teams and joins a P4 conference!
 

 

I’m all for holding Notre Dame accountable - they’ve gamed the system for decades. But canceling great home games at DKR shouldn’t be Texas’ leverage tool. Fans shouldn’t lose Michigan/Notre Dame just to make a point. Fix the CFP criteria so Texas can schedule like Texas, and ND can deal with the consequences of staying independent on their own time

I keep arguing, but i still want to watch good football games going forward 😉 

Edited 49 minutes ago by HonkEm

[QuanCosbysBurner]

If it’s me, I’m dropping the ND series. Unfortunately with how this whole CFB world is playing out big time OOC mean nothing anymore. There is no need to give ND a chance to pump their ending resume up with a potential win over us, while they then go on a play a cupcake schedule all year and we play a SEC gauntlet.
 

Bail on the series and force them to join the Big 10 permanently. I’ve said for a long time I don’t understand why teams even give them the time a day when it comes to playing them. They’re the biggest frauds/jokes in college football. 

[nicray0920]

Get rid of the Notre Dame game! Non-conference doesn't matter according to the committee. Who knows by then we may have a super conference of 40-54 teams and get rid of all the lower level schools. I've had season tickets for years and love the high profile games but winning a game by 30-40 points against a lesser opponent doesn't suck either and keeps ticket scalpers from raising aftermarket ticket prices. 🤘

Edited 48 minutes ago by nicray0920

[Texas fan in Georgia]

Are the members of the CFP committee ever a topic of discussion? I mean why not put a committee of former coaches spearheaded by Nick Saban to determine the criteria to make the playoffs?

[Alex Butler]

35 minutes ago, GoHorns1 said:

Cancel the games and never schedule ND for  any sport, until ND plays by the same rules as all others teams and joins a P4 conference!
 

 

Absolutely 💯 correct. ND needs to be locked out until they play by the same rules as everyone else. Join a conference and get rid of the NBC nonsense. 

[HonkEm]

Lots of great responses here....keep them coming

Edited 40 minutes ago by HonkEm

[GoHorns1]

7 minutes ago, Alex Butler said:

Absolutely 💯 correct. ND needs to be locked out until they play by the same rules as everyone else. Join a conference and get rid of the NBC nonsense. 

The NBC deal will continue because both make a lot of money. ND shouldn’t get any money from ABC/ESPN, Fox, CBS until it joins a P4 conference.

Edited 36 minutes ago by GoHorns1

[ThatHornsGuy87]

No major school should play ND until they join a conference 

[Alex Butler]

3 minutes ago, GoHorns1 said:

The NBC deal will continue because both make a lot of money.

You’re probably right but I’m just being greedy/petty lol. 

[CJ Vogel]

1 minute ago, ThatHornsGuy87 said:

No major school should play ND until they join a conference 

This is where my brain sits as well. Let them float. 

[Little Carmine]

I’m so much more screw ND and everyone back out of playing them so they have no one left (join a conference already) than I am let’s not play them bc they’re formidable