Texas (53-12) joined Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and UCLA as the fifth NCAA softball program to win back-to-back softball national titles with a two-game sweep of Texas Tech (61-10). Teagan Kavan, who was named WCWS Most Outstanding Player for the second year in a row, secured the final six outs of the game after Citlaly Gutierrez (4.1 innings) and Hannah Wells (0.2 innings) did their jobs in the circle to help the Longhorns overcome a one-run deficit.

Facing All-American pitcher NiJaree Canady and trailing, 1-0, Texas opened the fifth inning with back-to-back singles by Kaiah Altmeyer and Ashton Maloney. After Jaycie Nichols reached on a fielder’s choice and the Red Raiders intentionally walked Katie Stewart with the bases loaded, a Viviana Martinez ground ball to the left side of the infield turned into a two-run error, putting the Longhorns on top, 2-1.

On the heels of Kavan retiring Texas Tech in order in the bottom of the sixth, Kayden Henry led off the top of the seventh with an opposite-field home run, taking Canady deep to left. With one out and runners on first and second, right fielder Lauren Allred couldn’t come up with a diving catch of a sinking liner off the bat of Leighann Goode, resulting in an RBI single to put Texas up by three runs, 4-1.

Kavan retired each of the six Red Raiders she faced, recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.

— Jutus Terry is in the group of players (including Arch Manning) who underwent surgery after the Citrus Bowl against Michigan and were limited throughout spring practice.

The hope was that they’d be ready to go when summer conditioning started. Of the non-Texas Tech-related comments Steve Sarkisian made during the Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon on May 21, saying that everyone was on schedule and that there had been no setbacks among the group was arguably the most significant.

Terry can be the interior disruptor that the Texas defense didn’t have last season. That’s not a slight at what Alex January or Hero Kanu brings to the table. What Terry showed in brief flashes as a true freshman is the kind of playmaking potential that guys like Byron Murphy II and Alfred Collins had, which is to say that he can consistently generate organic pressure in the opposing quarterback’s face.

If Terry is healthy and uses the summer as a springboard to show up ready to get after it in preseason practice, Will Muschamp should have a chess piece capable of playing multiple shades up front. Terry can amplify what might already be the best pass-rushing defensive front in college football.

— Laurence Seymore was recruited to be the team’s starting left guard in 2026. Still, the Western Kentucky transfer must earn the job to fulfill the lofty expectations accompanying his arrival.

Part of the equation needed to put a better product on the field is one of Jaydon Chatmon, Jackson Christian or Dylan Sikorski pushing Seymore for the spot. The other part is for Seymore, who spent the spring semester on his own, to hit the ground running in summer conditioning to position himself to be the no-doubt answer Kyle Flood needs to round out what looks on paper to be an upgraded unit from 2025.

— I keep going back to Sarkisian’s comments around the time Muschamp was hired regarding Xavier Filsaime. Specifically, it was the idea that Filsaime could log snaps at nickel.

After being limited throughout the spring, Filsaime is capable of pushing Derek Williams Jr. for playing time at safety. Filsaime also profiles as the bigger nickel Muschamp has preferred in the past, making him an intriguing Swiss Army knife of sorts in the secondary.

Getting Filsaime and/or Williams to the point where they can run alongside Jelani McDonald with as minimal a drop-off as possible is one of the reasons why it was important for Sarkisian to get Blake Gideon back on the staff. Along with the fact that Gideon recruited Filsaime and Williams, his personal and professional relationship with Muschamp (he coached Gideon at Texas for three seasons and hired him for his first coaching job as a quality control coach at Florida in 2014) should make for clearer communication between Muschamp and the safeties, as well as helping his group understand Muschamp’s expectations for a position that plays a crucial role in the success of his system.

— Emmett Mosley V is another Longhorn who underwent surgery after the bowl game. Thankfully, Mosley’s recovery wasn’t as prolonged as his injury against Michigan might’ve initially indicated.

While Mosley’s delayed start to the 2025 season because of an offseason injury wasn’t the biggest reason why the offense was slow out of the blocks, it didn’t help. Mosley is a proven commodity and a reliable target for Manning, but he must take the necessary steps this summer to ensure that his body stands a better chance of holding up over the long haul.

As good a duo as Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo can be, Mosley can elevate the wide receiver to become one of the best in the country if he can be counted on as, effectively, WR3. Mosley's ability to play in the slot or be split out wide offers Sarkisian a lot of flexibility in both personnel groupings and formations, while also allowing Jermaine Bishop Jr. to settle into a specific role, without anyone feeling like the true freshman needs must have the kind instant impact Xavier Worthy did in 2021 for the offense to function properly (a lot like what bringing in Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers from the transfer portal can do for Derrek Cooper's development at running back).

That scenario can only come to fruition, however, if Mosley is on the field.

According to a source-and in direct contradiction to a statement made last week by Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire- the Red Raiders never received agreement from Texas State head coach GJ Kinne to cancel their game with Texas, nor did McGuire, athletic director Kirby Hocutt, or Tech chairman Cody Campbell receive it from any other athletic official at Texas State.

"All it was, was a PR stunt, clear as day," a source told On Texas Football.

During the Big 12 spring meetings last week, McGuire specifically told reporters that the Red Raiders were challenging Texas to a game in Week 1 of the season. Furthermore, McGuire said he had already talked to and received agreement from multiple parties needed to make such a match-up a reality, including gaining approval from the Horns' scheduled opponent, Texas State. 

“I’ve actually talked to (Abilene Christian head coach) Keith Patterson, and I’ve talked to (Texas State head coach) GJ Kinne, and they’re willing to take our games, and Abilene Christian will go to Texas State," McGuire told reporters. "We’ll buy our contract out of Abilene Christian. I’m sure, ‘cause Texas has got a lot of money, they can buy their contract out. But I do know there’s a lot of Red Raiders that will help them buy their contract out.”

According to a source, discussions resulting in such an agreement with Texas State never occurred.

Texas Tech chairman of the board of regents, in a show of bravado, went even further despite never having allegedly received such an agreement from Texas State.

Campbell tweeted, “Upping the ante: @TechAthletics will pay the buyout for both the ACU and Texas State games. Let’s go! @CoachSark @_delconte”.

Giving up a game with Texas would make little sense for Bobcats head coach GJ Kinne and his university, a newly minted member of the Pac-12 which is attempting to elevate its own growing program.

The timing of McGuire's and Campbell's comments are noteworthy given another major issue facing Texas Tech, and that’s quarterback Brendan Sorsby who is working to retain eligibility this season despite admitting to betting on his own team when he was at Indiana earlier in his career. The NCAA ruled Sorsby permanently ineligible, yet Sorsby is appealing and his attorney went before a judge in Lubbock this week to seek an injunction.

Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec and McGuire have both voiced their support of Sorsby to return to play this year despite the university voting against legalizing gambling for college athletes in the last year.

Campbell did not respond via text for comment and McGuire through Texas Tech Sports Information did not immediately return a call.

Texas State athletic director Don Coryell and head coach GJ Kinne did not respond for comment.

Abilene Christian issued a statement to the Abilene Reporter News following McGuire’s comments.

“We are planning on playing Texas Tech as scheduled on Sept. 5 in Lubbock," the release stated. "We look forward to playing the Red Raiders barring any changes.”

After last year’s disappointing exit in the regional as one of eight national seeds, the Longhorns (the No. 6 overall national seed) righted the ship this season. With a 19-1 rout of Holy Cross on Friday and a 16-2 dismantling of Tarleton State in the winner’s bracket game on Saturday preceding the late-inning comeback victory over the Gauchos, Texas (43-13) will host the winner of the Eugene Regional (either Oregon and Oregon State) in next week’s Austin Super Regional.

The Longhorns didn’t score until the sixth inning, but Jim Schlossnagle’s club stayed in the game because of the job Riojas did in his first extensive action in three weeks. Riojas, who battled shoulder tendonitis late in the regular season, scattered three hits and one walk while striking out six in five innings of one-run baseball.

UC Santa Barbara (40-20) built a 3-2 lead through six innings thanks to a first-inning home run and two Texas errors in the bottom of the sixth. With Casey Borba on first and one out in the top of the seventh, Robbins took the fifth pitch he saw from lefty Van Froling deep to right field for a two-run, opposite-field home run.

The Austin Regional Most Outstanding Player, Robbins, who hit his team-leading 23rd home run of the season, gave the Longhorns a lead they never relinquished. Still, the Gauchos made them work for the last nine outs.

A pair of eighth-inning insurance runs (Adrian Rodriguez scored from second on an RBI double down the left-field line by Ethan Mendoza, who scored from third with two outs on a failed pickoff attempt) came in handy after UCSB scored a run against Sam Cozart in the home half.

Cozart recorded the first two outs of the ninth inning, but he exited with the bases loaded after hitting a better. Luke Harrison, who started Friday's win over Holy Cross, came out of the bullpen to notch a two-pitch save (the third of his career and his first since March 5, 2022, against LSU), helping Texas earn a Super Regional berth for the first time since 2023.

“Great ball game for us,” said Jim Schlossnagle, who watched his club draw a season-high 17 walks and play top-notch, error-free defense behind Volantis. “I felt like Dylan did a great job of trying as best he could to stay in rhythm, given the long sits he had between innings.”

In the winner’s bracket, hosting a team that handed it a midweek loss during the regular season for the second year in a row, Texas (42-13) fed off the energy of an amped-up crowd. With 8,276 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field behind them, the Longhorns controlled their second meeting with the Texans from the jump.

“I thought our crowd was great,” Schlossnagle said. “They were into it in the very first inning. Even though we only got one run out of that inning, I thought the crowd had a big impact on the game.”

Carson Tinney’s fiery response ignited a crowd that was ready to explode when he was plunked in the back of the head on the first pitch he saw from 6-foot-9-inch, 240-pound lefty Ethan Wendel set the tone for Texas avenging a 6-1 home loss to Tarleton State (38-20) on March 17 with authority.

“I feel like I do a good job of wearing pitches behind the plate, and I feel like when you're in the box, it's really indifferent,” said Tinney, who went 2-for-2 with a solo home run, a double and two runs scored on a night when he drew three of the team’s season-high 17 walks. “I have no problem wearing pitches in the box. I was happy to get the boys fired up.”

Temo Becerra’s RBI single through the right side of the infield in the top of the first kickstarted the Longhorns’ second offensive onslaught in as many days. With five home runs in Saturday’s win, including back-to-back-to-back second-inning jacks by Aiden Robbins (2-for-4, three runs scored and four RBI), Tinney and Anthony Pack Jr., Texas has slugged its way to within one win of the program’s first Super Regional appearance since 2023 with 11 home runs in two NCAA Tournament games.

Robbins, Tinney and Pack became the first three Longhorns to go deep in consecutive at-bats since Silas Ardoin, Skyler Messinger and Dylan Campbell did it on May 1, 2022, against Oklahoma State.

“I watched Aiden hit his and I was like, 'Man, that'd be cool if I could do it, too,’” Tinney said. “I ran into my ball and I remember, when I stepped on home plate, Pack greeted me at home, and I looked at him, and I was like, 'It's your turn now.'

“That was pretty cool to be part of such a cool experience.”

The three home runs highlighted a five-run second inning, an avalanche that ended Wendel’s night after 54 pitches (five hits, six runs and three walks allowed, with one hit batter and four strikeouts in two innings), buried the Texans and put Texas in the driver’s seat in the regional. Tarleton State will face UC Santa Barbara in an elimination game at noon on Sunday, with the Longhorns drawing the winner in the regional championship game at 5 p.m. If necessary, there will be a winner-take-all final on Monday.

Texas has scored 35 runs through the first two games of this year’s NCAA Tournament, which now stands as the highest-scoring two-game postseason stretch in program history. It's a spree in which the Longhorns scored at least one run in the first 13 innings of the regional.

Toeing the rubber in the second with a 6-0 lead, Volantis settled in and befuddled the Tarleton State bats through 6.1 strong innings. Volantis struck out seven Texans, allowed three hits, one walk and one earned run with one hit batter in a dominant 91-pitch effort.

Extending Volantis allows Texas to go into Sunday with Ruger Riojas ready for his first significant action since a four-inning, 74-pitch outing in a road win over Tennessee on May 10 and a fully-rested bullpen backing him up (Brett Crossland, Sam Cozart and Haiden Leffew have yet to pitch in the regional). Schlossnagle and Max Weiner left Volantis in the game to eat innings and make sure the Longhorns’ sizable lead, which stood at 12-0 when Volantis took the mound for the fourth inning, remained intact.

“I wanted Dylan to at least get us through the sixth,” Schlossnagle said. “When he went out for the seventh, frankly, I just wanted him to have a chance to tip his cap. I wanted him to feel the appreciation of the fans. I'm glad we were able to do that.”

After losing the winner’s bracket game of last year’s regional to UTSA, getting behind the eight ball and failing to recover, Schlossnagle left nothing to chance. Now, Texas is well-positioned to finish the job in front of the home crowd on Sunday.

“It's always good to stay in the winner's bracket and avoid those moments, but we haven't won anything yet,” Schlossnagle said. “We won a game. We've got a new day tomorrow.

“Yes, I'm glad we don't have to play two tomorrow, but the tournament is not over.”

I love talking about football.

I love writing about football.

I love talking and writing about Texas Longhorn football.

Forgive me then for not champing at the bit to dissect a war of words between Texas and Texas Tech that’s devolved into an obnoxious publicity stunt. Hopefully, we’re nearing the end of this tiresome situation and can get back to actual football matters in the near future.

Consider this my part in helping put it to bed.

Joey McGuire, Cody Campbell, Kirby Hocutt and anyone else on the Red Raiders’ side of the fence who believes they have a dog in the fight have taken umbrage with Steve Sarkisian singling out Texas Tech’s less-than-stellar 2026 schedule. The offended parties appear to be hellbent on milking every possible ounce out of their time atop college football’s offseason news cycle.

The public challenge McGuire and Campbell have issued to Texas — to ditch the season opener at home against Texas State and play the Red Raiders, either in Lubbock or at AT&T Stadium in Arlington — achieved its intended purpose by riling up the Texas Tech faithful and giving casual college football fans perceived ammunition to question the Longhorns’ fortitude.

The same is true of Hocutt’s comments to The Athletic, even though Texas somehow managed to match the Red Raiders' scoring output in last season’s College Football Playoff without participating.

The idle threats have also buried a few key points (including Brenden Sorsby’s ongoing pursuit of eligibility getting moved to the national media’s back burner, for the moment) in the back-and-forth since Sarkisian’s comments in Houston last Thursday.

— Sarkisian didn’t insult Texas Tech, its head coach or its football program. He called out the Red Raiders’ schedule, which nobody has stepped up to defend.

Of the seven Power Four schools in Texas, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football believes Texas Tech has the easiest schedule this coming season.

Parker Fleming’s analysis has the Red Raiders with the easiest path to the CFP of any Power Four team in the country.

College Football News ranked Texas Tech’s schedule 65th out of 138 FBS programs. Only three Power Four schedules were considered easier than the Red Raiders' 12-game slate.

According to Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings, the two FBS opponents on Texas Tech’s schedule (Abilene Christian is an FCS program) rank No. 91 (Oregon State) and No. 136 (Sam Houston), respectively.

I’ve yet to hear anyone say Sarkisian was wrong about the Red Raiders’ schedule, which has proved his point.

If the CFP selection committee doesn’t use strength of schedule as a primary separator when push comes to shove, then what’s the point of risking a non-conference loss?

— Whether viewed through the prism of subjective opinions or objective metrics, Texas Tech is taking the path of least resistance with its non-conference schedule in hopes of reaching the CFP. Instead of owning it (if the system prioritizes winning a conference championship, no matter how it’s acquired, then admit that's what you're doing and roll with it), the folks in Lubbock threw a fit, went on the attack and tried to gain sympathy in the court of public opinion.

Texas isn’t going to play Texas Tech in the regular season. Social media trolls can cry for the Longhorns to “SPOT THE BALL!” all they want. It won’t matter.

McGuire knows it, Campbell knows it, Hocutt knows it and in their heart of hearts, Red Raider fans who possess a modicum of common sense know it’s nothing more than a glorified pro wrestling promo. The goal was for Texas Tech to paint Texas as the villain, an SEC behemoth too scared to play the upstart in-state program that’s beating the Longhorns on the recruiting trail and making a move toward the top of the state’s FBS pecking order.

This was never about getting Texas to agree to a game. It was to make the Longhorns look petty, keep the hype train going after a watershed season in their program’s history, draw attention away from the Sorsby situation and hope to get a few college football talking heads and personalities with large social media followings on their side.

Those things won’t impact anything the Longhorns do on the field in 2026 and beyond. Regardless, the Red Raiders accomplished their goal

— Sometimes, situations like this aren’t that deep. I think this one is for Sarkisian.

A 37-34 overtime loss to Texas Tech in 2022 was enough of a burden to bear for Sarkisian and the Longhorns. McGuire’s speech to his team in the victorious locker room poured salt in the wound.

Specifically, one portion of McGuire’s sermon was so sharp that it might've gotten embedded under Sarkisian’s skin.

“I told you they were going to break and they did,” McGuire told his squad. “The reporter asked me at the end, she said: ‘What does it mean to win this game and beat Texas?' I said, ‘It doesn’t mean anything to beat Texas. We’re 1-and-0 in the Big 12.' That’s what it means.”

Just like Sarkisian’s campaign rally-style pep talk to a hotel ballroom full of alumni, donors and fans in Houston, McGuire’s words were crafted with a specific audience in mind. In both instances, once the comments went public, the offended party processed what was said and prepared to respond as they saw fit.

Leading up to the 2023 season, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark didn’t mince words about backing the Red Raiders when they made their way to DKR for Texas’ last regular-season game as a member of the conference. In the face of the remaining Big 12 members and the league office making things as publicly uncomfortable as possible for the Longhorns and Oklahoma before their respective departures for the SEC, Sarkisian saved his retort to Yormark, McGuire and anyone else who might find themselves caught in the blast radius for Nov. 24, 2023.

Sarkisian didn’t have to say anything. The 57-7 bludgeoning of Texas Tech that sent Texas to the Big 12 title game spoke volumes.

Essentially, McGuire called Sarkisian’s team soft while downplaying the relevance of the Red Raiders’ 18th win in 73 meetings with the Longhorns (Texas leads the all-time series with Texas Tech, 55-18). If Texas Tech is top of mind for Sarkisian, it would be hard to blame him for the genesis of his ire stemming from what got back to him after a close loss.

Sarkisian and the Longhorns got the last word when it mattered. No matter how bad the Red Raiders want to settle the score, barring a postseason meeting, the status quo won’t change for the foreseeable future.

“I just went out there like every other game,” said Pack, who roughed up the Crusaders’ pitching staff to the tune of a 3-for-3 day, with four runs scored and five RBI. “I don't think anything changed. A lot of preparation, a lot of hitting with Tulo (assistant coach Troy Tulowitzki), but I think it just came from the preparation.”

No Longhorn had ever recorded a three-home run game in the NCAA Tournament until Pack hit his eighth, ninth and 10th dingers of the season. Pack, who now has 70 hits and 50 RBI in 53 games, helped Texas (41-13) score in every inning of its dismantling of Holy Cross (25-29).

Aiden Robbins, who slugged his 20th and 21st home runs of the season en route to the Longhorns matching their largest margin of victory ever in a postseason game, knows that what Pack is doing far exceeds what’s expected from a freshman. 

“He's confident and he knows his ability to just go out there and play free,” Robbins said of Pack, the SEC Freshman of the Year, who led the league in hitting (.400) and on-base percentage (.511) during conference play. “He displays that every time he steps on the field.”

Pack’s three bombs tied a single-game school record (the last time it happened was in 2024, when Max Belyeu went deep three times against Baylor) and accounted for half of the Longhorns’ six home runs. Jayden Duplantier’s sixth-inning grand slam capped the slugfest, tying the program record for most home runs in a game.

The 19 runs the Longhorns scored were the most a Texas team has tallied in an NCAA Tournament game since 2005. Pack got the scoring started in the first inning, with a 417-foot, two-out solo blast.

After Robbins (2-for-5, three runs scored and three RBI) and Carson Tinney (3-for-4, four runs scored) were retired by Jaden Wywoda, Pack pulled a 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall, executing a critical at-bat that set the tone for the team’s historic day at the plate.

“We have a lot of respect for their starting pitcher,” Jim Schlossnagle said of Wywoda, who threw 105 pitches in 4.2 innings after throwing 196 pitches over three days in last week’s Patriot League Tournament. “If he gets out of that inning clean, a senior pitcher like that can really get some confidence and get going. Anthony, obviously, had a good swing in that inning and a really good day.

“After that, a lot of good things went our way.”

Texas now gets to reap the benefits of hosting a regional as a top-8 national seed. While Tarleton State and UC Santa Barbara are duking it out in the nightcap at Disch-Falk Field, the Longhorns will be off their feet, trying to maximize the full 24 hours they've been allotted between Friday’s romp and Saturday’s winner’s bracket game at 6 p.m.

“It's not an advantage unless the players take advantage of it,” Schlossnagle said. “That's what we just had a quick conversation about, so these guys need to get out of here and get off their feet and hydrate — like, really hydrate.”

Schlossnagle’s postgame comment to “really hydrate” was said directly to Pack, who was lifted for Duplantier in the sixth inning.

Pack said his muscles get tight when he gets excited, which can lead to cramps. Although Pack said he must do a better job of “controlling my energy a little bit,” the first SEC freshman to hit .400 since Jake Mangum hit .408 for Mississippi State in 2016 wants to do what he can to make sure nothing interrupts his historic campaign.

“I can't cramp,” Pack said. “I've got to do better with my hydration and do better.”

Adequately hydrated or not, Pack set the tone for what Texas hopes is a deep, prosperous postseason.

Texas Tech is doing anything to be relevant. They're desperate, so desperate in fact that it's embarrassing to watch grown men grovel.

Cody Campbell and Joey McGuire are the faces of desperation.

So butthurt are the Red Raiders about getting left in the Big 12 that their administration at every level, from the board of regents, to the president's office, even to the football coach's office, they're all willing to do anything to get anyone to listen to them and regard them as more relevant than they are.

In a flash of showmanship and false bravado, their football coach today asked for Texas to move its game with Texas State from Austin on Sept. 5, and schedule Texas Tech in Dallas instead.

Yet just minutes later, that very same coach tried to convince reporters that his quarterback who gambled on his own team should not incur significant penalties. "Maybe he should get a few games but not a whole year [I am paraphrasing here]," McGuire told reporters.

A sane man's response to such words? Joey McGuire will say anything to anybody if it helps him win a football game. He's a man who knows no bounds.

McGuire is only following the lead of his president at Texas Tech, who days earlier penned a letter to all students and alumni asking for the same thing.

The whole thing is preposterous.

They know it. You know it. We all know it.

If you gamble on your team, you're toast.

As for Campbell, his thumbprints are all over the latest senate legislation. And that legislation attempts to box in Texas and the SEC. Why is Campbell so worried about what's going on in Austin? Does he feel threatened?

Again, it's the move of desperate people. And McGuire and Campbell are the faces of desperation.

Texas Tech is embarrassing itself over and over again.

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!’”

For the second year in a row, Jim Schlossnagle’s club earned a top-8 national seed. The committee awarded the Longhorns the No. 6 overall seed, pairing Texas (40-13, 19-10 SEC) with the Eugene Regional (hosted by No. 11 overall seed Oregon) for the Super Regional.

One of the eight roads to Omaha and the College World Series will go through Austin, the first time that’s been the case in consecutive years since Augie Garrido led the program to top-8 seeds in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Longhorns will face No. 4 seed Holy Cross in the opening game of the regional on Friday (12 p.m., SEC Network) and, if Texas wins, it’ll face the winner of the nightcap between No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara and No. 3 seed Tarleton State (6 p.m., ESPN+) on Saturday.

With the field of 64 set, here are five things to take stock of before Texas begins its journey toward an NCAA-record 39th trip to the College World Series and the program’s seventh national championship:

1. The regional will test whether Schlossnagle’s approach of valuing recovery and rest over prioritizing the SEC Tournament was truly the right approach.

While Ethan Mendoza and Ruger Riojas were among the key Longhorns who should benefit from the extra time off ahead of the NCAA Tournament, the team’s offensive performance in Hoover (four hits and 14 strikeouts in an 8-1 loss to Arkansas in the SEC quarterfinals) didn’t inspire a lot of confidence heading into the regional.

As of now, Schlossnagle’s approach was the right one because the SEC Tournament didn’t impact how the Longhorns are positioned in the postseason.

Texas appeared to have a top-8 seed locked up before taking the field in Hoover. That proved to be the case, and the Razorbacks getting subbed as a regional host after reaching the championship game further showed how the SEC Tournament had little to no impact on the committee.

2. The main difference between the Longhorns entering this year’s regional as opposed to last year's regional loss to UTSA is Dylan Volantis.

Once Jared Spencer went down with a season-ending arm injury, it felt like the Longhorns spent the rest of the season hanging on for dear life. Texas enters this year’s NCAA Tournament with a bona fide ace, which the Longhorns will need for a matchup with either the Gauchos or the Texans in a winner’s bracket game on Saturday.

The early indication is that the Longhorns will go with another pitcher (likely Luke Harrison, since he pitched in last Friday's loss to Arkansas, although Riojas hasn't pitched since facing one batter in the regular-season finale against Missouri on May 16) against Holy Cross (25-28) on Friday and save Volantis for Saturday. If UCSB (38-18) gets by WAC regular-season and tournament champion Tarleton State (37-19) without using ace Jackson Flora, a candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, a Volantis vs. Flora pitching matchup would be one of the most noteworthy head-to-head battles in the tournament.

3. Even though a Saturday night winner’s bracket game in a regional will be a much different environment than the one the Texans played in during a 6-1 upset victory over the Longhorns on March 17, the experience Fuller Smith’s team has of winning a game at Disch-Falk Field makes Tarleton State no ordinary No. 3 seed.

Facing Volantis in prime time will be a much tougher test than when the Texans roughed up Kade Bing, Cal Higgins and Max Grubbs more than two months ago. Furthermore, Texas has no excuse to be caught off guard if the two teams meet again with a lot more on the line than there was the first time they battled.

4. To that end, given Riojas’ late-season struggles with shoulder tendonitis and Grubbs going down with a season-ending injury, the Longhorns’ pitching depth, or lack thereof, would make getting into the loser’s bracket feel like a death sentence.

To avoid such a fate, Texas can’t have its bats go cold against the top-notch arms it will see the rest of the way.

To minimize the lingering concerns at the bottom of the lineup, which will exist as long as the Longhorns remain in the tournament, Casey Borba must roll his late-season hot streak (12-for-35 with six home runs over his last 10 games) into more consistent production in the postseason. Adrian Rodriguez, who is managing his surgically-repaired hand more effectively now that he's only hitting left-handed, must keep stringing together quality at-bats (14 hits in his last 11 games).

Aiden Robbins, Carson Tinney and Anthony Pack Jr. won’t feel the pressure to carry the offense if some combination of Borba, Rodriguez and Mendoza can compete in the box and bring a consistent spark to the middle of the order.

5. Personally, I feel better about Texas getting through a Super Regional and onto Omaha than I feel about it winning a regional because of the format.

The Longhorns lost two regular-season series, both on the road, to Texas A&M and Tennessee, respectively. Texas recorded series wins over No. 4 overall seed Auburn, No. 7 overall seed Alabama and regional host Mississippi State in SEC play, all of which had Schlossnagle’s team needing to win on Sunday to clinch the series.

With Volantis capable of shutting down anybody in the field and the comfort of feeling like a win is inevitable if the game winds up in the hands of Sam Cozart, the Longhorns are as tough an out as there is in college baseball in a three-game series. Like last year, however, the winner’s bracket game of the regional could determine whether Texas makes a serious run at ending a 21-year national championship drought or if Schlossnagle and staff will get an unexpected head start on building the 2027 roster.