LonghornFan4Ever

I could see the SEC making Texas play A&M in Austin back to back seasons in that scenario. A&M wanted that first SEC matchup to be at Kyle Field badly. If they do that, the meltdown from their fan base would be amazing. What tu wants tu gets. I can already picture the messages on TexAgs.

2026 SEC Home Games: - South Carolina - Missouri - Auburn - Tennessee or LSU 2026 SEC Away Games: - Arkansas - Texas A&M - Mississippi - Tennessee or LSU 2026 SEC Neutral Game: - Oklahoma (OU would be considered the "home" team in Dallas since it's an even year) That would mean Texas would not play Alabama in the regular season in their first three seasons in the SEC, but it makes sense since they had the home and home in '22 and '23.

@LovingBuckeye what are your thoughts on the Ross Bjork era so far?

I agree, but until it prevents Notre Dame from competing for national titles, there's no reason for them to join a conference. They will milk the independence as long as they can.

Well with nine conference games announced for 2026 on, I can scrap my prediction of Texas playing another in state non-con opponent and replace them with Auburn. Alabama is the only other option, but with the recent home and home prior to Texas joining the SEC, probably won't happen again until 2028. Not sure how that would affect their home and away schedule. I would assume for Texas it's four home, four away, and neutral for OU. OU, A&M, and Arky are guaranteed to be their three permanent rivals.

Talent wise, these teams are about even. Might give a slight edge to Ohio State as they, along with Alabama and Georgia, still have more talented rosters than Texas, but the gap is closing fast. I predict Texas will have the most talented roster in the country a year from now. Curious to see if the 247 Sports Team Talent Composite rankings agree with me. The 2025 version of that should be coming out in the next week or so with the season getting started this Saturday. But there's not a wide enough talent gap between these two teams for that to be the reason Texas wins or loses this game. When you have two teams with equal talent, it comes down to which team makes more splash plays. Ohio State made the two splash plays seven and a half months ago and that was the difference. We'll see if Texas can return the favor and come out of the Shoe 1-0.

If he starts to tank the athletic department, his tenure at Texas will be as short if not shorter than Patterson’s was.

As far as how this affects Texas athletics, this is who CDC will be reporting to now after the previous president Jay Hartzell took the SMU job with the same title. As long as CDC, Davis, and Eltife are all aligned, Texas athletics should continue to hum and stack Directors’ Cups for years to come. Should be good from an athletics standpoint.

Wingo and Livingstone will feast if this OL is gelling in pass pro by then.

Preach

My prediction for Texas: LT: Trevor Goosby LG: Neto Umeozulu C : Cole Hutson RG: DJ Campbell RT: Brandon Baker QB: Arch Manning RB: Quintrevion Wisner TE: Jack Endries WR1: Ryan Wingo WR2: Parker Livingstone Slot: DeAndre Moore Jr. DE: Colin Simmons DT: Maraad Watson NT: Cole Brevard or Alex January DE: Ethan Burke LB: Anthony Hill LB: Trey Moore CB1: Malik Muhammad CB2: Jaylon Guilbeau Nickel: Michael Taaffe FS: Jelani McDonald SS: Derek Williams Jr. P: Jack Bouwmeester PK: Mason Shipley (field goals and extra points), Will Stone (kickoffs) LS: Lance St. Louis

I agree with this, but what about before the AP poll was created in 1936? Looking back, there are several seasons before 1936 that Texas could claim national championships for. Wikipedia lists 1914 as an unclaimed national championship, but Texas had several other seasons in which they went undefeated and untied.

This is the only natty I have a problem with Texas claiming and Ohio State shouldn’t claim this natty at all. Nebraska did not lose a game that season, but had a tie with a 6-4 Southern Cal team, so maybe that was taken into consideration by the coaches poll when they decided to give their natty to Texas. If the coaches poll still awarded their natty before bowl games in 1977, Texas would have an additional natty. The 1963, 1969, and 2005 teams left no doubt that they were the undisputed national champions and if they win any more going forward, those natties will also be undisputed.

They are down bad. They also retired Cam Newton’s jersey number recently. I think they’re doing this because they know Hugh Freeze is cooked and trying to make their fanbase feel better.

Negotiating

I'm sure OU football from 2001 to 2020 and Ohio State football Texas softball this past athletic season would agree with you.

It’s the same argument people make about getting a top seed in the NFL - rest vs rust. I think last year was an anomaly and Texas gets to the national title game last season if they had beaten Georgia in the SEC championship. The extra week of rest would’ve helped them more than playing an extra postseason game. Being on the other side of the bracket means they would’ve faced Notre Dame, then Penn State, and instead of Ohio State in the Final Four, you get them in the national championship game.

The deal was @ Michigan last year, @ Ohio State this year, home for Ohio State next year, and home for Michigan in 2027. The only tweak made was FOX wanted to broadcast the Texas-Michigan game to be in Ann Arbor as part of the deal for Texas to join the SEC a year early. Originally, last year’s game was going to be in Austin and the 2027 game in Ann Arbor.

He will. He was part of the 2023 cycle so if he has another good year, he’s gone.

If only NIL was a thing back in '06 or '08. Maybe VY comes back in '06 and wins a Heisman, Big 12 and natty over playing for Jeff Fisher. If you had Charles in '08 you could run the ball down Tech's throat and keep that explosive passing attack on the bench. Texas legit could've won 2 or 3 more natties during that 2005-2009 stretch.

Yeah that's going to be interesting. As of now, they have Texas as the home team for their three rivalry games in odd years and the away team in even years. I don't think they'll do a 9-game conference schedule anytime soon. Something's gotta give. Wouldn't mind having another big home game besides Ohio State, but besides Georgia, you would only get that from Alabama or LSU. Tennessee is a toss-up.

Did not know that. I guess they would take Arkansas off the schedule and add a home game against Auburn. Make Missouri a home game too.

My prediction for the 2026 Texas Longhorns football schedule is as follows: September 5th - vs Texas State September 12th - vs Ohio State September 19th - vs UTSA September 26th - another home non-con game, maybe Rice or UNT October 3rd - @ Mississippi October 10th - Oklahoma in Dallas October 17th - @ Missouri October 24th - Bye Week October 31st - vs Tennessee November 7th - @ Arkansas November 14th - @ LSU November 21st - vs South Carolina November 27th - @ Texas A&M I feel pretty good about most of this. Because of when the 2026 season starts, most teams will only have one bye week in the regular season. Curious to see what y'all think the 2026 schedule could look like?