Texas coach Steve Sarkisian begins early stumping for three-loss SEC team in College Football Playoff

The expanded College Football Playoff has only been around for a year, but strength of schedule and quality wins are two primary factors in the selection process and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian believes that's going to come into play for various SEC hopefuls in the coming weeks.

A three-loss, nonconference champion did not appear in the expanded bracket last year, but the Longhorns are one of several teams who could potentially be in that group down the stretch.

"What the committee does with the teams in our conference we'll see, but I know our conference is really deep and really good, probably deserving of more than three teams, I know that much," Sarkisian said. "I think the SEC only got three teams in last year, which is kind of laughable quite frankly, but we'll see what happens this year."

Who and where you play matters and the Longhorns' beefed-up slate in recent seasons outside of conference action is part of what has impressed the selection committee. Sarkisian is college football's only coach with consecutive playoff semifinal appearances, making the final four in 2023 thanks to an early-season win over Alabama that loomed large late and earning a high seed last year after finishing runner-up to Georgia in the SEC title game.

Texas (7-2) opened this season with a loss at Ohio State, one of four remaining unbeatens nationally, but has ranked wins over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.

"I know our conference is tough, it really is, it feels like a playoff game every week and I don't know if it feels that way in all the other conferences," Sarkisian said. "I just know in our league, surely it does. I got a chance with it being an 11 a.m. kick Saturday, I got a chance to watch Florida-Georgia, Ole Miss-South Carolina and Oklahoma-Tennessee. This is some high-level football from teams that don't have great records, but man, these teams are good.

"I don't know what's going to happen with the CFP with who gets in and who doesn't, but I just know in our league, it's really, really hard."

Texas certainly has an argument as a potential three-loss team if the Longhorns split remaining games against current top-5s Georgia and Texas A&M, and handle their business against Arkansas.

Based on where the Longhorns' land in Tuesday night's first top-25 rankings from the selection committee, they'll know what has to happen the rest of the way to garner a bid. CBS Sports projects Texas to be one of five SEC teams inside the top 12 from a league boasting eight overall in the poll.

The Longhorns' key head-to-head win with Oklahoma (7-2) may hold significant meaning on Selection Sunday next month should both teams finish with three regular-season losses. The Sooners have games against Missouri, Alabama and LSU left and if all else is equal -- including final record -- Texas would likely get the nod given the head-to-head result.

The chaos scenario for the SEC comes into play if Texas, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt (7-2) win out. That would give the conference a possible seven teams -- including Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia and Ole Miss -- with double-digit wins and there's simply no room to include them all among the seven at-large spots available.

To Sarkisian's point, if schedule strength is paramount to getting in as a multi-loss, nonconference champion, then SEC options will be given preference over other power conference options considering the wealth of ranked teams within the league.

For the first time Tuesday night, we'll get a sense of how impactful the playoff's new "record strength" metric is as well. This is like a super-sized look at strength of schedule and is supposed to reward teams for wins over quality opponents while minimizing the penalty for losing to quality teams.

This was also designed to lessen the importance of wins over bad teams, too. Among Texas' seven wins this season, three have come against opponents with winning records and three over non-Power teams who are a combined 5-19 overall.