The Texas Longhorns have had a whiplash-educing season in 2025.

With a 9–3 record, it’s easy to immediately dismiss the Longhorns from any discussion about inclusion in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

But Texas closed out its regular season with a bang, taking down the previously undefeated and No. 3–ranked Texas A&M Aggies.

After that win, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made his case for his team’s inclusion in the big dance.

“We’ve got a really good football team,” Sarkisian said. “It would be a disservice to our sport if this team’s not a playoff team when we went and scheduled that non-conference game [Ohio State]. Because if we’re a 10–2 team, that’s not a question.”

READ MORE: Longhorns dominate in 2nd half to upset Aggies, 27-17

The Case for Texas

Texas finished the regular season with three wins against teams ranked in the top ten in the AP poll. They went 2–0 with double-digit victories against their biggest rivals — both of whom are locks to make the playoffs. They also beat a Vanderbilt team that finished 10–2 and will likely have a Heisman finalist in fan-favorite quarterback Diego Pavia.

The Longhorns have shown real progression throughout the season. After dropping their first SEC game to fall to 3–2, Texas went 6–1 the rest of the way, churning through a slate in the nation’s toughest conference.

Texas quarterback Arch Manning came crashing down to earth in September after entering the year with Heisman Trophy hopes, but he has come into his own in the months since that slow start. When you can finish a “let-down year” completing 61.4% of your passes with 32 total touchdowns, you’re doing something right.

And finally, let’s piggyback on Sark’s pitch: Texas’ 9–3 record includes the best loss in all of college football this season. With every passing week of Ohio State’s 12–0 dominance, Texas’ 14–7 loss in Columbus to open the season has looked better and better. Not only is Texas the only team to stay within a possession of Ohio State — they’re the only team to lose to the Buckeyes by fewer than 18 points.

If the goal of the CFP committee is to rank the “best teams in the country” — as it states in the “voting process” section on its website — Texas certainly seems to fit that criteria.

The Case Against Texas

Texas fans (and coaches) have been quick to remind everyone that they would be a no-brainer selection for an at-large bid if they had scheduled a lowly FCS or Group-of-Five program to open the season instead of choosing to play Ohio State.

And if you’re willing to grant Texas an assumed win in a game they would’ve surely entered as 40-point favorites, then this statement is true. But be careful — don’t let hypotheticals distract you from the reality of this team.

The Ohio State loss is not what’s going to stamp the Longhorns’ ticket to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl — far from it, in fact. The 11 games after that will.

Texas had arguably the worst loss of any team still making a playoff argument, losing 29–21 to a Florida team that went on to fire its coach and finish 4–8. Remarkably, the Longhorns accounted for half of Florida’s conference wins.

The aforementioned 6–1 record they compiled after that loss looks good on paper, but it didn’t come with many style points. The Longhorns escaped Kentucky with a 16–13 overtime win (the Wildcats finished 5–7 and fired their coach) and had to overcome a 38–21 fourth-quarter deficit to get past Mississippi State (who also finished 5–7, though their head coach survived the season).

After the Longhorns finally got a respectable win at home against Vanderbilt, they had a chance to make a statement on the road against a stout Georgia team late in the year. That didn’t happen, as they were walloped 35–10.

They ended the year on a high note, picking apart A&M for their biggest victory of the season, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who watched the campaign as a whole and came away satisfied. Their talent is evident — and at times overwhelming — but the flashes of brilliance reveal just how much meat the preseason No. 1 Longhorns left on the bone.

My Final Verdict

I don’t think Texas gets in.

They certainly had a path after Friday night’s statement, but they needed some games to go their way in rivalry week. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami, Vanderbilt, Utah, and Virginia all entered the weekend with 9–2 records.

Without question, Texas has the best 9–3 record in college football. If any of those seven teams lost, Texas would’ve almost certainly surpassed them, especially with their wins over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.

All seven of them won.

15 Power Four teams now have 10 or more wins. Even with a 9–3 record, Texas will likely be ranked ahead of the Virginias and the Utahs of the world, but still, there just aren’t enough seats left at the table for nine-win Texas.

Being the best team on paper gives the Longhorns some weight, sure. But at some point, wins have to matter when you’re deciding who is “most deserving.” Some years, nine wins will be enough for an SEC team.

2025 is simply not one of those years.

The mother of a Texas college student is desperately searching for answers after her daughter was found dead near campus after attending a tailgate, according to reports and authorities.

Brianna Aguilera, a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University, was discovered dead outside an apartment complex around 1 a.m. Saturday morning, just hours after she attended a tailgate for Texas A&M’s football game against the University of Texas, KSAT reported.

Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, told the outlet that she has received inconsistent answers from the Austin Police Department after investigators said Aguilera likely died by suicide.

Detectives told her she had fallen from 17 floors, the mother recalled.

“There are a lot of inconsistencies with the story,” Rodriguez said. “He told me they said she jumped, and then he told me that the friends said they didn’t know her whereabouts.”

The heartbroken mother said her daughter, a sophomore at the university, was not suicidal and was looking forward to her future as a lawyer.

Rodriguez called police after her daughter did not answer her phone after Friday’s game, noting she saw Aguilera’s phone pinging in Austin.

Cops then instructed her to wait 24 hours before filing a missing persons report, the outlet reported.

Officers later found Aguilera’s cellphone on Saturday. However, Rodriguez was not told until 4 p.m. that day that her daughter was in the morgue, the mother recalled.

Rodriguez believes something more sinister could have been at play leading up to the fatal fall.

She maintained that one of the 15 people inside the apartment must know something about her daughter’s death.

“There was a fight that happened between my daughter and another girl, and they were all staying in the same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and the detective just disregarded them,” Rodriguez said.

Austin police said Aguilera’s death is not being investigated as a homicide, as the investigation has not revealed any suspicious details, the outlet reported.

The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the aspiring lawyer’s cause of death.

Aguilera hailed from Laredo, where she attended United High School. She was a “seasoned cheerleader” and received Magna Cum Laude honors before graduating high school, according to a GoFundMe organized for her loved ones.

“She was pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer and was attending The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M,” the statement continued.

“The details surrounding what happened next remain unclear, and her mother is still awaiting answers,” the fundraiser continued.

The GoFundMe has since raised over $28,000, more than double its $12,000 goal.

“Im so grateful for your love and support at this moment. The unexpected loss of my brie brie has been a tremendous challenge, but I find strength in the outpouring of kindness,” Rodriguez said in a Monday message to the hoards of supporters.  

“I’ve experienced every parent’s worst fear, but I’m comforted by the knowledge that my brie brie touched so many hearts.” 

Texas A&M University did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Light Rail project is creeping closer to the station after a promising rating from federal transit officials last week.

In an annual funding recommendation report from the Federal Transit Administration, the project received an overall project rating and local financial commitment summary rating of “medium-high.” It also received “medium” ratings for mobility improvement, land use and project justification summary.

The line received a cost-effectiveness rating of “low,” which may reflect the problems the Austin Light Rail has faced since its 2020 voter approval as part of Project Connect. The project included “a generational $7 billion transit overhaul and an ongoing 20% property tax increase,” the Austin American-Statesman reported, but the cost of the light rail has since increased.

The funding recommendation ratings are set to allow the Austin Transit Partnership to compete for federal funding through the Capital Investment Grant. The line’s overall rating also “signals that federal staff view the project as financially and technically viable,” according to the Statesman.

Austin Light Rail was 27 miles long at the time of Project Connect’s passing but has since been reduced to under 10 miles. It would run north to south between 38th and Oltorf streets and include an eastern spur stretching from Lady Bird Lake area to near the inside of State Highway 71.