Texas would have accepted the offer without hesitation if you had told them in August that they would defeat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, lose only once in a tight game against a top-15 team, and had a chance to win the Big 12 title with a 12-1 record.
Not only would that have been considered one of the great seasons for any Texas team in the last 30 years, it would have easily been good enough to get the Longhorns into every previous edition of the College Football Playoff.
Rather, it may leave them out in the cold since it occurred this season. This much becomes obvious as the college football playoff championship weekend approaches and many options remain:
Texas is probably going to finish in fifth place if all of the favorites win their conference championship games. Longhorns, nice season. Enjoy yourself while visiting the Cotton Bowl.
The tenth and last edition of the four-team playoff might cause a genuine outcry that would explain Texas' haste in moving on from the Big 12 and justify the expansion to 12 teams for the following season, after nine controversy-free years of the competition.
Life is going to become harder when the Longhorns relocate to the SEC next year. Compared to Kansas, Iowa State, and Baylor, knocking heads with Florida, Georgia, and Texas A&M will be a very different experience.
But if Texas is left out of the postseason this year, the blame won’t simply go to the 75-yard drive they gave to Oklahoma in the last 77 seconds of the Red River Rivalry. It will be the general weakness of the Big 12 that keeps them out.
As it stands, the Longhorns have only triumphed twice over teams who are in the top-25 in the CFP. Among them was the previously noted 34–24 victory against Alabama, which is perhaps the finest victory of the year for anybody. The other, a 33–30 victory against No. 25 Kansas State in overtime, isn't doing much good either.
Still, if the Longhorns defeat No. 18 Oklahoma State on Saturday, that would traditionally be good enough to qualify for the CFP. Only Texas has risen to No. 7 so far this year, one position behind Ohio State, which suffered a defeat to Michigan last weekend. To put it plainly, it indicates that Texas will undoubtedly want assistance.