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Brent Venables defends Texas, questions 2025 College Football Playoff snub

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh05/27/26griffin_mcveigh

Of all the possible coaches to defend the Texas Longhorns, last on the list might be Oklahoma‘s Brent Venables. Historically (and presently), Texas and Oklahoma do not get along with one another. But Venables took some time at SEC Spring Meetings to not only defend the Longhorns, but also question why they were left out of the latest College Football Playoff.

“I’ve not been in Clark Lea’s 10–2 argument,” Venables said via George Stoia of On3 | Rivals’ Sooner Scoop. “How did that happen? And Texas at 9–3… Texas played five teams in the top 25. Another team played one team in the top 25. They got in; Texas didn’t.”

Oklahoma was one of those top 25 teams. Steve Sarkisian took his team to Dallas and put together a resounding Red River Shootout victory, 23-6. Getting a win at the Cotton Bowl was one of the positive data points for Texas. After all, OU did get into the 12-team field itself.

Elsewhere, Texas wound up playing five teams that were in the top 25 of the matchup, as Venables mentioned. You can even go one step further, as all of them were in the top 10. Texas went 3-2 in said games, losing to Ohio State and Georgia, while beating OU, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M.

Still, on Selection Sunday, Texas was on the outside looking in. The College Football Playoff committee had them as the third team out, sitting behind Notre Dame and BYU.

Venables believes one metric can stand out more than any, at the end of the day — winning. He knows from experience where Oklahoma put together a fantastic final month of the regular season. As a result, the CFP committee placed them in the field and even gave the Sooners home-field advantage in the first round vs. Alabama.

“If you want to be in complete, total control, win your games,” Venables said. “It worked in our favor in November, where we had a really challenging last four games and we took care of business.”

It’s not every day you will see Venables or anybody wearing an Oklahoma logo going to bat for Texas. SEC coaches are routinely trying to do what’s best for the conference, though. So, for just a few brief moments, a rivalry dating back to 1900 was pushed to the side. All in the name of the SEC getting more teams into the CFP.