The college football world was abuzz on Sunday morning and afternoon as news that a 10–2 Notre Dame team had been excluded from the 2025 College Football Playoff made its way from fan to fan. And if that weren’t enough to keep everyone talking all day long, the revelation added an exclamation point with the announcement that the Irish would be declining to appear in a bowl game, a move that had lots of onlookers crying “sore loser.”
No matter how you feel about ND’s decision, there is also the argument that it could threaten/undermine bowl season and encourage other non-playoff teams to follow suit.
To that end, Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian on Sunday weighed in on the drama and how the saga might or might not impact college football as a whole. The coach also made clear that UT, which didn’t make the playoff either, did not consider opting out of its bowl game.
“I don’t know about the ripple effect for everybody,” Sark said. “We all have goals and aspirations of winning conference championships and being national champions, at least we do. But I also think that there’s an experience factor in all this. There’s growth. There’s development in all this. There’s camaraderie. There’s so much that goes into this that sometimes, a bowl game is about celebrating a season and finishing a season the right way.”
The coach also said that the college football system as it stands is “flawed,” and “needs to be revamped and looked at from a lot of different angles.”
“Where it goes from here,” he continued, “I don’t think anybody really knows. The point being I don’t know what the effect is gonna be down the road; I just know for us this is an opportunity to play another game against a really good team in a great bowl game, and we’re gonna cherish it and we’re gonna put our best foot forward and try to go win this game.”
“Where it goes from here, I don’t think anybody really knows.”
I asked Steve Sarkisian if Texas considered opting out of its bowl game. He said UT did not.
Why the Longhorns want to play – and what impact Notre Dame’s decision to opt out could have on college football.… pic.twitter.com/mHZDj9hyrq
— Bob Ballou (@BobBallouSports) December 7, 2025
Texas finished right on the edge of playoff contention at No. 13. In 2024, the team entered the field at No. 5 and progressed all the way to the semifinal Cotton Bowl, where it lost to eventual champions Ohio State. They made the field in 2023, as well.
So, although a no-bid scenario is certainly not ideal for them this year, it sounds like Sark, who lobbied hard for their inclusion, is looking at the situation with a glass half-full perspective.
“There’s obviously a level of disappointment of not making the CFP,” he added. “I thought that we put a body of work on the field, we stated our case. They made their decisions of who they felt was worthy and deserving of being the 12 teams to play in that tournament, and you have to respect that.”
The Longhorns will play Michigan in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.
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