It happened. Texas finally caught Florida — just not in the category you’d think

Despite a surplus of money, resources and time invested in a sport that defines this state, for far too long Texas could never get its stuff together and get around Florida.

Starting in 1983 with the Miami Hurricanes, the state of Florida has produced 11 national football champions. In that time, the state of Texas has produced one — the 2005 Texas Longhorns.

(Note that UT reached the national title game again in the 2009 season; TCU played for the national championship in the 2022 season, where it just barely lost to Georgia).

Here in 2025, Florida, Florida State and Miami have become an overrated, expensive, terrible joke. The state’s major football teams have combined to be the football version of “Florida Man.” It’s only fitting that a gator and a hurricane are involved.

The consequences of SMU’s upset of then-No. 10 Miami last week in Dallas mean no team from the state of Florida is in the top 12 of the college football playoff rankings. Miami is currently 15th, and the only other team from the Sunshine State ranked in the Top 25 is the University of South Florida, at No. 24.

This is a continuation of a decade-long trend that has seen Florida yield one playoff team; in the first year of the playoff era, Jimbo Fisher’s FSU team was blown out by Oregon, in 2015.

Florida has fired its coach (again). Florida State will probably fire its coach (again). And fourth-year coach Mario Cristobal is “feeling it” in Miami (his buyout is too big).

The state of Texas, meanwhile, could potentially have four teams in the playoffs.

Texas A&M is in

Barring a season-ending three-game losing streak, the No. 3 Aggies will make the playoffs for the first time.

The Aggies visit Austin for their game against Texas on Nov. 28. It will affect seeding, the potential participants in the SEC title game, and plenty of woofing between Texas-exes and the maroons. The Aggies are 9-0, and even if you want to cut up their schedule, a perfect record in a power league at this point in the season is legit.

The Aggies are going to the playoffs.

Texas Tech should be in the playoffs

The Red Raiders’ evisceration of BYU last week in Lubbock should put them in the Big 12 title game. Other than a four-point loss at Arizona State, Texas Tech is doing what good teams should do.

The Red Raiders are blowing out the good and the bad. Tech wins by an average of nearly 30 points per game. Its defensive front seven is not to be messed with.

The Red Raiders are sixth in the latest playoff rankings, and with remaining regular-season games against Central Florida and West Virginia, an appearance in the Big 12 title game should not affect whether they are a playoff team. They are.

Texas is hanging around

The preseason No. 1 team in the nation is a colossal failure, and the Longhorns are 7-2. Three straight 3-point wins against Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt have the Horns in a position to potentially make the playoffs for a third straight year.

“We are playing as a team now better than we have all season long,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday on the SEC coaches conference call.

UT has its issues, but it also has a defense that makes a playoff appearance a possibility. With the remaining games at No. 5 Georgia and at home against Texas A&M, the Longhorns need to at least split those, and show well, to have a remote chance at a playoff spot.

Because it’s Texas, you can never eliminate the Longhorns from any discussion. About any topic.

An outside chance for North Texas

Despite the protesting from every SEC and ACC coach, a Group of Five team will make the playoffs, and the Mean Green have the second-best odds of any G5 team to do it. They are behind No. 24 South Florida, which hammered UNT on Oct. 10.

That 63-36 loss did not end UNT’s season.

Behind quarterback, Drew Mestemaker, UNT has won three straight; with remaining games against UAB, Rice and Temple, the Mean Green has a narrow playoff path. If it reaches the American Athletic Conference title game, which would probably be a rematch against USF, it likely would mean the winner goes to the playoffs.

A win would only continue what is the best story in college football, at the expense of the second-best football team from the state of Florida.