Texas football players make case for Longhorns to reach CFP, Alabama win be damned

ARLINGTON — No. 8 Alabama has knocked off No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

So, now what?

The College Football Playoff selection committee has tonight and tomorrow morning to figure all that out ahead of its 11 a.m. announcement of the final four.

There are four CFP spots available. No. 3 Washington, which is now one of three remaining undefeated teams along with Florida State and Michigan, is a CFP lock with its win over No. 5 Oregon in Friday night's Pac-12 championship game. But how far will Georgia (the two-time defending national champion) drop? And how far will Alabama, which lost to Texas in September, jump forward?

The Longhorns figure to move ahead of No. 6 Ohio State, which didn't make the Big Ten title game, and Oregon. But with three spots left, there are four teams left in play:

Georgia is 12-1, including a 3-1 mark vs. Top 25 teams.

Texas is 12-1 and has arguably the best win of the season in all of college football: beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa in September by double-digits.

And Alabama, also 12-1, is the SEC champion and has won 11 straight games since that loss to Texas.

No. 4 Florida State plays No. 14 Louisville on Saturday night in the ACC title game. Michigan is playing Iowa in the Big Ten title game.

Texas makes its case

After blowing past Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he thought the Longhorns had one of the four best teams in college football. Thus, Sarkisian believed UT deserves one of the four semifinal spots in the College Football Playoff.

But Sarkisian conceded, "We don't all get to go to the election booth and vote."

Regardless, the Longhorns were campaigning as they celebrated on Saturday afternoon. As they cycled through an interview room at AT&T Stadium, several players were asked why Texas should reach the College Football Playoff.

Texas (12-1) will find out at 11 a.m. on Sunday if it will get to compete for a national title. Texas was ranked seventh in the College Football Playoff rankings ahead of Saturday's game. Several Longhorns shared their thoughts after the game as to whether Texas is CFP-worthy:

Texas receiver Jordan Whittington

"I think we deserve a spot because we're a really dominant team. We're a conference champion. I mean, put us in and you'll find out."

Texas running back Keilan Robinson

"Texas deserves to be in the playoffs because look around the country. Look at our strength of schedule. What are we, 12-1? How many ranked wins did we have? Multiple, I can't even remember how many. Put the best teams in. We're clearly one of the best teams in the country, so that's why I think we deserved to be in there."

Texas linebacker Anthony Hill Jr.

"I just feel like we worked hard throughout the season. We put a good résumé out throughout the season. Of course we have that one loss, a rivalry game. I just felt like we put out a good résumé throughout the season and we finished the Big 12 with a dominant win."

Texas linebacker Jaylan Ford

"Why do we deserve a spot? We're a team that's ready to go compete with whoever's out there. Anybody that's on the field with us, I think we match their level, we match their competitiveness and we want to win. So for us to get into one of those four spots, we're up for the challenge."

Texas defensive lineman Barryn Sorrell

"I feel like the résumé speaks for itself. We had competition week in and week out and we showed up. It's a great moment to be where we are right now."

Texas defensive back Michael Taaffe

"You've got to look at the last at least two weeks. We've blown two teams out and one at AT&T Stadium where all the marbles are live right here. Any type of questions that they have, maybe the defense, in the second half we showed that. Maybe the offense in the red zone, they showed that. Anything that you need to show, we showed it today. We did all that we can do to control what we can control. We're going to leave the rest up to God."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas or Alabama for CFP? Longhorns players make their playoff case