Texas opens 2026 with one of the hardest schedules in college football — including No. 1 Ohio State in Austin, plus road dates at LSU and Texas A&M. Those are the games the Longhorns can survive losing and still chase a title. The ones that can quietly end a playoff run are different.
Longhorns Wire’s Trey Luerssen framed three “must-win” dates on Steve Sarkisian’s slate after the US LBM Coaches Poll landed: road SEC openers and rivalries that look beatable on paper but punish any slip. ASN’s read of that list, against the official Texas schedule, puts the pressure points here.
Sept. 26: at No. 18 Tennessee (Neyland Stadium)
Texas’ SEC opener is in Knoxville — more than 100,000 strong and one of the loudest venues in the sport. The series history is thin and mostly Cotton Bowl New Year’s Day meetings; the programs have not built a modern home-and-home rhythm yet.
Why it matters: Wire’s argument is that Tennessee is dangerous without being the toughest week on the schedule, and that an SEC-opening loss last year at Florida helped push Texas outside the College Football Playoff. A true title contender cannot drop a September conference opener it is supposed to win.
Oct. 10: vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (Cotton Bowl, Dallas)
The Allstate Red River Rivalry sits after a shared bye week and arrives as Texas’ second SEC game. Oklahoma opens in the top 10 again under Brent Venables, with quarterback John Mateer back after an injury-interrupted 2025.
Why it matters: Rivalry nights already carry enough weight. Stacked after Ohio State at home and Tennessee on the road, a Dallas loss would hit both SEC standing and national seeding. For Austin fans, this is the midseason measuring stick that still feels like a non-negotiable.
Nov. 7: at No. 25 Missouri (Faurot Field)
Classic trap week. Texas goes to Columbia seven days before LSU in Baton Rouge, with College Station still on the November horizon. Attention drifts to Death Valley and Kyle Field; Missouri gets the quiet booking as a ranked home underdog.
Why it matters: Wire calls a Missouri loss a playoff-killer if Texas also drops one of the heavierweight games. The Longhorns last played at Faurot Field in 2011; the most recent meeting was the 2017 Texas Bowl (Texas 33–16). Road ranked SEC games do not care about your next opponent.
The harder games around them
Luerssen’s split is useful for Austin readers: Ohio State on Sept. 12 at DKR, plus November trips to LSU and Texas A&M, are resume builders and resume wreckers — but they are also the kind of losses selection committees sometimes contextualize. Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Missouri are the nights where “we were close” does not help.
With more than half of Texas’ games against ranked Coaches Poll teams to open the year, the margin for a bad Saturday is thin. Survive the three must-wins, and the Longhorns can still chase everything. Drop one of them, and the schedule’s glamour games stop being opportunities and start being autopsy notes.
Reporting note: Analysis framed from Longhorns Wire (USA Today Network) by Trey Luerssen, Aug. 12, 2026; schedule dates cross-checked with Texas Athletics. Rankings referenced are from the US LBM Coaches Poll as cited in that report.
