The Big Lead

Which 2025 College Football Playoff fan bases would a national title be most meaningful for?

By Sam Westmoreland

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players at the end of the game against the Southern California Trojans at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players at the end of the game against the Southern California Trojans at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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2. TEXAS

Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns are hungry to prove they're back, once and for all.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian gives orders during practice at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. / Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

At this point, the phrase "is Texas back?" or "Texas is back!" has become part of the college football lexicon, a running joke that opposing fans love to pull out after the latest heartbreaking loss or disappointing season.

But the fact of the matter is, outside of the magical 2005 run to a national title, Texas hasn't truly been back for a long, long time. They spent most of the 1980s and 1990s mired in mediocrity despite being located in the heart of the richest vein of football talent in the country. They built talented juggernauts of rosters in the 2000s, only to watch them stumble to 9-3 or worse, or pick the worst possible time to nab their first loss of the season (like 2010, when an undefeated Longhorns team was roundly thumped by Alabama in the national title game).

But things feel different now in Austin under Steve Sarkisian than they ever did under Tom Herman, Charlie Strong, or even Mack Brown. Back-to-back 11-win seasons, back-to-back playoff berths, a fully armed and operational recruiting operation bringing in talent from all over the state; for the first time in a long time, it feels like the pieces might be coming together.

All that's missing is the last piece of the puzzle, the piece Longhorns fans have been desperately craving for the better part of 20 years. Winning a title would silence the haters, the trolls, and announce to the world once and for all that for the first time since the 1970s, Texas is well and truly back.

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