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University of Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte is seen before the Red River Showdown college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the University of Texas (UT) Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021. Oklahoma won 55-48. Ou Vs Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — During the annual Town Hall meeting on Wednesday at the Touchdown Club in the north end zone of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Texas Longhorns athletics director Chris Del Conte expressed his support for expanding the College Football Playoff.
The argument from Del Conte is that if 14 of the 32 teams in the NFL make the playoffs, a percentage that drops considerably even when assessing the number of Power Four teams that could make the CFP, a group that doesn’t even include the automatic qualifier from the Group of Six.
“You have 138 teams for 12 spots. I prefer to expand that playoff a little bit,” Del Conte said.
He didn’t specify whether that expansion would be to 16 teams or 20 teams, additions that would pressure an already strained calendar.
The solutions?
Starting the season in Week Zero and eliminating conference championship games.
“Why have a conference championship game? Let’s start the playoffs that week, right? Start the playoffs that week, and let’s play every single week, and the semifinals are played on New Year’s Day, which is college football, and the national championship a week later,” Del Conte said.
“That’s what I’d like to see, but I’m one vote. But this is where we need to get to.”
The public advocacy came in tandem with Del Conte’s desire to maintain marquee non-conference matchups as the Texas AD reiterated his commitment to honoring contracts to host Ohio State this season and Michigan next season to complete home-and-home series with those teams that were pushed back after the announcement that the Longhorns would join the SEC.
“When we joined the SEC, I had to reverse our schedules, had to go to the Big Ten twice in order for us to get in early. That was a price I was willing to pay to get in early, take no TV revenue, and I had to switch the two games around — go there first,” Del Conte said.
“Well, I’m not about to give those games up. I want a little piece of their rear end in DKR. So Ohio State comes in and Michigan comes in. So that’s the reason where we were at. But I want our fans — Longhorn Nation — to be able to watch Ohio State in this stadium. I want fans in Longhorn Nation to be able to watch Michigan along with our SEC slate. But I had a lot of people say we need to cancel those games. No, we’re going to honor our word. If we play them, said we’re going to go play, you’re going to come and play me, we’re going to honor our word. That’s what we do.”
That wasn’t breaking news from Del Conte — he was merely reiterating statements made by head coach Steve Sarkisian when the non-conference debate was swirling because the loss to Ohio State to open the 2025 season was a critical factor in Texas missing the College Football Playoff for the first time in three years.
Neither was Del Conte’s unwillingness to provide clarity on whether the Longhorns will play the home-and-home series with the Fighting Irish scheduled for 2028 and 2029.
“As far as future schedules look like, we’ll sit down and look at what that looks like for getting into the postseason tournament,” Del Conte said.
So those matchups remain in jeopardy if the CFP remains at 12 teams and the committee continues to punish teams for scheduling those high-profile non-conference matchups.
“We’ve got to honor strength in the regular season, but if that does not happen, we are going to be forced into a position — don’t play anybody, let’s give it a go, and see what happens at the end to get in the tournament,” Del Conte said.
“I prefer to preserve the regular season by playing great games and not dumbing down your schedule and playing nobody with the hopes that you can get in the playoff because you played nobody. If we can strengthen our regular season and keep that where our fans are engaged and want to see great games and have an expanded playoff, that’d be awesome.”
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