After Big 12 title loss, Texas headed to Sugar Bowl

ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s now official. Tom Herman’s second season on the Forty Acres will cap with a New Year’s Six bowl bid and the Texas Longhorns competing in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, despite a Big 12 Championship loss to the Oklahoma Sooners.

“I’ve never been to a bad bowl game,” Herman said when asked of his thoughts on potentially playing in the Sugar Bowl. “They’re all good. Those New Year’s Six ones are special.”

“It would be an honor to represent our university in one of those games,” Herman added.

Though it certainly seemed much more likely than not that Texas would head to New Orleans following the Big 12 title to loss to Oklahoma, the outcome remained somewhat up in the air, as then-No. 5 Oklahoma being snubbed from the final College Football Playoff rankings would instead send the Sooners to the Sugar Bowl.

That, of course, didn’t come to fruition, though, as Oklahoma climbed to No. 4 in the final playoff rankings, opening the door for Texas to travel to The Big Easy, where they’ll meet the highest-ranked non-playoff SEC team, which appears will be Georgia after the Bulldogs dropped from No. 4 to No. 5 following an SEC Championship loss to Alabama.

With its latest loss, Texas is now 9-4 on the season, but the program’s first 10-win season since 2009 is still well within reach with a win in the Sugar Bowl.