In the age of massive conferences and the 12-team College Football Playoff, the idea of teams scheduling big non-conference games early in the season is under more scrutiny than ever. After all, if teams can still make the CFP with “weak” schedules, then what’s the point of risking another loss?

Luckily, many teams around the country still see the value of these games, and the Texas Longhorns are one of them. On Aug. 31, Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns will kick off the 2025 campaign on the road against the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes, the very same team that ended their 2024 season in the semifinals. There are some very compelling games in Week 1, but this one looks like the clear headliner and one of the best games of the entire year.

It may not make for the easiest path to the CFP, but that’s exactly why Steve Sarkisian and co. like it.

“I love the opportunity,” Sarkisian said on FOX Sports’ “The Herd.” “It’s great for our players in summer workouts and in training camp to know who we’re getting ready to go play and the task at hand. I think now, to your point with the expanded playoffs, as long as we don’t punish those teams for going to play those games then it’s great for college football.”

“It’s opening weekend. It’s Texas at Ohio State. It’s a rematch of the semifinal game in last year’s playoffs. It’s great for their program. It’s great for our program, because that’s what the players we recruit… want to play in. They want to be in those big-time games.”

Sarkisian and the Longhorns are no strangers to these kinds of games, playing Alabama and Michigan in non-conference play over the past few years. The saying goes that you have to beat the best to be the best, and Sarkisian is clearly a big believer.

“We’ve had some pretty good experience with this, and I know they weren’t all in Week 1,” Sarkisian said. “You know, obviously, we played Alabama out of conference two years in a row when we were here in Year 2 and in Year 3. And then last year, we went to Michigan, you know they were the defending national champs, in Week 2. And this year, we’re going to Ohio State, the defending national champions, in Week 1.”

The Longhorns and Buckeyes have split their previous four meetings, with the latter obviously winning the latest matchup.

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