The 2025 college football season ended last night with the national championship game between Miami and Indiana. It was an historic season inside the Lone Star State with five teams ending the regular season with double-digit wins and ranked inside the Top 25. Two teams – Texas Tech and Texas A&M – reached the College Football Playoff and a handful were in the mix until late November. 

How does the state stack up heading into 2026? We take an early shot at ranking each of the 13 programs inside our borders. 

1. Texas | Last year’s finish: 10-3 

The preseason hype headed Texas’ way for the next eight months might be valid this time around and there is a chance the Horns start as the preseason No. 1-ranked team for the second straight season. Arch Manning (3,163 passing yards, 36 total touchdowns) returns as a veteran with 15 starts under his belt and an improved cast of characters around him, headlined by transfer wide receiver Cam Coleman, offensive lineman Melvin Siani, and running back Hollywood Smothers. 

Steve Sarkisian made the bold move to replace defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski with Will Muschamp, a familiar face on the Forty Acres. Expect the defense to be more aggressive and that’s good news for the unit’s best player – defensive end Colin Simmons. The Longhorns added Pitt transfer linebacker Rasheem Biles to help replace Anthony Hill’s production. Rutgers cornerback Bo Mascoe is an instant starter in the secondary that returns Jelani McDonald. 

2. Texas Tech | Last year’s finish: 12-2 (Big 12 champ, CFP quarterfinalist)

The Red Raiders will enter the 2026 season as a Top 10 team and the favorites to repeat as Big 12 champions. Any doubt of that was erased when they signed Cincinnati transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby, a Texas native who was one of the prized possessions in the portal this cycle. The offense around him returns much of the production, especially in the running back room where the tandem of Cam Dickey and J’koby Williams will be rejoined by the injured Quinten Joyner, who missed the whole year. The passing attack returns the likes of Coy Eakin and Terrance Carter. Most of the offensive line is also back. 

The defense was provided with more reinforcements through the portal to pair with returning stars such as LB Ben Roberts, safety John Curry, and cornerback Brice Pollack. The Red Raiders added all-conference players in linebacker Austin Romaine (Kansas State), who will help ease the loss of Jacob Rodriguez, defensive lineman Mateen Ibirogba (Wake Forest), and edge rushers Adam Trick (Miami Ohio) and Trey White (San Diego State). 

3. Texas A&M | Last year’s finish: 11-2 (CFP first round) 

The Aggies took a large step forward in 2025 when they started 11-0 for the first time since the early 1990s, reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history, and hosted a first-round game at Kyle Field. All this in Year 2 of the Mike Elko era with a first-time starter at quarterback. The next step in Texas A&M’s evolution is to compete for SEC and national championships.

Elko enters Year 3 with some known commodities on offense, starting with returning QB Marcel Reed (3,169 passing yards, 31 touchdowns). WR Mario Craver returns and the running back room should be solid once again. Offensive tackle Wilkin Formby (Alabama), WR Isaiah Horton (WR), and Houston Thomas (TE) are amongst the top offensive adds through the portal. The defense added numerous impact additions, including CB Rickey Gibson (Tennessee), DE Anto Saka (Northwestern), and DB Tawfiq Byard (Colorado). 

4. Houston | Last year’s finish: 10-3

The Willie Fritz Year 2 bump continued as his Houston squad improved from four wins in 2024 to 10 wins in 2025, including a bowl victory over LSU. QB Conner Weigman (3,405 total yards, 36 total touchdowns) returns after an impressive rebound year as a junior. The Cougars will miss leading rusher Dean Connors and leading receiver, tight end Tanner Koziol, but they reloaded through the portal and keeping Amare Thomas was a big win. 

The offensive line should continue to improve as well, adding Anthony Boswell (Toledo) and Shadre Hurst (Tulane) to the mix. Some key names like DT Khalil Laufau, CB Will James, S Kentrell Webb, and LB Sione Fatu return to lead the defense. Continuity at offensive and defensive coordinator should also help the Coogs contend for a Big 12 title spot in 2026. 

5. SMU | Last year’s finish: 9-4 

Keeping QB Kevin Jennings on the Hilltop was the biggest recruiting win that head coach Rhett Lashlee and his staff have enjoyed. He’s threw for 3,641 yards and 26 touchdowns last season and has over 7,700 passing yards in his career. The Dallas native has led the Mustangs to a 14-2 regular season record in ACC play and has wins over Miami, Clemson, and Florida State as P4 members. 

SMU has won 31 games over the last three years combined and is one of the more consistent programs in the state. Jennings will be flanked by some talented young receivers and new faces at tight end. The defense must replace its entire starting defensive line and its two best defensive backs – Ahmaad Moses and Isaiah Nwokobia. 

6. TCU | Last year’s finish: 9-4 

TCU is coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons and is 36-17 in four seasons under Sonny Dykes, including a trip to the national championship. Still, it feels like the Horned Frogs underachieved in 2025 and could’ve contended in a crowded Big 12 if not for three-point losses to Arizona State and Iowa State. 

TCU hired Gordon Sammis, who was previously at UConn, to replace the departing Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator and signed Harvard transfer QB Jaden Craig (2,869 passing yards, 25 TDs) to replace Josh Hoover, who left for Indiana in the transfer portal. The defense must replace two incredibly productive linebackers in Kaleb Elarms-Orr and Namdi Obiazor as well as long-time starting safety Bud Clark. 

7. Baylor | Last year’s finish: 5-7

Dave Aranda is back for a seventh season at the helm despite the Bears finishing with a losing record in three of the last four seasons. Former Kansas State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman was hired to replace Aranda as the defensive play caller after the Bears allowed 32.6 points per game in 2025. His unit must improve while replacing stalwarts such as LB Keaton Thomas and DB Carl Williams IV. The offense is also undergoing a shift change in personnel, although keeping OC Jake Spavital was a big win. QB Sawyer Robertson, RB Bryson Washington, and WR Josh Cameron are all gone. 

8. Texas State | Last year’s finish: 7-6

The Bobcats overcame a five-game losing streak to start Sun Belt play and rallied to win the last three regular season games and then knock off Rice in the bowl game to post a third-straight winning record under head coach G.J. Kinne. But the biggest wins were off the field after the regular season ended when the Bobcats kept stars such as QB Brad Jackson, WR Beau Sparks, and DB Ryan Nolan out of the transfer portal. 

Texas State is transitioning into the Pac-12 and has a chance to hit the ground running as one of the best G6 programs in the country if new defensive coordinator Will Windham improves a unit that allowed 41.2 points in their six losses. 

9. UTSA | Last year’s finish: 7-6

UTSA finished the regular season 6-6 for the second straight year and is 8-8 in conference play since the start of 2024. The main culprit – bad second half play on the road. The Roadrunners are 3-10 in true road games over the last two years. They’ve shown that the ceiling for conference championship contention still exists with wins over Tulane this year and Memphis last year, but they’ve also proven that the floor is much lower with losses to Temple this year and Tulsa and Tulane in 2024. 

Head coach Jeff Traylor has reached a bowl game in all six seasons in charge and has never suffered a losing record as a head coach, dating to his high school days. Keeping QB Owen McCown and most of the OL was huge, but UTSA must replace most of the production elsewhere while breaking in new OC Rick Bowie. 

10. North Texas | Last year’s finish: 12-2

The 2025 season will go down in Mean Green history as arguably the best team ever to play in Denton, America. Unfortunately, that success came with a price. A steep price. Eric Morris is now the head coach at Oklahoma State and so is most of the staff that led UNT to a program-record 12 games and onto the doorstep of the American Conference championship and into the College Football Playoff. Morris also took QB Drew Mestemaker, RB Caleb Hawkins, and WR Wyatt Young with him to Stillwater. 

Former West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was hired as the replacement and he has a great track record for success in the G5 ranks due to his time at Troy, where he won double digit games in three of his four seasons and a Sun Belt championship in 2017. Brown & Co. have signed an excellent transfer portal class and could overachieve and prove us wrong in Year 1. 

11. Rice | Last year’s finish: 5-8 

Year 1 of the Scott Abell era ended right where he hoped it would – in a bowl game. The next step is to post a winning record and inch towards contention in the AC. The roster should be better suited to run his offense thanks to a year of experience and another transfer portal cycle to add pieces more suited to run his unique option attack. Losing QB Chase Jenkins after a strong 2025 campaign was a surprise, but the Owls dipped into the portal and arguably upgraded by signing Jacurri Brown from UCF. The defense must improve, especially against the pass. 

12. Sam Houston | Last year’s finish: 2-10

Phil Longo walked into an undesirable situation when he became head coach at Sam Houston and repeating the success from a 10-win 2024 season was never realistic considering the hand he was dealt. The transfer portal was open for over two weeks before his hire became official and the Bearkats played home games an hour away while racking up more travel miles than any other team outside of Hawaii. The silver lining was a two-game winning streak in November and the emergence of QB Landyn Locke. Sam Houston does have the makings of a solid portal class and should be improved in 2026. By how much is anyone’s guess. 

13. UTEP | Last year’s finish: 2-10

Dana Dimel was hired to raise UTEP’s floor as a football program and he was relatively successful at that task. Scotty Walden was hired to elevate the Miners’ ceiling and mold them into a conference contender, but through two seasons, that hasn’t materialized. They won one fewer game in 2025 than they did in 2024 and are 4-12 against conference foes under Walden. A move to the Mountain West puts even more pressure on him heading into a pivotal Year 3. The portal hasn’t been kind to the Miners, either.