Despite NFL defections, oddsmakers peg Texas for College Football Playoff | Golden

While the rest of college football bemoans the SEC-Big Ten football takeover, the real money points to the most powerful conferences standing tall once the newfangled College Football Playoff comes to an end. The folks at SI Sportsbook pulled out their calculators and listed the 20 schools most likely to make the 12-team CFP, and guess what? Eight teams from the SEC and Big Ten were listed among the top 10.

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Georgia leads the way at +300, with Ohio State next at +500.

And then you have the reigning but departing Big 12 champion Texas Longhorns.

Steve Sarkisian has the Horns in prime position to make a big debut in the SEC, and oddsmakers believe it will be a successful one. Texas is a +700 bet to make the CFP, and for you who are unfamiliar with the gambling aspect of things, that means a $100 wager would result in a $700 payout.

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Apparently, they believe Sarkisian will not be in rebuild mode after losing 11 players to the NFL but instead will keep this momentum going despite a schedule that includes road games against Michigan and old rival Texas A&M along with massive back-to-back weekends against Oklahoma in Dallas and Georgia in Austin.

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In case you’re interested, Alabama comes in fourth in the CFP chase at +400. The rest of the top 10 are Oregon (+1200), LSU (+1300), Michigan (+1400), Ole Miss (+1500), Florida State (+2000) and a tie between Notre Dame and Penn State (+2500). A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri, Clemson and Tennessee were tied for 12th (+3000).

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Time to look at those schedules

On the calendars: The SEC will one day have to abandon the antiquated schedule that includes eight conference and four nonconference games, which are littered with noncompetitive matchups.

The league has voted to keep things status quo not only for this season but for 2025 as well. In 2023 it was mandated that of the four nonconference games, at least one has to be against a Power Five opponent, which means the Big 12, ACC and Big Ten.

That gives at least a little bit of interest to an otherwise dismal 2024 nonconference slate that will include barnburners such as Texas A&M-McNeese State, Ole Miss-Furman and Florida-Samford.

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Meanwhile, the Horns’ nonconference slate includes two schools — Michigan and UTSA — that won their conferences, and we all know the Wolverines went on to win much, much more.

The Horns are guaranteed a blue blood in each of the next three seasons. They do a home-and-home with Ohio State in 2025 and 2026, and the Wolverines will visit Austin in 2027. I’m interested to see if athletic director Chris Del Conte goes the SEC way and schedules a couple of FCS nonconference games moving forward.

I don’t see him going there because he understands the value of the consumer dollar and wouldn’t want to put a poor product on the field with ticket prices these days.

Texas women are in potential shootout vs. Gonzaga

Problems in Portland: The Texas women are on a collision course with NCAA Tournament favorite South Carolina, but for that to happen, they will have to take on the mentality of road warriors this weekend.

Before Big 12 coach of the year Vic Schaefer can match wits with South Carolina's Dawn Staley for the first time since their 2021 Elite Eight showdown, won 62-34 by Staley's Gamecocks, there is work to be done.

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The Horns face an interesting task Friday night in surging No. 4 seed Gonzaga, which is the only midmajor to make the Sweet 16. The Zags are 32-3, and the 32-4 Horns, despite that sweet No. 1 seed, could encounter a pro-Zags crowd since Gonzaga’s home base of Spokane, Wash., is less than a 300-mile drive from the City of Roses.

If the Horns and Gamecocks can win two more, they would meet in the Final Four in Cleveland. A Staley-Schaefer rematch would be delicious. The two combined to win seven SEC coach of the year awards before Schaefer left Mississippi State for Texas in 2021. They met four times for the SEC title — in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020 — with the Gamecocks winning each time, the biggest coming in 2017, when they followed the tourney title with a national championship game win over the Bulldogs.

But first things first.

Will Texas make some threes?

Back to Gonzaga ... Schaefer is beyond tired of hearing about his team’s 3-point shooting. He’s read here more than once that the Horns ranked last in the AP Top 25 in long-distance shooting, but that stat must be addressed again, considering the team on the opposing bench.

Gonzaga is the best 3-point shooting team in the country at a staggering 40.1%. The Zags rank eighth in overall field-goal percentage at 48.6% and fifth in free-throw percentage at 79.7%.

If anything, Schaefer lives for a challenge. Sure, the Horns will have to knock down some shots, but above all else, he will be all over his players — bigs and guards — to put a premium on closeout defense.

Look out for 6-foot graduate guard Brynna Maxwell, who has made 94 3-pointers this season. That not only ranks seventh-best in the country, but is four more than Texas has made as a team. She's also making 44.5% percent of her attempts.

Just like the Alabama game, the Horns will have a size advantage, but this one may come down to how well Texas can limit perimeter looks. In case you're wondering, UT has made 10 of 28 triples in the tourney. Gonzaga has made 19 of 45, including 12 in a blowout win over No. 5 Utah on Monday.

This time, Kim Mulkey's helping her cause

The Washington Post should hire Kim Mulkey to its advertising department because the LSU coach did more to promote that newspaper than any executive in its employ.

Post reporter Kent Babb was working on a story about Mulkey, and the coach went on the offensive before her team’s win over Middle Tennessee State, threatening a lawsuit over what she called a “hit piece.” Babb has attempted to interview her for two years, but the coach has not agreed and won’t as of this post.

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It’s almost like she’s already read the story. Mulkey is a colorful dresser and an even more colorful personality. The coaching legend has never bitten her tongue, and she isn’t about to start now, but with her reputation for being a brash basketball bully of sorts comes an expectation of pushback at some point.

Babb is one of the most respected writers in the game, and I don’t see him taking any cheap shots, even if Mulkey describes him as a “sleazy reporter.”

Will there be details she won’t like? Of course, and many are already public, like her refusal to wish Brittney Griner well while the basketball star who delivered her Baylor team a 40-0 record and a 2012 national championship languished in a Russian prison for 10 months.

We could use someone like Mulkey at the Statesman. Our sales and marketing folks do a great job, but nothing beats that free word-of-mouth advertising,, and she just showed the type of unmatched promotional skill that could bring in millions. Without even trying hard, she made her hit piece an instant hit and it hasn’t even been published yet.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns are favorites to make the CFP despite NFL defections