By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-11-29 12:22:12
奥斯汀电 – 阿奇·曼宁 (Arch Manning) 点燃了“烟熏”大炮，振臂一挥，然后做出了一个任何真正的德州长角牛队成员都会有的理所当然的设想。
他认为自己理应得到更多。
但是，在一个他曾被宣判为水货、他的球队也一度被认为毫无希望的赛季末尾，再次给德州农工的心口来上一记重拳真的能改变什么吗？周五在气氛狂热的皇家纪念体育场，这场27-17对阵全美第三的农工队的胜利，是否来得太少、太迟了？排名第16的长角牛队真的指望大学橄榄球季后赛选拔委员会现在会让他们入围吗？
“我不知道他们为什么不选我们，”曼宁说。
这个回答，就像曼宁抵达奥斯汀以来所做的一切一样，充满了纯粹的德州味，而这无疑让德州农工的痛苦更加难以忍受。
毕竟，这本该是农工队的梦幻赛季。他们拥有三十年来最强的阵容，很有机会赢得本世纪首个分区冠军，而他们的死敌似乎也终于在走下坡路。然而就在一夜之间——实际上，是在第三节——长角牛队让德州农工队传统性的十一月焦虑感全部回来了，这已经够糟糕的了。
如果说农工队还有一丝慰藉，那就是他们在季后赛中的席位是稳固的，而德州队几乎肯定会被拒之门外。
但周五深夜，曼宁和长角牛队却在烟花与无人机表演点亮的夜空下翩翩起舞，同时展开了那种曾为他们奏效的政治游说。
还记得21年前吗？当时麦克·布朗 (Mack Brown) 向投票者们进行了一场持续的呼吁——这番操作是卓有成效还是厚颜无耻，取决于你站在哪个角度看——目的就是为了让长角牛队进入冠军碗系列赛。
亚伦·罗杰斯 (Aaron Rodgers) 可记得很清楚。布朗最后一刻的政治活动起了作用，德州队受邀参加玫瑰碗，而罗杰斯所在的加州金熊队则被淘汰出局。
现在，季后赛席位悬而未决，史蒂夫·萨尔基西安 (Steve Sarkisian) 正试图故技重施。即便他的竞选演说缺乏布朗那种乡土气息的魅力，但萨尔基西安周五明确表示，他不会在言辞、数据或是将这出戏演到底的决心上有所欠缺。
他没有浪费任何时间。在场上庆祝活动中接受赛后电视采访时，萨尔基西安就表示，如果这支战绩为9胜3负的长角牛队下周没能被选为12队季后赛中的七支外卡球队之一，“那将是对我们这项运动的伤害”。
随后，在他的正式新闻发布会上，他有备而来，带来了各种论点和数据——他指出，自2019年全国冠军路易斯安那州立大学以来，还没有任何球队在常规赛中击败过三支排名前十的对手，德州队是第一支——同时，他也准备好质疑那些排在长角牛队之前的球队的资格。
尤其在一点上，他确实言之有理：如果德州队在赛季揭幕战中输给全美第一的俄亥俄州立大学成为他们被淘汰的决定性原因，那么安排这类比赛的潜在弊端是否会超过其回报？
“坦白说，这很滑稽，”萨尔基西安说。“如果（其他球队）也打了那些比赛，他们的战绩会是什么样？”
当然，硬币的另一面是，没有一支排在长角牛队之前的球队输给过佛罗里达大学。德州队在十月初惨败给战绩为3胜8负的短吻鳄队，这成为所有季后赛席位竞争者中最糟糕的一场失利，也正是因此，萨尔基西安的球队排名仍然比它曾击败过的东南联盟对手，如俄克拉荷马大学和范德比尔特大学，要低上好几档。
所以，无论发生什么，长角牛队可能已经失去了感到愤怒的权利。但事实是，俄克拉荷马、阿拉巴马、迈阿密、圣母大学以及其他所有输了不止一场比赛的球队，或许也都一样。季后赛规模越大，就越难为那些声称自己被冷落的球队感到惋惜。
萨尔基西安的游说很可能不会有任何结果，尤其是在接下来一周里，如果所有热门球队都能顺利过关的话。但是，捷足者队输给路易斯安那州立大学可能会腾出一个位置，阿拉巴马大学输给奥本大学可能会空出另一个，而迈阿密大学输给匹兹堡大学则意味着长角牛队需要超越的球队又少了一支。再加上密歇根大学输给俄亥俄州立大学，以及杨百翰大学在大十二联盟冠军赛中输给德州理工大学，那么他们就几乎成功了。
当然，这要求太多了。但听曼宁的口气，这甚至都不该是个问题。
“如果你让我们进去，”曼宁说，“我们能击败任何人。”
长角牛队，一如既往地认为，他们理应获得这个机会。
谁又能拒绝他们呢？
他们或许很快就会知道答案了。
Texas Longhorns wide receiver Ryan Wingo (1) fights for yardage against Texas A&M Aggies cornerback Tyreek Chappell (7) during the second half of an NCAA college football game in the Lone Star Showdown in Austin, Texas, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Ricardi B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) runs into the end zone for a score against Texas A&M Aggies during the second half of an NCAA college football game in the Lone Star Showdown in Austin, Texas, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：After beating Texas A&M, Longhorns’ playoff politicking begins
After beating Texas A&M, Longhorns’ playoff politicking begins
AUSTIN – Arch Manning fired Smokey the Cannon, pumped his fist, then made the kind of assumption that comes honestly to any true Texas Longhorn.
He figured he was entitled to more.
But at the end of a season in which he’d been declared a bust and his team had been left for dead, did punching Texas A&M in the gut again really change anything? Wasn’t Friday’s 27-17 trouncing of the third-ranked Aggies at a delirious Royal-Memorial Stadium too little, too late? Did the No. 16 Longhorns really expect the College Football Playoff selection committee to let them in now?
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t,” Manning said.
That answer, as much as anything Manning has done since arriving in Austin, was pure Texas, and it had to make A&M’s misery even more unendurable.
This, after all, had been the Aggies’ dream season. They had their best team in three decades, with a real chance to win their first conference title of the century, and their archrivals finally appeared to be backsliding. And in one night – in one third quarter, really – the Longhorns brought back all of A&M’s traditional November angst, which was bad enough.
If there was any bit of solace for the Aggies, it was that their spot in the playoff was secure, while Texas looked almost certain to be left out.
But here Manning and the Longhorns were late Friday night, dancing under a sky filled with fireworks and drone shows while making exactly the kind of political pitch that had worked for them before.
Remember 21 years ago, when Mack Brown made an extended appeal – either effectively or shamelessly, depending on your point of view – to poll voters in an effort to get the Longhorns into the Bowl Championship Series?
Aaron Rodgers does. Brown’s last-ditch politicking did the job, Texas was invited to the Rose Bowl, and Rodgers’ California Bears were left out.
Now, with a playoff berth at stake, Steve Sarkisian is trying to pull the same trick. And even if his stump speech lacks Brown’s folksy charm, Sarkisian made it apparent Friday he’s not going to come up short in rhetoric, or in statistics, or in commitment to the bit.
He wasted no time. During his postgame TV interview in the middle of the on-field celebration, Sarkisian said “it would be a disservice to our sport” if the 9-3 Longhorns aren’t chosen next week as one of seven at-large teams in the 12-team playoff field.
Later, in his formal press conference, he came armed with talking points and data – no team before Texas had beaten three Top 10 opponents in one regular season since national-champion LSU did it in 2019, he said – along with a willingness to question the credentials of those ranked ahead of the Longhorns.
On one note in particular, he did have a point: If Texas’ opening-week loss to No. 1 Ohio State becomes the deciding reason it’s left out of the field, do the potential drawbacks of scheduling those games outweigh the rewards?
“Quite frankly, it’s comical,” Sarkisian said. “What would (other teams’) records look like if they played those games?”
The flip side, of course, is that none of the teams ranked ahead of the Longhorns lost to Florida. Texas’ early-October debacle against the 3-8 Gators stands as the worst defeat of any team in the running for a playoff bid, and it’s the reason Sarkisian’s team is still multiple notches below Southeastern Conference opponents it beat, like Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
So no matter what happens, the Longhorns probably forfeited their right to be outraged. But the truth is, Oklahoma and Alabama and Miami and Notre Dame and everybody else with multiple losses probably did, too. The bigger the playoff becomes, the more difficult it gets to feel sorry for whoever claims to be snubbed.
Chances are, Sarkisian’s campaigning will go nowhere, especially if the favorites all take care of business over the next week. But a Sooners loss to LSU could open a spot in the field, an Alabama loss to Auburn could open another, and a Miami loss to Pittsburgh would mean the Longhorns would have one less team to leap. Throw in a Michigan loss to Ohio State and a BYU loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, and they’re almost there.
That’s a lot to ask, of course. But to hear Manning tell it, it shouldn’t even be a question.
“If you let us in,” Manning said, “we can beat anyone.”
The Longhorns, as usual, think they’re entitled to that chance.
How could anyone deny them of it?
They might be about to find out.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News