The 2024 college football season has officially come to a close, with the Ohio State Buckeyes defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Monday night to claim t

On Tuesday, the Associated Press also released its final poll for the 2024 football season. Texas ranked fourth behind Ohio State, Notre Dame and Oregon. This marked the 22nd time since 1936 that the Longhorns have been a top-five team in the AP's final poll.

There’s always next year. But if Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples of On3.com are right, 2025 might be a banner year for the Horns. The two analysts have put together a “way-to-early” 2025 Top 25 and the pair lists Texas as the No. 1 team in the nation.

Texas, which lost to eventual national champion Ohio State in the CFP semifinals, was the highest-ranked team from the SEC.

Texas will be coming off a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance and looking to top a 13-3 season that ended in the Cotton Bowl. It's already been a busy 2025 for the Longhorns, with plenty of transfer portal activity and a reported new extension for head coach Steve Sarkisian.

The Texas Longhorns have come so agonizingly close to the national championship game in each of the past two seasons, but when the big game kicks off on Monday night, they'll once again be watching from home.