ESPN’s SP+ has predicted the final score of the old rivalry between Arkansas and Texas that will be renewed on Saturday in Austin.
The Longhorns will be trying to shake off a horrible loss in Week 12 at Georgia, where they fell, 35-10, to suffer their 3rd defeat of the season. Texas is now 7-3 overall and clinging to life in its pursuit of a College Football Playoff berth, with a 4-2 SEC mark to go with it. The Longhorns will need to win out and hope for a lot of help to get that Playoff berth, and they will have to start on Saturday by taking care of the 2-8 Razorbacks who are still winless in the SEC at 0-6.
The Horns and Hogs will get the spotlight treatment on Saturday with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC, with all eyes watching to see if Texas can rebound from the Georgia disaster.
ESPN’s SP+ is available for all of the Week 13 matchups, and the model is projecting the favored Longhorns to take care of business on their home field and keep whatever College Football Playoff hopes they have intact. The model has Texas beating Arkansas, 33-23.
Here’s that prediction along with the rest of the Week 13 slate:
The history of the Texas-Arkansas rivalry goes back a long way, way back to 1894, when the Longhorns blanked the Razorbacks, 54-0. Texas also won last year’s meeting in Fayetteville, 20-10, and holds a commanding 57-23 lead in the all-time series.
The Longhorns will have to continue that dominance on Saturday, or those flickering CFP hopes will be gone completely.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
