Sarkisian took Texas to the SEC championship game in its debut season in college football's best conference. One of eight teams left standing in the College Football Playoff, the Longhorns are the only program to qualify for the CFP in each of the last two years. That's much, much better than fuzzy socks.

Following some pricy tickets to see the Longhorns face Clemson in Texas’ home stadium, things are much cheaper this time around at a neutral site that is fairly far from both campuses. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is 1,841 miles from Arizona State’s Tempe campus and is 928 miles from Texas’ campus.

The Texas Longhorns and the Arizona State Sun Devils have only faced each other once in program history. In 2007, the Longhorns traveled to Arizona to defeat the hosts 52-34. Since then, the two programs haven't met.