Texas football will return a key part of its program for the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl.

And no, it’s not a player or coach.

Texas’ live mascot, Bevo, will make his first appearance at a CFP game this season as he was previously barred from attending the Longhorns’ Peach Bowl game against Arizona State, as Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta cited room in the facility as a concern.

Bevo was also not allowed to attend the SEC championship game, which was at the same location as the Peach Bowl.

Bevo was a part of a notable storyline between Texas and Georgia at the SEC championship game, as the two programs’ last matchup before Texas joined the SEC was at the 2019 Sugar Bowl, when Bevo charged at Uga, Georgia’s live bulldog mascot.

The SEC, of course, didn’t want history to repeat itself in that instance.

Texas hopes to use Bevo’s legendary powers to propel it to victory and a national championship berth when it faces Ohio State on Jan. 10.

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Colorado coach Jared Bednar was upset that the Buffalo Sabres were allowed to score while Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood was lying injured in the net, calling the decision ‘insanity.’

Colorado’s Parker Kelly had tangled with Buffalo’s Zach Benson, who fell onto the back of Wedgewood’s leg in Thursday’s game. The Sabres retrieved the loose puck and Benson scored on a wraparound.

Bednar challenged for goalie interference ‘to give (officials) another chance to do the right thing’ and was overruled.

‘The referees said it wasn’t blown because we put their guy into Scott,” he told reporters after the game. “I said I don’t give a (expletive). He’s hurt.”

Bednar said referees blow the whistle to stop play “all the time for (injured) regular players because of player safety” and cited several examples from recent games.

“For them to just let it go and then allow the goal is insanity to me,” he said. “It’s a player safety thing.”

There’s precedent for allowing the goal. In the 2019 playoffs, Dallas Stars goalie Ben Bishop dropped to the ice after being hit in the collarbone by a shot. The St. Louis Blues maintained possession of the puck and scored against the motionless goalie.

The applicable rule is 8.1, which states: ‘When a player is injured so that he cannot continue to play or go to his bench, the play shall not be stopped until the injured player’s team has secured control of the puck. If the player’s team is in control of the puck at the time of injury, play shall be stopped immediately unless his team is in a scoring position.’

Colorado never got control of the puck, but Bednar said officials never follow the rule. He said the play should have been blown dead as soon as the puck went to the corner because it was clear the goalie was hurt and wasn’t going to get up.

“If they (the Sabres) would have loaded up (Rasmus) Dahlin for a one-timer for a 105 mph slap shot, they’re going to just let it (expletive) happen with our goalie down in the net? You can’t do it.”

Bednar said he expected to get a call from the league about his postgame criticism.

The Avalanche killed off the penalty for an unsuccessful challenge and rallied to win 6-5 in overtime.

Wedgewood was acquired in November as the Avalanche remade their goaltending with two trades. Though he was able to recover quickly from a leg injury earlier in his career, Bednar said Friday that he expects the goalie will be out week-to-week.

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Boise State football offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, a 42-year coaching veteran, announced he’s stepping away from the game on Thursday night via Facebook.

Koetter will be replaced by Broncos co-offensive coordinator Nate Potter, according to multiple reports.

The longtime college football and NFL coach cited numerous reasons as to why he might be leaving his position, although he didn’t explicitly state a specific cause. Koetter, 65, was in his first season as Boise State’s offensive coordinator and helped lead the Broncos to a No. 3 seed and CFP quarterfinals appearance before falling to Penn State.

Koetter previously served as the head coach at Boise State from 1998-2000 and Arizona State from 2001-06 before making the jump to the NFL as an offensive coordinator. He called plays for the Jaguars, Falcons and Buccaneers before being named Tampa Bay’s head coach in 2016, a position he held until 2018.

Koetter was then the Falcons’ offensive coordinator from 2019-20 before originally retiring from coaching and returning as an offensive analyst for the Broncos in 2022.

Here’s why Koetter is stepping down:

Why is Dirk Koetter retiring?

Koetter, upon announcing he’s stepping away from coaching, cited numerous concerns with the current age of college football, despite not explicitly stating the reasoning for his decision.

In a post to his Facebook page, Koetter noted realignment, name, image and likeness, the transfer portal and lack of a college football governing body as things changing in the sport he disagrees with.

‘College football is changing rapidly and maybe not for the better,’ Koetter wrote. ‘Conference realignment, roster limitations, transfer portal, NIL, lack of a governing body with any power are all issues that have to be dealt with.’

Koetter also asked for Boise State fans to donate to ‘The Horseshoe Collective,’ so it can have a better chance at retaining players who he said are getting offered huge NIL deals to transfer to another school.

‘We are behind right now in the NIL game,’ he wrote. ‘Our best players are getting offered between 2 and 10 times what we can offer. We are losing recruits in the portal to schools that are just flat outbidding us. … Money is an issue.’

Koetter is expected to stay on the staff in a different role, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The time has come for the SEC’s fans, its media machine and especially its commissioner to fess up to the reality that has simmered under the surface this entire college football season.

The world has changed significantly. And the old, reliable narrative that there’s a different quality of football in the SEC than other leagues is now more myth than reality.

Isn’t admitting a problem the first step toward salvation? Let’s tell it like it is — the SEC is a basketball league now. 

OK, OK. That might have been a low blow. But Notre Dame 23, Georgia 10 is a quarterfinal result that should resonate for a long time to come — especially in the context of the SEC’s miserable postseason. 

A few weeks ago, you had some of the biggest names in the ESPN apparatus devoted to the idea that its most important college sports business partner, the SEC, got short shrift by the College Football Playoff selection committee because only three teams made the field. 

Now, the league is down to one team — Texas, which wasn’t even an SEC member 12 months ago — and was a desperate fourth-and-13 conversation from being completely shut out of the semifinals. And when you combine it with the SEC’s 1-4 record in postseason games against the Big Ten, something has shifted. This is different. 

A cynic might say that once it became legal to pay players, the SEC no longer had an advantage in, um, talent acquisition. But a more generous interpretation of the current climate doesn’t even need to invoke tales of nefariousness. It’s simply a fact that stockpiling talent is harder now, and recruits who might have been ticketed for the SEC in past years are organically landing at a wider group of programs. 

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By the way, that’s not just an SEC vs. Big Ten or SEC vs. Big 12 phenomenon. It’s an SEC vs. SEC phenomenon. 

When Ole Miss gets a couple of guys who might have gone to Alabama, and South Carolina lures a couple of guys who might have gone to Georgia, and Texas A&M snags a couple who might have gone to LSU, everyone moves more toward the middle. 

This is not Urban Meyer’s SEC. It’s not Nick Saban’s SEC. It’s not even Kirby Smart’s SEC anymore. 

Back in December 2023, when it looked like the SEC might get shut out of the final four-team CFP, commissioner Greg Sankey appeared on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ and said: “That’s not the real world of college football. Let’s go back to Sesame Street, so we’re really basic. One of these things is not like the other.”

Well, which Sesame Street theme would describe the current state of affairs? 

Count von Count might highlight the following simple math: In three CFP games, the SEC was outscored 96-66 and outgained 1,227-927. Just imagine if Texas hadn’t found a way to pull that one out Wednesday against an Arizona State team that way too many SEC coaches believed to be inferior and unworthy of the Playoff because it didn’t have to survive the SEC gauntlet. 

Uh-huh. Sure.

See, the schadenfreude isn’t really about rooting for Cinderella or taking down the big, bad bully. It’s the utter arrogance of believing that you can continue getting the benefit of the doubt, year after year, in a sport that has changed as dramatically and as quickly as this one. 

No one can dispute that the SEC’s very best teams were pretty dominant from 2006 through 2022, with a few notable but rare exceptions. 

But let’s go back to Sesame Street. Remember the song that goes, “These are the people in your neighborhood?”

Well, the SEC is a bad neighbor. It wrecks other conferences through expansion, it bullies its peers into submission with threats of doing something dramatically vague to pull away from college sports as we knew them, and it demands postseason structures in not just football but all the major sports to stack the deck in its favor. 

Maybe a little humility — and perspective — is in order for Dear Leader Sankey. 

Before Thursday, Notre Dame had been in BCS/CFP scenarios three times in the last 12 years. The scores of those games:

Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14 

Clemson 30, Notre Dame 3

Alabama 31, Notre Dame 14

Though the SEC can’t claim credit for Clemson, the point is that Notre Dame — a truly great, historic program — could not compete at this level. It was a physical mismatch every time. 

That’s no longer true. 

The SEC hasn’t physically mashed anyone of note this postseason, and the 2024 calendar year both began and ended with Alabama losing straight up to Michigan. Though the stakes this week weren’t as high as last season’s semifinals, the data points are piling up. You cannot honestly make the case anymore that even the SEC’s best teams have some overwhelming physical edge. Even in its victory, Texas got pushed around pretty good.

Can the pendulum swing back? Of course. Coaches adjust, and programs that don’t like their results make changes. At some point, the SEC will be back on top because that’s what happens in a normal, healthy sport. Ebbs and flows, true competition.

That’s the way it should be — not the entitled, “we won all these championships under a completely different set of rules, so you must kneel to us now” baloney that comes far too naturally to people all over that league. 

It’s time for a new act. It’s time to be honest. It’s time to face facts: You’re just like everyone else now.