We should have been in over Florida, but ESPN shut that down immediately before it became a question with their "no one wants to see the repeat of an earlier game". And then helped push OU with their margin of victories OU had over the season...
As for rankings mattering, we've always bitched about overrated SEC teams in the top ten only kept there to feed other SEC teams rankings when they play, because rankings do matter the entire season. The playoff committee watches about as much football as the pollsters. Like the pollsters, they rely of ESPN to tell them where to rank teams.
If Texas won out, but slowly climbed the ranking to finally make into the top 8 late in the year, they won't jump someone like ND, tOSU,or UG with the same record, even if one of them have a lucky survival game. Texas needs to be close to the top 10 like asap to be in position to jump teams if they struggle. If we beat TCU, and end up around 20th, then beat OU and end up 11 or 12th, it could be hard to crack into the playoffs before the season ends, but if we were ranked around 20th now then around end up around 15th after thrashing the roaches, 9th or 10th after pounding OU, breaking into the playoffs would be much easier. It's easier to climb into playoff spots with dominating performances from inside the top 10 than outside of it, the last 1/4 of the season.
Us inside the top 10 after OU would have us in playoff range even if OU implodes. Us outside the top 10, could easily need help from others to break into a playoff spot... Not that I see playoffs happening this year for us. I think we have another loss or two. Hopefully not