Texas A&M Football: What if the Aggies never left the Big 12 in 2012?

The Fiesta Bowl Against Oregon

Texas A&M defeats Oregon 26-25

On to Oregon. Texas A&M’s first BCS bowl in one of the last years of the BCS. The Fiesta Bowl, home of the Boise State triumph over the Oklahoma Sooners in 2006. Home of the 2008 national championship game pitting those same Ducks against the Auburn Tigers. Can the Aggies beat the Marcus Mariota led Oregon Ducks?

A close victory to close out the year in Arizona. With so much talent returning, the Aggies look to be even better the next year. Johnny, in his last game as a redshirt freshman, was 17 of 24 with 296 yards and two touchdowns. He added 78 rushing yards. His counterpart, Marcus Mariota, was 10 of 18 for 171 yards. Oregon stayed close in my game on the back of Kenjon Barner, who ran for 157 yards on 29 carries and three touchdowns. His longest touchdown run was 77 yards. The Aggie rush defense gets abused again. Texas A&M wins, 31-28.

Again, this is all extremely hypothetical, but the best sports arguments are. We’re going to forever argue MJ v LeBron, or wonder if Steve Young could fling it in today’s NFL. There are too many variables to really know whether or not A&M could have won the Big 12 in 2012 and gone to a BCS bowl.

The site that I used is great, and I would recommend anyone curious to use it. You can match up this 2012 Texas A&M team against the 2002 Miami Hurricanes (don’t act like you don’t know Miami would win). You can make a “dream team” of players from teams and eras. Have Johnny Manziel hand the ball to Bo Jackson. It’s a fun site to play around on and experiment with. Again, that site is here

Next: Which schools make most sense for SEC expansion?

In later weeks, we will look at successive seasons for the Aggies. Hypothetical 2012 was great, but that was a great team. 2013 took a step back, and we’ll see how they do in the Big 12.