If you’re reading this and you’re not a Texas A&M football fan, your first instinct may be to make fun of me for even suggesting that the Aggies can still make the College Football Playoff. And to a certain extent, you’d be in the right to do so.
That said, it may not be as far-fetched as you think. Allow me to explain.
For starters, there is nothing normal about this season in college football. The transfer portal has made it a lot easier to gear up your team in a hurry, leading to a handful of surprise teams like Michigan State, which is a team that was projected to finish last in their division and is now in the top ten of the AP Poll. On the other hand, some of the best teams, at least according to the preseason AP Top-25, have been struggling.
This is the year that a two-loss team would make the College Football Playoff
Unfortunately for Texas A&M, their two losses both came at the hands of other SEC teams. Their losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State make Jimbo Fisher’s hopes of appearing in the SEC Championship game even slimmer than they already were.
Still, the SEC could be a mess this year. Alabama already dropped a game to Texas A&M and almost lost to Florida a couple of weeks ago. Georgia looks unbeatable at the moment, but outside of the Bulldogs, there isn’t another team in college football that seems like a College Football Playoff lock.
We’ve had a record number of teams in the top-15 lose this year and it seems unlikely that the chaos is over. If there’s ever been a year that a two-loss team can sneak in, it’s 2021.
The Texas A&M football team will be an entirely different squad by the end of the season
It’s important to remember that the Texas A&M football team has been playing without a starting offensive lineman and without their starting quarterback. To reiterate, they just beat Alabama without a starting offensive lineman and without their starting quarterback. That’s really good.
This team has something that we haven’t seen from a two-loss team looking to make the playoff — an excuse for their two losses.
It’s clear that Jimbo Fisher’s team has a high ceiling. If they’re able to play their best football to finish the season, there may not be a hotter team in the game. If Haynes King returns and his offense puts up numbers, what argument is there to be made against the Aggies being in the College Football Playoff?
Again, this probably won’t happen, but it’s worth entertaining the idea.