What the Texas A&M football team has to do to move up in CFP rankings

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the year were not kind to the Texas A&M football team. The Aggies, despite being one of the hottest teams in the entire country, was ranked at the 14th spot in the committee’s rankings.

This, in itself, was not necessarily a controversial idea. Rather, the controversy comes in when you see that Alabama, a team that Texas A&M defeated, is at the No. 1 spot in the rankings. I rambled about this through goggles of anger last night, but in short, Texas A&M seemingly got the worst draw of anybody in the rankings.

And now that we know where the Aggies stand in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee, we can reassess what this team’s goals should look like.

The Texas A&M football team needs to amplify each goal that has already existed

Granted, I’ve never spoken of specific goals per se, but I’ve made it clear that this Aggie team has to win out if they want any chance of reaching the College Football Playoff. That much was obvious, as a two-loss team has never gained admission, much less a three-loss team.

Now, I’m not sure winning out, even with an SEC Championship under their belt, would be quite enough this season. Instead, the Aggies have to beat their opponents into submission over the next few weeks.

Jimbo Fisher’s squad has to do this with a tough slate that includes No. 13 Auburn and No. 16 Ole Miss.

And even though two wins against ranked teams would seem like a big accomplishment, the committee has made one thing obvious with their current positioning of the Texas A&M football team — the Aggies’ two ugly losses from earlier in the year will have a say in whether or not they gain admission to the four-team playoff.

This is even more jarring when you consider the fact that Texas A&M took down the committee’s No. 2 team, meaning that the bad heavily outweighed the good in this situation. Enough so for them to rank Texas A&M below their ranking in the AP Poll.

Over the next few weeks, Texas A&M has to prove that they’re one of the best teams in college football and they can’t be passive about it. It has to be clear that the team that lost to two unranked teams earlier in the year is dead and gone.

Can they do it? It’s impossible to say right now, but I’m not sure that they have an option.