How many wins would it take for Texas A&M football to make the expanded playoff?

How many wins would it take for Texas A&M football to make the expanded 12-team playoff in 2024?

The 2024 season will be an extremely pivotal one for Texas A&M football. Not only is it new head coach Mike Elko's first season at the helm in College Station, but with Texas and OU joining the SEC—not to mention Nick Saban being absent on the Alabama sideline for the first time in a decade and a half—this is a season of change all around the sport.

Nothing would announce a new era in College Station better than the Aggies making the 12-team playoff. That may seem like a pipe dream to many A&M fans, but it actually might be much more achievable than many are thinking.

Given the schedule that the Aggies play, and given the criteria for making the playoff, all it may take for A&M to make the playoff is getting to double-digit wins—or, maybe, even just nine.

Of course, that relies on a lot of other factors, such as what games are wins and losses, etc. If we're talking ten wins, I'd think that splitting the four big home games and winning the ones you're supposed to on the road could be a solid case. If your resume contains victories over two of Notre Dame, LSU, Texas, and Missouri—all preseason top-15 teams—then you'd be sitting pretty.

The nine-win scenario would be a fringe case, in my opinion. Here's one way I see that playing out: losses to Missouri and LSU at home and an early, close loss to Florida. That means you have season-opening and season-closing wins over Notre Dame and Texas, respectively, and a couple of stumbles to quality squads in the middle, as well as one in a tough environment on the road early in a new coach's tenure.

I think we'd need to see some other dominoes fall in this instance, but that's one way I could see it playing out for A&M to make the playoff. None of these scenarios seem very far-fetched for this Aggie squad, which is extremely exciting.