Texas A&M is coming off of a season where they made the college football playoff for the first time in school history, after narrowly missing it back in the 2020 season. Just like that year, though, the committee did the Aggies no favors, pairing them up with a Miami team that, by some metrics, should have won the national championship.
With a solid offseason already underway, though, Texas A&M is hopeful to make it back to the college football playoff field in the upcoming season. With further expansion rumors lurking as the decision-makers eye a field of sixteen— or even twenty-four, in some corners— fans have been waiting to see how things may look different next year.
An announcement has finally been made, however, which could be good or bad news for the Aggies. While the playoff field will look the same on its face, there are some slight changes that could shift how things look.
College football playoff field staying at 12, but important changes still coming
After Notre Dame and others were stung by their exclusion from this year's playoff field, you had to know some changes were coming. What exactly those were was up for discussion, but it's now taking shape.
Changes in 2026 playoff: auto bids to each Power 4 champ (regardless of ranking) & Notre Dame guaranteed at-large bid if ranked in Top 12 in final poll https://t.co/zPOpcXBBut
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) January 23, 2026
The terminology of the "top five-ranked conference champions" has changed to include specific conferences only— the ACC, the Big 12, the SEC, and the Big 10. This comes on the heels of the ACC champion being left out in Duke, and James Madison and Tulane making the field as champions only to get pasted in the first round.
This also carves out a niche for Notre Dame, who was ranked 11th but left out thanks to JMU and Tulane obtaining auto-bids. At some point, they may actually have to join a conference, but it is not today.
If 2026 format existed in 2025:
— College Football Nerds (@CFBNerds) January 23, 2026
Duke, Tulane, and Notre Dame in
Miami, BYU, JMU out https://t.co/VmOnWsk21U
Surprisingly, this comes on the heels of a season where Miami— who would have been left out per these guidelines— nearly won the national championship. That's an immediately obvious flaw in this new guidance, but it may not end up mattering. This was a crazy season overall, of course, which precipitated many of these changes.
So how does this affect the Aggies? If the SEC beats each other up, they will not lose the ability to make the field— which was a faint wory if present at all, of course. It also makes it more difficult to match up against patsy opponents like JMU and Tulane in the first round, so if the Aggies do qualify, they will likely have another tough first-round matchup.