2. Texas A&M at Tennessee
LINE: Texas A&M -14
ATS PICK: Texas A&M
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
Let’s put it this way – Texas A&M needs to win this by more than 14.
It’s going to be an interesting Saturday morning.
The Big 12 and Big Ten championships start at noon, but neither one of those have that much to do with the College Football Playoff – unless Ohio State loses to Northwestern, or if the Big 12 Championship is a total wipeout.
Let’s assume, though, that the Big 12 champion can’t get over the hump and Ohio State wins. Let’s also assume that Alabama takes out Florida in the SEC Championship.
The ACC Championship stated at 4:00 ET – after Texas A&M and Tennessee will be done. If Texas A&M loses, or if it isn’t all that impressive, this is probably done, and there’s no real College Football Playoff drama …
Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Ohio State, in some order.
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However, if Texas A&M destroys Tennessee and looks the part, and Notre Dame beats Clemson, there’s going to be a very, very strong argument for the Aggies since they only have one loss and Clemson will have already proven it’s not better than Notre Dame. Even weirder will be if Clemson annihilates the Irish, then it would be a Texas A&M vs. Notre Dame fight in that committee room for the fourth spot.
Basically, there aren’t enough style points available for Texas A&M to come up with.
Tennessee was able to come up with a heartbreaking – at least to the investment crowd – late score against Florida, it lost by 13 to Auburn, and it’s coming off a blowout win over Vanderbilt.
Texas A&M’s defense has the ability to shut down the middling Vol offense cold, the running game should work even though Tennessee has been solid on the defensive front over the last few games, and …
There won’t be any style points, because that’s not what Texas A&M does. However, it’ll pull away early and get a big game out of the D to cover the 14.