After Texas A&M beat Tennessee, 34-13, on Saturday, Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher lobbied one more time to get his team in the College Football Playoff.
Going into this weekend, Texas A&M was ranked No. 5 by the College Football Playoff committee, sitting behind Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State. Unlike many of Saturday’s games, the Aggies matchup against the Volunteers wasn’t for a conference championship. (Alabama and Florida will play for the SEC title.)
But with their eighth win of the season, Fisher argued that they should be among the top-4 teams when the committee announces the playoff bracket Sunday.
Related: Breaking down the potential College Football Playoff scenarios for conference title weekend
🗣️ THAT'S OUR COACH.#GigEm pic.twitter.com/OyYcZT2CRj
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) December 19, 2020
When asked after the Tennessee game why Texas A&M should be ranked among the top-4 teams and be invited to the playoff, Fisher said:
“You want me to tell you why? We played the best league in ball. We got beat by the No. 1 team in the country, who also had another superstar on the team when they played us named [Jaylen] Waddle. People ain’t even playing with him now. No team in SEC history has ever lost but one game and [not] been in it. The other leagues, I love ’em all. But if we can’t play in this league and be in the playoff, something’s wrong.”
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Fisher pointed to his team’s overall success against an all-SEC schedule this year as a reason why he thinks it should make the playoff. Including Texas A&M, four SEC teams are on the College Football Playoff’s rankings, and all four are in the top-10.
Texas A&M is now 8-1, and, as Fisher noted, its only loss this season was to top-ranked Alabama — 52-24 back in early October. Since then, the Aggies have been on a win streak, including beating now-No. 7 Florida. Georgia is the other SEC team in the rankings and did not play the Aggies this season.
“Seven straight SEC wins,” Fisher said after the game. “Some schools ain’t even playing seven games.
“I don’t care what league you’re in. If you’re gonna pick the best four teams, we’re one of them.”
As we explained earlier this week, the Aggies have a path to the playoff, but they’d likely need upsets in games played by the top-4 teams. Ohio State survived a close call against Northwestern in the Big Ten championship game, which may have been Texas A&M’s best chance to replace a top-4 team. The Buckeyes are now 6-0, and Fisher’s comment about the number of games some teams have played seems like a clear jab at Ohio State.
At the time this was published, the Clemson-Notre Dame game was still in progress, and Alabama and Florida don’t kick off until Saturday night.
Fisher continued, via ESPN:
“We do deserve to be in it,” Fisher said. “You’re gonna hear me say it now. We deserve to be in it. Now the committee, that’s their thing, but I believe that firmly. I’ve watched the games, I’ve seen everybody. We can play with anybody.”
Added Fisher: “Eight wins in the SEC, I wanna see somebody else do it.”
The four College Football Playoff teams will be announced Sunday, and the two semifinal games are on New Year’s Day.
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