The College Football Playoff field has been set, and it will not include the Texas A&M Aggies. Despite a fantastic one-loss season, in which the only loss came against the No. 1 seeded Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M could not manage to get a foot in the door after sitting on the No. 5 ranking for the past few weeks. Is it possible LSU played a role in keeping Texas A&M out of the playoff?
Maybe?
For starters, let us set a few things straight. Frist, Alabama was not missing the playoff even if the Tide lost in the SEC Championship Game to Florida. Even if the Tide lost, they would have had the upper hand on the Aggies thanks to a head-to-head result in their favor. Second, Clemson was not about to be left out as the ACC champion and a thorough victory over Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game.
And say what you will about the number of games Ohio State played, but the selection committee made it pretty clear that was not as big an issue as Texas A&M folks may have wanted it to be. An undefeated Ohio State with a Big Ten championship was close to a shoo-in for the playoff, as their No. 3 seed would seem to indicate.
The debate really came down to whether or not one-loss Texas A&M should be in above one-loss Notre Dame. The two teams ended up with similar profiles to compare. In the end, the Irish were given the slight nod ahead of the Aggies in part because of their best win being against Clemson (No. 1 at the time) in the regular season and their only loss coming against Clemson with Trevor Lawerence in the ACC Championship Game. Texas A&M lost by a wider margin to Alabama than Notre Dame did to Clemson, which was probably equal in value in the eyes of the selection committee.
So what held Texas A&M back? The answer may be LSU.
Texas A&M dominated LSU, but not enough?
At the end of November, LSU was reeling as they headed to College Station. Texas A&M’s defense was clicking and held LSU to just seven points. But the Tigers defense did a solid job of not allowing Texas A&M’s offense and quarterback Kellen Mond to go off. The result, a 20-6 decision was easy to dismiss as not a decisive enough victory to help the argument for Texas A&M to move up in the rankings.
On the same day, No. 4 Clemson dominated Pitt to rebound from their double-overtime road loss the previous week in South Bend against the Fighting Irish. Ohio State had a game wiped out due to COVID issues that same week, a week after topping an improved Indiana Hoosiers program, a top-10 matchup. And Notre Dame went on the road to defeat No. 25 North Carolina by two scores, with the defense holding the Tar Heel’s explosive offense to just 17 points.
Had Texas A&M put more than 20 points, perhaps more than 30 points on the board against an LSU team that was scuffling with a defense that had been exposed all season long, Texas A&M may have fared better in the eyes of the committee. Enough to change the ranking? Who knows. But a 20-7 victory given where LSU was at the time did not help the cause for the Aggies in a system that can be swayed by style points.
LSU knocked off Texas A&M’s best win
One of the highlights of Texas A&M’s profile was a high-quality win over SEC East champion Florida. The Gators’ only loss of the season was to the Aggies, a 41-38 game back on Oct. 10. That was a week after Texas A&M was squashed by Alabama.
For a while, Texas A&M could hang its hat on having one of the best wins of the season, with Notre Dame’s victory over Clemson being the only other real contender for the best quality win. But then Florida fell into two-loss territory when they were upset at home by LSU last week. Not only did LSU throw a wrench in Florida’s playoff hopes, but it may have damaged Texas A&M’s standing just a little bit too. And it did so at a time when the Aggies needed all the help it could get.
Texas A&M got none of that help. Their best win of the season ended up being a victory over what turned out to be a three-loss Florida (two-loss if you choose to not hold conference title games against Alabama against the Gators), and Texas A&M’s final games of the season were wins against unranked LSU, unranked Auburn, and unranked Tennessee. Texas A&M ended the season playing two ranked opponents, and they went 1-1 against them.
The bottom line? Win all of your games and do it in a decisive fashion. No mercy!