Aggies should be in
The Aggies made their case with a dominant win over Tennessee. Now, it’s all up to the Committee. By: Slim Slocum
Slim Slocum beating back all the haters on Twitter for the last 24 hours.
The moment has arrived. The moment of truth. Did the Aggies do enough to punch their first ticket to the College Football Playoff?
The answer to that question is emphatically yes. Just take it from Jimbo, who went from deferring to the biggest Aggie lobbyist in a day: 7-straight SEC wins by double digits; No SEC team that has finished a season with just one loss has been left out of the Playoff; A top 4 win over a Florida team that took Alabama to the wire in the SEC Championship.
No matter what the media tries to make the narrative, the Aggies have dominated in wins over SEC opponents, even if it wasn’t always pretty. The Ags even beat Florida in nearly every statistical category in that game.
The one blemish is a convincing loss to Alabama. And that is fair criticism. We could go on about how that game would have been closer had a few things bounced our way, but the fact is that’s football and they didn’t. We got thumped. But would I relish the chance to play the Tide again? Hell yes I would. The Aggies are rolling, and this is a different team than they were game 2 of the season. And watching UF give Bama all they could handle last night, I can say it: We want Bama.
So other than A&M’s resume, why should the Ags be in? Because Notre Dame got exposed yesterday and Ohio State should be disqualified due to the ineptness of the Big Ten and only playing 6 games.
Conference champs? Poppycock.
After watching Ohio State get taken to the wire by Indiana earlier this year, and then watching them struggle mightily against Northwestern yesterday, don’t you think it’s VERY possible that this team would get beaten if they played a full schedule, or even 9 games like the Ags? With their history of regular season choke jobs and their play this season...me thinks yes. This team no longer passes the “eye test” that the media has been beating like a dead horse to keep the Buckeyes in the conversation. 6-0 doesn’t cut it, Jack.
And Notre Dame...yes, they beat an obviously hampered Clemson earlier. At full strength, does Clemson win that game earlier this year? Yes. Clemson would have boat raced Notre Dame at full strength with Trevor Lawrence and James Skalski, just like they did last night on national television. Yes, they have the Clemson win and a solid win over North Carolina. But does this team deserve to be in the Playoff after getting waxed like that last night? No chance.
I’ve also seen the question about why it matters that Notre Dame lost now and A&M lost earlier in the season, shouldn’t it be chalked up to one loss and compared as such? No. If you’ve watched this or any sport for a long time, you know that momentum matters. A team can look like crap early in the year, only to figure it out and catch fire at the end. That’s the story of A&M, who has momentum and is trending up. The Irish on the other hand? No momentum after running into a solid orange and purple wall, and trending down.
So are we in? I have hope that the Committee will do the right thing. They have shown that they could care less about what the media says for weeks now (a good thing). Our challenge is to overcome the brands, and I’m not sure we’ll have enough to get in due to the brand power of the 4 ahead of us.
R.C Slocum, my mythical father, is on the Committee, and while I know he can’t vote on our inclusion or be in the room for the conversation, I sure hope he’s been bending ears outside the room. If there was any time to call in the favors, it’s now, coach.
Cross your fingers and say your prayers, because 11:00 AM is just under an hour away.
