Well, Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns found a way to find some offense in the second half as they went ahead and beat Mike Elko and his No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies in Austin on Saturday. The Longhorns and Aggies struggled to get any sort of momentum on offense for much of this game, but UT ended up coming out on top.
Which is remarkable and will almost certainly introduce layers of weird, fun, chaotic College Football Playoff scenarios. That includes some that might help the Red Raiders a little bit.
So, shoutout to UT beating A&M by 10 points. That’s great.
How could the Longhorns beating the Aggies potentially help Texas Tech in the College Football Playoff seeding?
It’s actually pretty straightforward (for the most part) and then also maybe, possibly a little quirky and convoluted. The biggest thing that needs to happen at this point is that Texas Tech needs to beat West Virginia and then also get a win (over what will almost certainly be the BYU Cougars as the Red Raiders’ opponent) in the Big 12 championship game.
Let’s look at how this most directly impacts the Red Raiders first.
In the most recent College Football Playoff rankings, here’s what the top 25 teams looked like:
- Ohio State
- Indiana
- Texas A&M
- Georgia
- Texas Tech
- Oregon
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- BYU
- Miami
- Utah
- Vanderbilt
- Michigan
- Texas
- USC
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Arizona State
- SMU
- Pittsburgh
- Georgia Tech
- Tulane
- Arizona
If you’ll look at that top five cluster, you’ll see that the Aggies are ahead of Georgia and Texas Tech. Given that Texas A&M just lost to the Longhorns by double digits, there’s a not insignificant chance that the Aggies will drop below the Red Raiders (which would position Joey McGuire’s team to get into the top four and secure a first round bye).
Also, there are some other possible impacts that could take place here.
Well, Texas is now on the verge of making it into the College Football Playoff at 9-3 as an at large team. You should certainly expect the Longhorns to jump up a bit from their current No. 16 spot, especially if we see teams like Michigan, Vanderbilt, and BYU somehow take a loss between now and when the CFP field is set.
And given that Michigan, Vanderbilt, and BYU will all almost certainly face some sort of test at some point in the next couple weeks, the Longhorns will likely be positioned nicely for a shot at making the field this year.
It also impacts the SEC title game, which will now feature the Georgia Bulldogs meeting up with either the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Ole Miss Rebels. Given that Alabama might have its hands full in the Iron Bowl and we still don’t know where Lane Kiffin is going to go (if he decides to leave at all), things could get weird for the Southeastern Conference!
Which might also help Texas Tech move up a bit should Georgia somehow stumble in the SEC Championship Game against either Alabama or Ole Miss.
But again, all of this hinges on the Red Raiders’ ability to go out and keep winning games. Beat the West Virginia Mountaineers and then follow that up with a win in the Big 12 title game. Don’t let this opportunity disappear.