There were some important college football games on Friday with massive College Football Playoff implications. Here are some key takeaways from the biggest of those games.
Texas A&M misses chances at SEC championship
No. 3 Texas A&M was facing a win-and-in situation for the SEC championship on Friday night, only needing to beat arch-rival No. 16 Texas to clinch its spot in the SEC Championship Game next week.
It did not get that win, dropping a 27-17 decision to Texas, and ending its chances at an SEC title for this season.
The Aggies loss opens the door for either Alabama or Ole Miss to play for the conference championship against Georgia. If Alabama beats Auburn in the Iron Bowl, it will be Alabama and Georgia meeting next week in Atlanta.
If Alabama loses, Ole Miss will play Georgia.
The Aggies should still be in good shape for an at-large spot with only one loss, but there are some serious concerns starting to emerge. In Texas A&M’s last two games against Power Five teams, it barely escaped a 31-30 win against a bad South Carolina team, and then lost by double-digits to Texas on Friday.
That is not exactly going into the playoffs playing their best football.
Does Texas still have a chance?
Now the campaigning is set to begin for the Longhorns as a potential at-large team.
The Longhorns have three losses, which would seem to be a big obstacle. But they now have wins over the No. 3 team (Texas A&M), the No. 8 team (Oklahoma) and No. 14 team (Vanderbilt), while also having a tough, one-score loss on the road at No. 1 Ohio State to open the season.
The Longhorns are going to yell those points from the mountain tops over the next week. But will that be enough to overcome a blowout loss to Georgia and a really bad loss to Florida?
We will see. But they are certainly going to campaign for it.
Ole Miss, Indiana take care of business
Sometimes you have to worry about rivalry games because weird things can happen, even when they seem to be mismatches on paper.
But sometimes the more talented team shines and simply dominates.
That happened in both No. 2 Indiana’s 56-3 rout of Purdue, and No. 7 Ole Miss with its 38-19 win over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
Now Ole Miss has to wait for head coach Lane Kiffin’s decision on his future on Saturday as well as its chances at an SEC Championship, while Indiana simply has to wait to see if Ohio State will lose to Michigan and allow the Hoosiers to jump over them for the No. 1 ranking going into conference championship week.
North Texas gets one step closer to playoff spot
With its 52-25 blowout win over Temple, North Texas clinched its spot in the AAC Championship Game and is still very much alive for a playoff spot as the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion.
Now the Mean Green have to watch Saturday’s games to see who they will face in the AAC Championship Game.
If No. 24 Tulane wins against Charlotte, it will host the AAC Championship Game.
But if Tulane loses, the AAC Championship Game will be hosted by North Texas against Navy.
No matter what happens on Saturday, or next week, this is still one of the most successful seasons in North Texas program history and the first time it has ever won 11 games in a single season.
