College football’s shifting playoff landscape may have arrived at the perfect moment for Mike Elko and Texas A&M.
What’s shaping up to be a miserable 2026 season for the Aggies has little to do with the future, at least in theory. Texas A&M entered this year with top-10 expectations and College Football Playoff ambitions, but an anemic offense has left the program headed toward a fight just to make a bowl. That kind of collapse is a brutal reality check - and yet in today’s version of the sport, it doesn’t have to linger for long.
The reason is obvious enough: programs can patch holes fast through the transfer portal, and now the path back looks even cleaner with the reported playoff changes on the way. Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that the long-discussed 24-team College Football Playoff expansion is “nearing a deal,” a development that has felt inevitable for a while even with periodic resistance from various conferences.
For A&M, the timing matters. The Aggies can absorb this season, then reset for a shot at getting back into the national picture once the expanded field arrives as soon as next season. Under a 24-team format, they could realistically be back in the Playoff conversation by 2027.
The ripple effects across the sport are real, too. Conference championship games are now the most likely thing to get squeezed out, simply because the schedule will need room for another playoff weekend. The 12-team era already pushed the postseason earlier, and adding more teams only tightens the calendar further.
There’s plenty about that direction that doesn’t exactly scream good for the long-term health of college football. But in the short term, it lowers the bar for teams like Texas A&M to stay alive in the race. That doesn’t solve the Aggies’ problems, and it doesn’t make the SEC any softer, but it does make the road back a little less punishing.
If the standard really becomes “be ranked and you’re in,” that’s a major change in how the postseason works. Even so, remaining in the national conversation gets easier under that setup. And with A&M’s SEC schedule only getting tougher, the fix still has to start on offense if the Aggies want to matter again in 2027 and beyond.
The recruiting class could help, assuming Elko and his staff hold it together. A&M is expected to have one, possibly two, ready-to-play starters on the offensive line, along with Eric McFarland as a dynamic outside option and Jaden Upshaw as a do-it-all receiver. There are also a host of heavyweights coming on the defensive side.
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For the Longhorns, the result is less about one bad night than the mess it creates around them. Miamis double-overtime win over Florida State has it in position to grab the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2002, and the rest of the poll now has to sort through a weekend that knocked out so many of the presumed front-runners at once. For Texas, the setback arrives at the worst possible time, with the margin for error suddenly a lot thinner and the path back up the rankings far less predictable. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning Suddenly Faces A Texas Question Fans Never Wanted
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Steve Sarkisian has made clear that the evaluation goes beyond one player, but it does include the people behind Manning if he decides a change is needed. KJ Lacey, Dia Bell and MJ Morris are among the options being considered, which says plenty about how seriously Texas is weighing every part of the offense while trying to find a way out of the slump. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning And Texas Suddenly Face A Season-Saving Debate
Week 7 reshaped the national picture in a hurry, and Texas was among the teams feeling the fallout after its loss to unranked Florida put the Longhorns playoff hopes in jeopardy. Around the country, ranked contenders kept tumbling, from Auburns last-minute upset of Georgia to Tennessees defensive win over Alabama, while Ohio State survived Indiana but came away dealing with a quarterback injury. The AP top 25 changed with all of it, and Texas suddenly found itself with far less room for error than it had just a week ago.
For Arch Manning and the Longhorns, the bigger issue is no longer just the loss itself, but how the rest of the season should be handled from here. With the margin for another slip now razor-thin, Texas faces a debate that can define a season: whether to lean into the urgency of chasing a playoff rescue, or treat the remaining schedule with a longer view in mind. In a year when the title race has already been scrambled by chaos, the Longhorns are left sorting out what kind of push still makes sense. [Read more 🡒]