Texas A&M football He knows what he needs to do to get to the SEC championship game and the bottom line is College Football Playoff:

Just keep winning.

The Aggies, ranked No. 15 in the U.S. LBM Coaches Poll and CFP rankings, were ranked No. 15 that Saturday. defeated New Mexico State 38-3 at home. Quarterback Marcel Reed threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns, and running back Amari Daniels had an 84-yard score on just five carries in just one half of the shutout.

RELATING TO: Texas A&M looks to beat New Mexico State ahead of season-defining games

Elsewhere in Week 12, SEC Georgia beat Tennessee It fell to Kansas in a matchup between two CFP contenders and BYU. Will any of these results matter for the Aggies? What is A&M’s best path to the 12-team field?

Texas A&M (8-2, 5-1) will next face the struggling Auburn (4-6, 1-5) team on the road. The Tigers beat Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday and lost all three games by one possession. Not to mention, A&M was already upset on the road this season with South Carolina, which hurt their perfect conference record and erased much of the team’s margin for error.

Regardless, Mike Elko’s team is one of the few teams in the country that controls its destiny ahead of the College Football Playoff seeding on Dec. 8. They have work to do since they are on the outside of the 12-team field.

Let’s take a look at what this week’s results mean for Texas A&M:

What does Georgia’s win mean for Texas A&M?

A&M’s path to the playoffs is a bit more complicated than the top-seeded Texas team; It could be argued that A&M has the better wins of the two in the conference. It’s still tough to see a two-loss Aggies team take the field.

The Georgia-Tennessee result was a little more important for the Aggies. Had Tennessee won, Georgia would have faced an ugly three-loss stretch. But with Tennessee falling among the two-loss SEC teams and Georgia now arguably having the best resume in the conference, A&M’s postseason competition is getting tighter.

If they don’t win the SEC championship, the Aggies don’t want to be involved in a massive debate against it. OleMiss or Alabama, which seems unlikely to make it to the championship game. The last two have better wins.

There are a few tiebreakers to consider and a few conference games to be played, so things could change. However, the Aggies are likely to lose the tiebreaker (a record against all common conference opponents among the tied teams) in the SEC championship game, having not played any of the other potential two-loss teams. Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Georgia have played one of the other second-ranked programs, but A&M will not play any of them.

A&M will be favored at Auburn before next week’s final showdown with Texas. Two wins and A&M advances to the conference championship game, but any loss before then puts its playoff chances in grave jeopardy.

Let’s not overlook Auburn, but the Week 14 matchup in College Station couldn’t be more exciting.

BYU falls to Kansas. Does it matter to A&M?

A&M’s players and coaches may not be looking at contingency plans, because if the team falls short of an automatic bid, we certainly could.

Although an at-large bid would likely be abandoned if Texas A&M doesn’t win the SEC championship game, the selection committee could give A&M a chance with the right set of wins and losses.

BYU, previously undefeated and ranked No. 6 in last week’s CFP rankings, lost to Kansas on Saturday. The loss to the Cougars, who are on their way to a Big 12 championship, could be a negative for A&M in some ways.

BYU dispatching its conference rivals to the title would mean fielding no more than two teams from the Big 12. Now, a one-loss BYU team that loses the conference championship game could get an at-large bid at the expense of Texas A&M or any number of SEC (and Big Ten) programs.

BYU is tied with Colorado (8-2, 6-1) at the top of the conference and still has to play Arizona State (8-2, 5-1). Iowa State (8-2, 5-1) has slim hopes of a title shot and games against Utah and Kansas State.

Other than Tennessee and BYU, there was no other team ranked ahead of the Aggies in the CFP standings in the Week 12 loss. Kansas State, which was right behind them, lost.

SEC championship game tiebreaker

1. There is fierce competition between the tied teams.

2. Record against all common conference opponents among tied teams.

3. Set a record against the highest-seeded common conference opponent in the conference standings and advance in the conference standings among the tied teams.

4. Cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among tied teams.

5. Limited overall scoring margin between tied teams against all conference opponents.

6. Random draw of tied teams.

SEC rankings and SEC’s upcoming schedule

1. Texas (9-1, 5-1); vs. Kentucky in week 13, at Texas A&M in week 14

2. Texas A&M (8-2, 5-1); Auburn vs. Texas

3. Georgia (8-2, 6-2); vs. UMass, vs. Georgia Tech

4. Tennessee (8-2, 5-2); UTEP vs. Vanderbilt

5. Alabama (8-2, 4-2); Oklahoma vs. Auburn

6. Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2); at Florida vs. Mississippi State

How does the College Football Playoff format work?

The Power Four conference champions will have a bye in the first round. The remaining eight teams will play their first round matches at campus venues and will be ranked higher. From the quarter-final round onwards, games are moved to neutral venues organized by the New Year’s Six Bowl Games.

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This article first appeared in the Austin American-Statesman: Georgia vs Tennessee: What does the UGA win mean for Texas A&M?