The last time Texas A&M won a national championship in football, the Hoola-Hoop hadn’t even been patented yet, and yes, you could still get a good 10-cent cigar.

The year was 1939 and the Homer Norton-led Aggies blew through an 11-0 season that included a Sugar Bowl victory over Tulane.

The football team hasn’t finished higher than fifth in the country since, and it has accomplished that feat only twice in the last 78 years. The first time was in 1956 when a fellow by the name of Paul “Bear” Bryant led the “Junction Boys” to the Southwest Conference championship with a victory over bitter rival Texas, 34-21, in Austin.

But they let Bryant slip away to Alabama, and the legend was born — just not in College Station.

It would be more than a half century later before the Aggies would finish that high in the rankings again. It took the only freshman Heisman Trophy winner in college football history to make that happen. Johnny Manziel stepped on to campus and led the 2012 squad to a victory over Alabama as well as a 41-13 squashing of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl en route to an 11-2 record.

It was thought at the time that perhaps head coach Kevin Sumlin just might turn out to be the next Bear Bryant. The Aggies hung on to their coach this time and didn’t let him get away, hoping, with a second chance, to catch lightning in a bottle.

But there’s only one Bear Bryant. And ironically enough, as long as Nick Saban remains at Alabama, it’s going to be next to impossible to unseat the Crimson Tide year in and year out in their own division. Besides, how many quarterbacks are going to have a season like Manziel’s in 2012?

Those are the most visible obstacles blocking the Aggies from their next national title.

So where does that leave the Texas A&M football program heading into the 2017 season? Some view Sumlin as a dead man walking, lucky if he makes it to the end of this season as the Aggies’ head coach. At the recently concluded SEC Media Days, the Aggies were picked to finish fifth in the SEC West by the media.

It would appear as though Sumlin has hit the ceiling with the program. And with little-to-no experience at quarterback, just keeping up with the last three seasons, all 8-5 finishes, appears to be a daunting task.

“Coach (Sumlin) knows he has to win and he has to win this year,” said Texas A&M Athletics Director Scott Woodward recently.

Chip Kelly needs a job. He’s been to the national championship game. Could Bob Stoops be lured out of retirement? Is another year enough time passed to slip Art Briles through the back door?

It is quite obvious that something’s got to give if Texas A&M is intent on becoming a challenger for the national championship. And therein lies the question: is Texas A&M even concerned about such lofty goals? Or it is content with the bottom line?

After all, only Tennessee and Alabama generated more football revenue among SEC schools than A&M for the 2015-16 season, and only the Vols were more profitable.

The Aggies are revenue kings in the state of Texas for the second consecutive year, topping even the state cornerstone Longhorns.

As long as that remains the case, it’s possible that the powers that be remain content with middle-of-the-road finishes in the SEC. But the AD certainly isn’t making it sound that way.

The upcoming season certainly appears to be a pivotal one in the subsequent direction the Texas A&M football program will take.