Two points. First, he’s no doubt happy to be out of Oxford give the extreme penchant OM coaches and booster have had for cheating in recent years. Two, A&M already made its two most important hires in Jimbo Fisher and Buzz Williams. That means the job has become much less important than would otherwise be the case and if it doesn’t work out the man can be very easily replaced.

It's the curse of the #5 team in the final CFP. Being the odd man out turns out to be the kiss of death in the contest to follow. They are 1-4 in bowl games.

It was ranked below UGA for the obvious reason that the rankers view Georgia as the better team, but that they did not come to New Orleans to play. This is born out by some statistical evidence. The #5 team in the final CFP poll is 1-4 in bowl games. It is almost as if the #5 ranking is the kiss of death. I guess to get that close and then miss is just incredibly disappointed to these 18-20 year olds, and they allow that disappointment to impact their performance on the field. We all know that is true.

Well Silva thought enough of their application for membership to call an emergency meeting of the other SEC presidents. It was to make Texas to the SEC footprint and all the eyeballs that brings. It was also recognizing that A&M has quality athletic programs. No so much in football in recent years but in many other sports they've been among the nation's best. It was also a recognition that with the right coach, given A&M's location, resources and fan base they could be an elite fSEC football program. I mean, how many other programs could raise $740 million cash in a year to do a stadium remodel and facilities upgrades? By adding A&M, they added a school that clearly has the SEC's deepest pockets. It was also to add another AAU school to boost the SEC's academic reputation -- the other SEC presidents sure liked that.

No it triggered all the Trump haters.

You must not watch late nite TV or SNL. The so-called comedians on those shoes come off as dumb as a box of rocks.

gators should be #7. Then Texas and then UGA at #9.

Don't care. Georgia embarrassed itself and the entire SEC. Texas is a team that could not even beat Maryland. They are good but not that good. Quite clearly if the Georgia team that showed up in Atlanta and took Bama to the wire had showed up in the Sugar Bowl, Texas would have lost by 30+. That was not the team that showed up. From the get-go the dawgs seemed disinterested and unfocused. That is how a top four team loses to the 15th best team. All the talent in the world means very little if the folks with that talent are unmotivated, unfocused and undisciplined. Texas did not win that game as much as Georgia inexplicably gave it away.

I saw this coming a mile away. The Dawgs contest against tu was the ultimately trap game. Why do I say that? Consider that going into the game the #5 ranked team in the final CFP poll is 1-3 in bowl games. Now they are 1-4. These are not NFLers. The emotion of disappointment is really a powerful thing when talking about 18-20 year olds. Georgia the whole game acted disinterested and undisciplined. There is a reason for that.

lovingdagame, in this instance that was no home field advantage. The refs would have called it the same whether A&M was the home or the away team. I say that because the replay definitively shows that indeed his knee was down.

How can you tell. Not only has he only beaten three FBS teams with winning records but have you seen those Big 12 defenses? They are absolutely putrid. To boot all season long his team defeated no one of note. The highest ranked team they played all year sat at lowly # 14.

The truth is we have no idea how good a quarterback Murray is. I say that because he had not played against a team with a defense above the level of mediocre all season.

That was the most exciting game in college football history. You have to tip your hat to the Ags for never quitting and always believing in themselves. Have to tip your hat to LSU. They had every chance to win even taking those questionable calls out of the picture. They couldn’t and that’s on them. Plus those calls are reviewed by a three person panel in Birmingham. More proof the calls were correct.

A&M donors could and would come up the amount needed for his buyout in less than a week. A&M is a school whose big donors, of which there are many, have incredibly deep pockets.

Of course Mullen will taste success sooner. The East is just flat out easier than the West. Add to the mix, A&M has to play Clemson the next two seasons. The Aggies probably have the toughest scheduled in the country the next two seasons.

Oh, and I said unAmerican because that is the way America is set up. There is no set in stone hierarchy in college football. It is a meritocracy. If you were to put A&M's program in the hands of a person with vision, guts, knowedge and work ethic there is no ceiling. That is the way America works. It is a meritocracy and not a system of overlords. Of course, fans of the schools on top now would like you to believe it is that kind of system because it makes them feel better, but it isn't. That is not how America works, and it is certainly not how college football works.

The OP is unimaginative and frankly unAmerican. He is both because he acts as if there is some spirit that floats over the stadiums of the traditional elites. I remember well when FSU won only four games in three years in the 70's. I remember when the U was a joke in terms of football. What happened? Pretty simple, really. FSU got Bobby Bowden and the U got Howard Schnellerberger. Psssst....OP. Open your eyes: its the coach! A&M just has not had the right coach. A guy who is really good with the x's and o's and development. Every other possible ingredient is there and, in fact, they are in a far more advantageous than most of its SEC brethren. My hunch is that if A&M had Gary Patterson as their coach the last 10 years they would have already have won a couple of titles. Yes, it would have made that much a difference.

Came across this article. Hate to bump it forward but just feel the need to comment. Where the OP has it wrong is he makes it sound as if only SEC West teams have to go through Saban and the Crimson Tide. Actually, with the advent of the playoffs, everyone must in all likelihood deal with the crew from Tuscaloosa. Might as well then get up close and personal with them. A&M has the resources to go toe to toe with them if it had the right coach who is both a top recruiter and insists on excellence from his players. For that reason, if I'm Chip Kelly I would welcome the opportunity to coach at TAMU if they agreed to give me the resources needed to build a winner.

I agre TxnG8r. The reality is they seriously overpaid him. Not Sumlin's fault because a person should try to get as high as possible pay as he can. It was A&Ms fault for not being better evaluators of coaching talent before offering him that big contract. It should have been obvious that the success he had early on in his career at A&M was due to being gifted an amazing quarterback, receiver and offensive line. It should have really been apparent when you consider all of the major gains made in 2012 by the quarterback coming out of busted plays.

Putting Bama at the top with that extremely boring design is ridiculous. Here are my top 3, in order: Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. FSU has the best helmet in the country IMHO.

There is a certain irony in the OP saying that aTm reminds him of the initials for an automatic teller machine. Makes sense. The place is like a money machine! Lol! Consider that not only does TAMU have the largest endowment in the SEC by a mile, but payscale.com shows that on average its grads make the second most salary than the grads of any other school in the State of Texas except Rice. A&M spends more on average on its students than any other public university in the State of Texas (that includes UT- austin -- while the horns' system endowment is larger, then again, the UT system has a slew of system universities with 25K+ with whom it must share as well as a four medical schools and major cancer research center in Houston with whom it must share, thus bringing UT-austin's average expenditures per student way down). Moreover, TAMU grads on average make more than any other university in the Southeastern Conference. Finally, A&M has more Fortune 100 CEOs than any other university except Michigan (it is tied with Michigan in that ranking). So yes, it rains money for a lot of Aggie grads.

Agreed PDADawg. Both are great towns. However, I frankly liked Austin more about 20 years ago because the place has grown so much and I prefer having more elbow room. Metro Austin is pushing more than 1.7 mil and still growing like crazy.

And I wish SDS had an edit function for comments. I misspoke. A&M is not the oldest school in Texas. I believe that distinction belongs to Baylor. However, it is the oldest public university in the state.

A&M viewed as little brother? That is ancient history. I live in Houston and nobody here other than longhorn alums view A&M as a little brother. Now the sports media may like to push that perception but that would be about it. A&M is not only the states largest and oldest school, but it has the largest stadium and for the past two years in a row its Athletic Department has grossed more than any other athletic department in the country. Not to mention their endowment is almost as much as all the other SEC schools combined. It's grads on average earn more than any other school in Texas except Rice and it is in the top 10 university in terms of grads who are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (tied with Nortre Dame, Penn State and the U.S. Military Academy).

Texas would never be added. Never. The reason is that S.Ce doesn't want Clemson, Florida doesn't want FSU or Miami, UGA doesn't want Ga Tech, and Kentucky doesn't want Louisville. There is an unwritten agreement among these schools that they will vote together to stop adding a cross-state rival from another P5 conference. Don't you know A&M would fight like hell to keep Texas out? The same rationale would be applied as a courtesy to the Aggies. So that would be five schools dead set from the get-go to their coming onboard. Then we know Mizou and Arky would be against the addition because of their past experiences with the horns. That is now seven schools. Then there is LSU. My hunch is they would be against it as an act of courtesy to A&M and Mizzou, plus they get a bunch of players out of the State of Texas. No way LSU would want to give UT-Austin a leg up in their recruitment wars. In fact, since Bama has gotten so much talent out of the State of Texas in recent years I would bet they would be against the addition as well.

Those two A&M receivers big issue is that they are very afraid of getting hit. That caused them to hear footsteps so to speak and drop a lot of balls. Fear is a funny thing -- you just cannot coach courage into a person. Either he has it or he doesn't. Those two would have been better off playing a less physical sport in college.

LSUMC, you do realize LSU won 8 regular season games don't you? And that A&M also won 8 games? Nobody in the SEC except Bama won more than 8 games in the regular season.

You realize the tremendous parity that exists in the SEC but for Bama? A&M had the second best record in the league last year.

A&M is missing one key element: the right head coach. The current head coach is lacking in two critical areas. One, he is not a grinder. What he considers working hard is not what Nick Saban or Jimbo Fisher or Jim Harbaugh would call working hard. He coasts at times when he should be pumping those pedals. Two, he does not insist on players giving him their very best 100% of the time. With its resources, location and conference alignment, if A&M could ever hire the right head coach --- look out! As it is, they thought Sumlin was great when all he really was was lucky enough to have inherited Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans.

Warren Sapp absolutely cannot contain himself he is so envious. Not only is Garrett way more athletic than Sapp ever dreamed about, but Garrett is much smarter as you can see from his 31 Wonderlic score. That's a better score than a host of great NFL quarterbacks, including Elway, Peyton Manning and Brees. Warren Sapp only had a Wonderlic score of 20!