ESPN's Heather Dinich: Texas A&M 'squarely in the conversation' for playoff after win at Notre Dame

No. 16 Texas A&M went in to South Bend on Saturday night and got out with a 41-40 win over No. 8 Notre Dame. Now, after their first road win over a ranked opponent in almost eleven years, ESPN’s Heather Dinich has the Aggies in the running to be in the College Football Playoff.

Dinich spoke about the impact of the win over the Fighting Irish on A&M’s chances to be in the CFP while on ‘The Paul Finebaum Show’ on Monday. She noted that she moved the Aggies up to the No. 5 seed, the first team without a bye, in her projected playoff field on Saturday, with Texas A&M “squarely in the conversation” to be in now because of that quality road victory.

“Well, it catapulted them all the way to No. 5 in my prediction on Saturday night of the Committee’s Top-12,” Dinich said. “That puts them squarely in the conversation. It gives them a non-conference road win that will separate them from a lot of other contenders if they’re fighting for an at-large bid, which they would be if they don’t win the SEC.”

Texas A&M vs. Notre Dame turned into a shootout with 81 points and 928 yards of offense combined between them. The home team did push it to a ten-point game for a few minutes in the second quarter, but this was a back-and fourth matchup separated by no more than a possession for the duration. The Fighting Irish might have thought they had it with a touchdown, despite missing the extra point, after their longest drive of the night with under three minutes to go, but the Aggies responded with their own longest drive with a touchdown throw on fourth-down to win it with 13 second left.

Based on the projections and the line, this was an upset by Texas A&M (3-0) in winning over Notre Dame (0-2). That said, the Aggies’ victory didn’t shock Dinich because what she knows to be on the roster down in College Station.

“It didn’t entirely surprise me, to be honest. Because, in talking to Mike Elko this preseason about this veteran team? I want to say (he said he) had 18 starters coming back, and he talked about how this could be the first year in decades that Texas A&M has double-digit NFL Draft picks on its roster, and that makes your ears perk up, right, when you hear something like that,” said Dinich. “I felt like the Aggies, going in to South Bend, were a bit of an underrated team that people weren’t talking about yet, but they certainly are now.”

Texas A&M, now ranked as the No. 10 team in the country per the AP Poll, is on a bye this week coming off that win as they’ll open conference play back at Kyle Field on September 27th. But, while there’s still a lot of season to go, as of today, A&M will come back home as a playoff contender right now, including by Dinich as well as those at On3 like Andy Staples.