How did TAMU win 11 games this year?
They had one of the easier SEC schedule this year.
Auburn ended up 5-7
Mississippi State ended up 5-7
Florida ended up 5-7
Arkansas ended up 2-10
LSU ended up 7-5
Missouri ended up 8-4
South Carolina ended up 4-8
Outside of 10-2 Notre Dame (who A&M only beat by 1, because Notre Dame’s kicker shanked an extra point), all of the ranked teams that A&M actually beat (LSU, Missouri) ended up unranked by the end of the season.
The one ranked conference team they did play (9-3 Texas, #13), they lost 27-17.
Remember last year how at the beginning of the season everyone looked at Missouri’s schedule and thought it was unfaiirly/embarrassingly easy that no team should end up short of the conference championship game (because Alabama was the only pre-season ranked opponent but then Texas A&M, Alabama, and South Carolina actually ended up really good ranked teams throughout the year)?
Yeah, A&M’s schedule was essentially that but it - the schedule being embarrassingly easy - actually happening (instead of several good opponents popping up as the year went on).