been unbeaten and be playing ND in the title game?

I highly doubt they would have been unbeaten. One (or more) of those shoot-out games would have gotten them a loss.

It is a good question because the Big12 wasn't that great this season

Depends on what sort of schedule they would have had.   I think they got better as the season went on and weren't that good on the road. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/6/2013 9:01:00 AM (view original):
Depends on what sort of schedule they would have had.   I think they got better as the season went on and weren't that good on the road. 

they would have had TCU or WVA's schedule.

Posted by moranis on 1/6/2013 12:40:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/6/2013 9:01:00 AM (view original):
Depends on what sort of schedule they would have had.   I think they got better as the season went on and weren't that good on the road. 

they would have had TCU or WVA's schedule.

Both of their losses came at home.

I don't think it's accurate to say they would have had the W VA or TCU schedule as with the losses of Nebraska & Colorado the Big 12 needed to make some additions anyway, and I think the Big 12 takes both of those schools whether A&M was still there or not.

But if that were the case, I think they go unbeaten with either, but especially with TCUs schedule.

W VAs schedule had the Kansas St game three weeks earlier (the same week A&M lost to LSU), and as Mike alluded to they kept improving with each game. The next biggest obstacle with WVA schedule is they'd have played their big rival the Longhorns at week 6, which was the week A&M went to Oxford and squeaked by Ole Miss by 3.  However, I think if they were in the Big 12 that game takes place the last week of November like it always did before they left.

With TCUs schedule the K St game would have been the same week A&M beat Bama, so I think that would have been a more favorable schedule for them to go unbeaten, as most of TCUs "big games" came at the end of the year when A&M was really rolling.

They gave up a shitton of points, to inferior teams, on the road.   W/L isn't the only thing to look at when determining the effectiveness of a team.

Posted by gregsimon on 1/6/2013 10:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by moranis on 1/6/2013 12:40:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/6/2013 9:01:00 AM (view original):
Depends on what sort of schedule they would have had.   I think they got better as the season went on and weren't that good on the road. 

they would have had TCU or WVA's schedule.

Both of their losses came at home.

I don't think it's accurate to say they would have had the W VA or TCU schedule as with the losses of Nebraska & Colorado the Big 12 needed to make some additions anyway, and I think the Big 12 takes both of those schools whether A&M was still there or not.

But if that were the case, I think they go unbeaten with either, but especially with TCUs schedule.

W VAs schedule had the Kansas St game three weeks earlier (the same week A&M lost to LSU), and as Mike alluded to they kept improving with each game. The next biggest obstacle with WVA schedule is they'd have played their big rival the Longhorns at week 6, which was the week A&M went to Oxford and squeaked by Ole Miss by 3.  However, I think if they were in the Big 12 that game takes place the last week of November like it always did before they left.

With TCUs schedule the K St game would have been the same week A&M beat Bama, so I think that would have been a more favorable schedule for them to go unbeaten, as most of TCUs "big games" came at the end of the year when A&M was really rolling.

The schedule was already made when A&M and Missouri made the decision to leave the conference.  TCU and WVA took those schedule places (obviously just the conference schedule).  I was able to track down an article that said TCU took A&M's schedule, which makes sense since A&M and Texas always played on Thanksgiving which is when the TCU v. Texas game was played this year.   Thus, A&M wouldn't have hit an even remotely difficult conference game until October 13 at Baylor and probably wouldn't have hit a game they had any real chance of losing until the last three games which were Kansas St, at Texas, and Oklahoma.  That is an incredibly difficult stretch, but it certainly helped that the three most difficult games on the schedule would have been the last three.