Debating Texas Longhorns' nightmare College Football Playoff scenario

The latest iteration of the College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday night, and they have Texas in a prime position to earn a playoff bid — and potentially a first-round bye.

Look a little closer, though, and you might see some potentially troubling outcomes for the Longhorns.

Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman broke down those potential outcomes on Wednesday morning on the Andy & Ari show.

“I think that the bigger disaster scenario is Texas loses the only game that it can on its schedule, which is the A&M game, which is a heated rivalry on the road,” Wasserman said. “And then they’re still 10-2, feel like they have a chance to get in and then don’t.”

How realistic is it that the Longhorns could find themselves in that position?

Well, Georgia was No. 3 last week, lost a second game, then dropped all the way to No. 12. No. 12, by the way, where the Bulldogs were left out of the playoffs due to seeding.

Staples backed up Wasserman on the potential drama of the Longhorns losing to the Aggies and then missing the dance.

“You’re right about this because here’s how that unfolds,” Staples said. “So imagine this: Texas A&M beats Texas, Texas finishes the regular season 10-2. Texas A&M finishes the regular season 10-2. Texas A&M winning this game puts Texas A&M in the SEC Championship Game. We know that to be true.

“Texas then has to spend a week watching Texas A&M get ready to go play for the SEC Championship. They’ll watch Texas A&M play for the SEC Championship, possibly win it, and if they do they’re probably a two-seed in the playoff at that point? And then Texas has to sit there and sweat on Sunday at 11 a.m. central time after the championship games and they’ve got, ESPN’s got the camera, and if it’s like an eighth-tier sideline reporter you know you’re not getting in. Isn’t that what Florida State said last year?”

Wasserman felt like things could potentially get even worse.

“Let me raise the stakes even more,” he said. “You want to keep going down this rabbit hole? I’ll raise them even more. Texas enters the game with one loss, A&M has two losses. A&M wins. A&M then goes onto the SEC Championship Game, plays Alabama and loses, and then there’s a head-to-head discussion at the end of the year between a three-loss A&M team and a two-loss Texas team and A&M gets chosen ahead of them because they won the head-to-head game.

“And Texas is out. And not only is Texas out with a better record, but Texas is out to A&M because they were chosen over them. Because I don’t think that we are in an era — like I was complaining about earlier in the show — that that third loss for A&M might not be that eliminating factor. If you are down to two teams for one spot and those two teams played each other, I really do think you should take the team that beat the other one.”

That enough spice to add to the regular-season finale?