Ready or not, Week 12 of the college football season is on our doorstep. But fear not, the expanded playoff has made the season longer than ever.

While it might feel like the season is heading towards its conclusion, we’re barely past the halfway mark. It has been 76 days since Week 1 started for most teams. It is 67 days until the national championship on Jan. 20. 

Six of the 13 FBS teams in the Lone Star State are still alive for the College Football Playoff. Texas A&M and Texas Tech are in the best positions. Texas returned to the Top 10 ahead of its clash with Georgia on Saturday. SMU and Houston are still alive in their conference championship races, as is North Texas, which could be the G5 representative if the Mean Green win out. 

Ten of the 13 programs in Texas play during Week 12 with SMU, Houston, and Rice idle. Here are our biggest questions heading into the weekend.

1. Can the Horns get the Bulldog off their back? 

The Longhorns are 11-3 against SEC foes since joining the conference ahead of the 2024 season. One of those losses came at Florida in early October of the 2025 season. The other two were against Georgia last year, including in the SEC Championship Game. The last time the Horns beat the Bulldogs was in the 2018 Sugar Bowl when Bevo attacked Uga. 

The 2025 contest between Texas and Georgia feels like a Bizarro World scenario from last year. In 2024, it was Georgia heading to Austin to face a Texas team that looked destined for the playoffs. It was the Bulldogs who had already lost an SEC game and were required to win to keep SEC Championship game and CFP hopes alive. This year, it is Texas’ backs against the wall with one SEC loss and two defeats already on the ledger. 

The old Georgia would be an awful matchup for this Texas team because the Longhorns aren’t great up front. They’ve been better after some shuffling in the starting lineup, but teams that can get after the passer and possess freaks along the defensive line would exploit this Texas front five. That used to be Georgia, but this isn’t your older brother’s Bulldogs. They rank last in the SEC in sacks and tackles for loss. They give up more points than LSU and Missouri. They’re mid-pack – eighth – in pass defense in the SEC. 

Texas is a 6.5-point underdog, but we like the matchup if the Texas defense can slow down an underrated Georgia offense, led by quarterback Gunnar Stockton, who is playing at a Heisman finalist level over the last month. Playing Georgia in the past meant a defensive struggle, but we think this one could be higher scoring. The total is set at 48.5 and we’d lean towards the over. 

Win this game and Texas is in great shape to reach the CFP and still in the SEC Championship hunt. Lose it and the Horns are on life support heading into the last two games of the regular season. This program has been in plenty of big games over the last three years, including two conference championship games and three playoff contests. They’ll need to draw on those moments this weekend in Athens. 

2. Are the Aggies running the table?  

Texas A&M continues to march through its schedule without much drama. Sure, the Aggies have caught some breaks in the schedule. They haven’t played any of the other teams currently in the Top 7 of the SEC standings. The only one on the schedule is Texas on the last weekend of the season. Auburn, Florida, Arkansas, and LSU have all fired their head coaches this season. So has Samford, which Texas A&M plays between this weekend’s South Carolina game and the trip to Austin on Black Friday. Missouri was on its third-string quarterback. 

But the Aggies don’t need to apologize. They went on the road and beat Notre Dame, and since then, it’s been mostly smooth sailing for Mike Elko’s program. They’ve only been in one one-possession game since the start of October, and that was a shootout on the road against Arkansas. Texas A&M beat Mississippi State by 22, Florida by 17, LSU by 24, and Missouri by 21. Elko & Co. are drama free, on and off the field — a welcome change from previous regimes in Aggieland. 

The only thing standing between Texas A&M and an undefeated regular season is 3-6 South Carolina, FCS Samford, and the Texas Longhorns. We think the Aggies cruise to 11-0 with an easy win over the Gamecocks on Saturday in Kyle Field. Selfishly, we hope the Horns knock off Georgia, beat Arkansas, and set up a colossal game on The Forty Acres that has SEC Championship game and CFP stakes, just like the game last year in College Station. 

3. Will TCU play spoiler? 

The Horned Frogs suffered their third conference loss last week and can no longer dangle the carrot of playing for a spot in the Big 12 Championship game as the season enters the home stretch. TCU can’t win the Big 12, but it can help determine who does, or at least, who plays Texas Tech in Arlington. That’s because the Frogs close with a trip to BYU and Houston before finishing the year at home against Cincinnati. That represents three of the six teams still alive in the Big 12 race. 

Head coach Sonny Dykes said before the season that his program considers playing for conference championships the measuring stick for success. That means that the 2025 season won’t be one and that the last three years have fallen short of expectations. In the 12-team CFP landscape, fan bases do feel like it is playoffs or bust. But TCU can finish the year 8-4 if the Horned Frogs can win two of their last three. That’s not a bad season. 

Week 12 Picks 

North Texas -17.5 over UAB
Southern Miss -3.5 over Texas State
Texas +6.5 over Georgia 
TCU +4.5 over BYU
UTSA -16.5 over Charlotte
2025 record: 35-26