5 College Football Playoff bubble teams with new life after Texas A&M crushes Missouri

The chaos began almost immediately in Week 6, as No. 9 Missouri suffered an absolute blasting at the hands of No. 25 Texas A&M in College Station. It's a result that sends Eli Drinkwitz's program into crisis, but our brave new 12-team College Football Playoff world, one team's setback is another team's opportunity — and there are plenty of teams whose odds of nabbing an at-large bid in December just went up with the Tigers (for now, at least) out of the picture.

From the SEC to the Big 12 and beyond, here are the five schools whose Playoff paths got a lot clearer thanks to A&M's big win.

5. SMU

Don't look now, but here come the Mustangs in their first year in the Power 4. SMU made a big statement early in Week 6, holding on for a 34-27 win over Louisville on the road that puts them right in the thick of the ACC race behind Miami and Clemson. Rhett Lashlee's squad was left for dead after a sluggish start that included a home loss to BYU, but the Cougars keep making that look better and better, and a very friendly closing schedule (SMU's toughest tests the rest of the way are a road trip to Duke and home dates with Pitt and Cal) means that the Mustangs could very well finished undefeated in conference.

If SMU does in fact win out, they could realistically head to the ACC title game with just one respectable loss. Obviously a win over the Hurricanes or Tigers in Charlotte would remove all doubt, but even a loss would give the Mustangs a credible case to snag one of the final at-large spots over a team like Missouri.

4. Arizona

Good luck figuring out the Big 12, but don't count out the Wildcats just yet. The loss to Kansas State might block Arizona from a conference title, but they just knocked off Utah on the road, and the schedule is doable from here on out — especially if they survive a trip to Provo to face BYU in a couple of weeks. 11-1 with a loss to a K-State team that might be Playoff-bound itself would be hard to turn down, and that quality defeat would give Arizona a leg up on other contenders like Missouri who have a bigger blemish on their resume.

2/3. Ole Miss/LSU

We'll lump these two together, since the case for both is about the same. Both the Rebels and Tigers are currently sitting on one loss, and while neither of them play Missouri, both of them play Texas A&M later on in the season. Winning that game would be a pretty clear signal that they're more deserving than the Aggies and, by extension, the Tigers. Of course, other hurdles remain — these two teams are about to play each other, for starters, while Ole Miss has Georgia looming and LSU has Alabama. But SEC pecking order is going to mean a lot come CFP selection time, and both of these teams just had a rival they couldn't do anything about knocked down a spot or two.

1. Notre Dame

Ole Miss and LSU will each have a chance to beat A&M in the weeks to come, but the Irish already have. The loss against Northern Illinois is tough to overlook, but maybe not quite so much compared to the 27-point pantsing Missouri just took this weekend. Notre Dame is looking better and better after the Louisville win last weekend, and with just one more real test (at USC) remaining, it's not hard to see Marcus Freeman's team finishing with one loss. It's much easier to see that resume being enough for an at-large spot after today's events.