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Aggies open as a -8 to -9 favorite versus UNC in this Saturday's Orange Bowl matchup.
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Texas A&M (8-1) was one spot away from making its first appearance in the College Football Playoff
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Aggies haven't been to the Orange Bowl since 1944
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Tar Heels are the highest-rated team in the league other than CFP selections Clemson and Notre Dame
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The Texas A&M Aggies vs. UNC Tar Heels betting line was set at -8 to -9 Aggies.
The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl.
Texas A&M (8-1) was one spot away from making its first appearance in the College Football Playoff. Instead, the Aggies will go to the Orange Bowl for the first time since a 1944 loss to LSU.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said his team shouldn't be frustrated by the CFP rankings.
"You get in, you get out, and you've got to move on," Fisher said. "You go to the future, and listen, we get an opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl, like I said, one of the great bowl games in the history of this (sport)."
There are many who believed the Aggies got a raw deal, and Notre Dame's abysmal performance against Alabama Saturday seemed to support such a notion.
Mike Luciano of FanSided writes:
Every year the Irish make it into, or at least close to, the playoff, the media swears up and down that this year will be different, only for a traditional power to pound them into the dirt. Alabama likely would’ve beaten the Aggies, but their high-powered passing attack, dual-threat quarterback, and depth on both sides of the ball could’ve presented problems for (coach Nick) Saban.
The Aggies were second in the Southeastern Conference's West Division behind top-ranked Alabama, which delivered the lone blemish on the Texas A&M record. Since then, they've won seven straight games.
North Carolina (8-3) tied for fourth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but the Tar Heels are the highest-rated team in the league other than CFP selections Clemson and Notre Dame. With the ACC's tie-in with the Orange Bowl, that reserved a spot for North Carolina.
"There will never be a team that will be more excited about coming to the bowl game than ours," coach Mack Brown said.
The Tar Heels and Aggies have never previously met. All in the past decade, Texas A&M has faced the other three ACC teams from the state of North Carolina in bowls, defeating Duke (2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl) and North Carolina State (2018 Gator Bowl) and losing to Wake Forest (2017 Belk Bowl).
