OXFORD, Miss. -- The outcome of whatever happened on a cold Saturday night in northern Mississippi likely will not matter in the grand scheme of things.

But if the end is near for Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, Saturday’s 31-24 win against the University of Mississippi will yield yet another stat that will reflect well on Sumlin’s six-year tenure in College Station.

With the win over the Rebels, A&M guaranteed a plus-.500 record in SEC since it joined the conference in 2012, Sumlin’s first year. Now, that likely isn’t enough to save Sumlin, whose job status has been widely speculated about in recent weeks.

And as Sumlin acknowledged after the game, all that talk began long before the season started.

“You come to win,” Sumlin said. “Win or lose, that affects you because that’s your job, to win football games. It’s not like that just started last week.”

But in the record books, Sumlin will have a winning record in conference play, which is something not a lot of other programs can boast.

Coming into the season, A&M (7-4, 4-3) was one of five teams to have a winning record in the SEC. Three of those squads had made coaching changes. The other was Alabama, the behemoth dominating one of the best conferences in the country.

Had A&M lost on Saturday night, the Aggies were at risk to finish even after 48 conference games. Instead, A&M picked up win No. 25 against SEC opponents.

And let the record show the Aggies beat UM (5-6, 2-5) with defense.

After the Rebels opened the game with two touchdowns, things didn’t come as easily for the rest of the game. The Aggies kept UM off the board for the entire second half. A&M not only showed it could stop an offense late in the game, but it did it in November.

“Life pays off on results, right?” Sumlin said. “We’ve done a lot of different things in the offseason to help our football team win, not just in November, but all the time.”

True freshman Derrick Tucker, a staple at the back of A&M’s secondary this season, came up with the game-changing play. Tucker jumped a passing route and returned his first career interception for a 19-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

“It was a big moment in the game,” A&M senior safety Armani Watts said. “It put points on the board. I’d say that’s a big reason why we won.”

From there, UM was pressing to find some offense with backup quarterback Jordan Ta’amu, who had his moments early in the game.

The success the Rebels needed never came. And even with a lackluster offensive showing in the second half, A&M managed to beat UM for the first time since 2013, when Johnny Manziel was still the quarterback.

A&M redshirt freshman Nick Starkel, who is vying to be the team’s first long-term quarterback since Manziel, was 19 of 32 passing for 272 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He did enough in the first half to put the Aggies in a position to win and bolster his credentials to win the job this offseason.

Saturday’s game in front of a crowd that weathered a little rain and a sudden drop in temperature was for aesthetics.

Given the silence from the A&M administration as many have openly wondered if Sumlin’s future is in jeopardy, the sixth-year coach likely doesn’t have many games left.

After next Saturday’s regular-season finale against No. 20 LSU, Sumlin’s future is uncertain.

But what’s not unclear is A&M’s relative success in conference play.

There are definitely two sides to that coin, though. While the Aggies are guaranteed to finish with a winning SEC record in its first six years, A&M hasn’t been able to crack the top of the SEC West standings, which is what high-salaried coaches are judged by.

What went right and what went wrong under Sumlin will be discussed all offseason if A&M decides to make a coaching change.

But after Saturday night, those arguments will have to include a winning record in SEC play, including a win against the Rebels on a cold night in Mississippi.

And the win was big for a young team who has another strong road performance to build upon, no matter who’s the coach next season.

“These guys have really done a nice job of continuing to focus on what’s important, and that’s getting better, doing their job and playing as hard as they can possibly play,” Sumlin said.