Texas A&M ends up at third in the nation in the initial CFP committee rankings, which— while a positive for the Aggies' playoff hopes overall— was lower than the Aggies deserved.
Though there are ways in which this is understandable, the explanation from the committee did not exactly help things. Baylor AD Mack Rhoades came on to the ESPN studio show to defend the committee's choices, and it only served to enfuriate Aggie fans further.
CFP Committee's decision to rank Texas A&M no. 3 made only murkier with strange comments
Here's what Rhoades had to offer:
"When we looked at tape and we looked at metrics, we felt like Ohio State was a little bit better up front on the offensive line and we thought they were better defensively... Then when we looked at statistics and we included Texas A&M as part of the discussion, again, we just felt like the separator there was defensively and that those two teams— Ohio State and Indiana— were better defensively."
It's obviously so gracious of them to even 'include' Texas A&M as part of the discussion at all! How magnanimous! We should register no complaint!
In all seriousness, this is a ridiculous quote. First of all, the Aggies likely have the best offensive line in the country: they're 10th in sacks allowed per game, despite facing some of the nation's premier pass rushers so far this year, and 26th in yards per carry— again, despite facing some of the best rush defenses in the country. According to collegefootballdata.com, the Aggies rank higher in Line Yards (the amount of yards per carry generated by a team's OL) than both the Hoosiers and the Buckeyes.
The seniority and skill up front for the Aggies has made them a top contender for the Joe Moore award, given annually to the nation's best offensive line. That should apparently have them up with the Hoosiers and Buckeyes, but apparently not! Apparently, the defense has been an issue!
According to ESPN's SP+, the Aggies have faced the nation's 7th-most efficient offense in Notre Dame— who the A&M defense held to 33 points at home— and the nation's 6th-most efficient offense in the Arkansas Razorbacks. A&M had relatively excellent outings against both of them, holding them well below their averages for their bread-and-butter offense— rushing for Notre Dame and passing for Arkansas— as well as well below their average success rates.
Complaints about LSU's 25 points will find no purchase, either: 7 of those points came by backups against backups, and 2 were created by the Tiger special teams. The Aggies held LSU to their lowest YPA and YPC of the entire year at home at night, emptying out their stadium and getting their coach fired.
This is not even to mention the fact that the Aggies are tops in the nation in sacks per game! Nor even that they are also among the best in the nation in third down conversion percentage allowed— and only getting better week by week!
There is no great separation between these teams. This explanation simply makes no sense. If you want to know just how closely Rhoades has paid attention to the Aggies, look no further than this:
College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair Mack Rhoades on the CFP conference call just referred to Marcel Reed as Marcus Reed.
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) November 5, 2025
Hopefully this is remedied soon.