ESPN's yearly list of the top 100 players in college football is always a little bit controversial for one reason or another, but the list that just dropped for this upcoming year is nothing but completely disrespectful to Texas A&M football. The roster that Mike Elko and his staff have worked hard to build and develop boasts some of the best talent in the nation, but to listen to this list, they are little more than a fringe player in a major conference.
The Aggies have all of one player on this list. One. Mario Craver is the only representation for the maroon and white in the entire top 100, and he's all the way down at 86. There's no Marcel Reed, no Anto Saka, no Marco Jones, no Daymion Sanford, no Dezz Ricks, no Isaiah Horton, no DJ Hicks— it is Craver alone on this list.
Of course, this should not be all that surprising to Texas A&M fans. There was a huge change from the preseason to the postseason version of this list from last year: the preseason version featured three players: Le'Veon Moss (95), Ar'maj Reed-Adams (66), and Taurean York (58). The postseason version of this list from last year also had three Aggies, but none of the same ones: Craver (at 87), KC Concepcion (at 21), and Cashius Howell (at 10).
Texas A&M is unbelievably disrespected in ESPN's laughable top 100 players list
In other words, ESPN had very little handle on what Texas A&M's roster would look like last year and who the breakout stars would be. They were able to see a little better in retrospect, even if their list was still a little bit lacking— again, Marcel Reed, for example, has more than earned his way onto a list like this. Even if you are skeptical about his potential as a pro, he's shown that he is a very dangerous college quarterback.
This seems to be the case again this year. If there's a player who will make his way onto this list from the Aggies that was left off in this preseason version, it has to be Reed or Saka— though there are many with a case to be added who will further that case this season.
The other thing that is so galling about this is the lack of movement for Craver: he was down at 87 at the end of last year, and is now up only one spot to 86. Compare that to the media's golden boy, Arch Manning, who was 58th at the end of last year, and now— having done absolutely nothing in the interim— is 13th. That's ahead of Dylan Stewart, which is completely laughable.
ESPN sure seems to be setting up the Aggies' roster as very middle-of-the-road for this upcoming year, despite the fact that the preseason power ratings have them as a top-15 team at worst and the AP Poll has them as a top-10 squad (though there are plenty who are trying to denigrate them as overrated). We'll see just how accurate their assessment of the Aggies is very soon, with kickoff approaching rapidly.
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