ESPN neglected to name Marcel Reed on their list of the top 100 players in college football this past week— a travesty which Aggie fans all immediately knew would not age well for the Worldwide Leader. Only one Texas A&M player made it on the list at all, which is patently laughable, with Mario Craver coming in all the way down at 86th.
There was no mention of Reed, who was a player right in the middle of the mix for the Heisman Trophy up until the final weekend last season. To completely leave him off a list like that is ignorant at best— Marcel is one of the most dynamic, valuable, well-known, and exciting-to-watch players in the sport, and he captains a top-10 Texas A&M team that has the College Football Playoff on their mind.
Aggie fans hoping to see the narrative that ESPN was putting out there shift didn't have to wait very long, as it turns out. With Week 0 still ongoing, it's become clear that ESPN leaving Marcel— one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC— off of this list was one of the more inexplicable decisions of the year.
ESPN's befuddling decision to ignore Marcel Reed has already been shown to be foolish
Richard Zane of TexAgs pointed out that ESPN listed NC State quarterback CJ Bailey up at 68th on their list of the top 100 players in the nation, and his opening game against the Virginia Cavaliers showed that he did not deserve near that designation if they're going to leave a guy like Marcel completely off.
Reminder that CJ Bailey was No. 68 on ESPN’s list of the top 100 CFB players.
— Richard Zane (@RichardZane32) August 29, 2026
Marcel Reed was not listed.
Bailey's stat line is painful to look at— he finished 12/23 for 84 yards with 0 touchdowns and 1 interception. Does anyone think that Virginia is going to finish as the best defense in the nation? No? Then this is inexcusable relative to what people apparently expect out of Marcel.
Reed's worst game of the year in 2025 took place against Miami, where he was 25/39 for 237 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. That is a far better game passing the ball against a far tougher defense, and it is the game that caused him to completely fall out of favor with national media types.
Why should the standard for Marcel be so different than it is for players at smaller schools? He is playing tougher competition week in and week out and he's doing more impressive things, and yet he is underappreciated.
Many have Marcel simply "slotted" as a low-level passer without bothering to check the stats or the tape to see if they're right. Reed may not be a leap-off-the-screen, sure-thing first-rounder, but that doesn't mean he's a bad quarterback— there are plenty of amazing college quarterbacks whose games don't immediately translate to the NFL.
To hold Reed to a different standard like this is hypocritical, but he's going to be facing an uphill battle narrative-wise going forward into this year. It sounds like he's taken the steps that he needs to to have a big year— expect ESPN's mea culpa to be quiet but obvious when he makes the list at the end of the season.
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