Five worst rankings from On3's ridiculous way-too-early top 25: Aggies properly slotted, but others way off base

Five worst placements from On3's egregious way-too-early top 25: Texas A&M football in right spot, but others need major adjustments

Texas A&M football fans, now that the college football season is over, turn their eyes to 2025. Still yet more than 200 days away at this point, fans and media outlets alike are nonetheless undeterred from making projections for how things will go.

The Aggies are a team that many outlets like to improve for the upcoming year. They'll have some tough tests on the road in 2025, but the team overall should be better than what we saw for most of this past season.

On3 recently released a way-too-early top 25 for next season that featured the Aggies at 19th. That's a fair ranking, in my mind— but there were some real question marks in other places. You can view the whole top 25 below.

There are some... interesting placements here. Let's break down the five worst on this list.

Five worst placements in On3's top 25: Illinois at 7th

The Illini had a great end to their season, it's true. They beat a South Carolina team (who many thought had an outside chance at the playoff) in the final moments of a thrilling bowl game that featured heated moments on both the field and sideline after Bret Bielema's antics towards Shane Beamer.

However, it should be well noted that this occurred when the Gamecocks were missing two of their most impactful players: RB Rocket Sanders missed the whole game, and DB Nick Emmanwori sat out the second half— a decision which came when the Gamecocks had a lead.

Illinois had a great defense in 2024 and could well do so again in 2025. But top 10 is far too rich of a ranking for the Illini headed into 2025. They simply don't deserve to be ahead of some of these clearly better teams. They finished 31st in SP+, for goodness' sake. It's not as though they finished the year as some juggernaut.