No more beating around the bush: Texas A&M should be nation's top-ranked team

Despite what the AP Poll voters say or don't say, Texas A&M should, without any doubt, be the nation's top-ranked team. When you look across America, you will find no squad more proven than this Texas A&M football team through nine weeks of the college football season.

The Aggies are currently ranked third in the aforementioned AP Poll, closing a little bit of distance with the no. 2 Indiana Hoosiers compared to the previous week. Ohio State is the team still atop the rankings at this point, though the two teams behind them are closing in steadily.

The reality of the situation is that Texas A&M's 8-0 start has been a far harder 8-0 to achieve than either Indiana's or Ohio State's. The numbers bear this out pretty clearly: the Aggies hold the best strength of record in the country according to FPI's numbers, which makes sense given the strength of their schedule so far.

Texas A&M should be ranked as the no. 1 team in America

Of course, AP voters are notoriously double-minded when it comes to their rankings. Depending on the team, the weather, or what they had for lunch that day, different voters give different rationales for their rankings. Sometimes, it's just that a team looks better than another. Sometimes, it's what a team has proven on the field compared to another. Sometimes, it's that they haven't done enough to move up from their previous ranking.

These are, generally speaking, mutually exclusive heuristics, but that doesn't stop people from using them. The plain fact of the matter is that the Aggies haven't moved higher than 3rd in the AP Poll simply because of preseason priors and inertia. They were ranked low to start the year and weren't all that good to close 2024, so they have been penalized.

Indiana, on the other hand, made the playoff last year— and, of course, Ohio State is Ohio State. Neither of these teams has a resume nearly as impressive as Texas A&M— Indiana's win over Oregon may be the best of the season, currently, but their destruction of Illinois was not near as impressive as what A&M did to LSU, all things considered.

It could be argued that A&M's Notre Dame win is just as impressive, as well. All that aside, there is simply no comparing the remainder of these resumes.

For those who complain about ESPN's ownership of the FPI or SP+ metrics, I'll use Brian Fremeau's FEI ratings for the following comparison. Texas A&M has wins over the nos. 5, 22, 25, 32, 36, and 40 teams in the nation; Indiana has wins over the nos. 3, 15, 30, 65, 73, and 80 teams in the nation; and Ohio State has wins over the nos. 17, 23, 30, 62, 69, and 74 teams in the nation.

This is good for the Aggies having the no. 1 strength of record in two out of three metrics (see update below) that Fremeau uses; Indiana is the other with the Aggies second, but ranks 3rd and 5th in the other two. Ohio State ranks 3rd, 5th, and 2nd.

Given that the College Football Playoff rankings are set to consider strength of record more strongly in their criteria this year, I think there's a great chance we see Texas A&M emerge as the top-ranked team when those come out a week from tomorrow. With two more huge road games to go, too, I think we see the Aggies' resume only strengthen from here on out.

Update: As of the most recent FEI rankings, Texas A&M now owns the top strength of record in all three rating methods.