Texas A&M football has a real shot to make it into this year's twelve-team playoff. Some detractors will try to scoff at that idea— discount it by pointing to years past or other irrelevant factors— but the plain fact of the matter is that this A&M team should take a huge step forward in year two under Mike Elko.
The Aggies return a massive amount of experience across their entire team, with only the defensive line losing a significant amount of starters— and even then, there's a lot of reason for hope with Cashius Howell and Albert Regis, not to mention DJ Hicks and some of the transfers that have come in.
Combine that with the continuity at the coaching position, the upgrade at receiver, another year in the system for quarterback Marcel Reed, and an extremely talented running back room, and this Aggie squad all of a sudden looks like it could be elite. They've been slept on by the media for quite some time, of course, but different outlets have begun to slowly wake up to the reality of things.
SEC Mike places Texas A&M as top-four team in loaded SEC, showing Aggies' playoff hopes are indeed realistic
SEC Mike, who releases weekly power rankings for the SEC, put out the below graphic showing that the Aggies, in his estimation, are a top-four team in the conference:
Week 1 SEC Power Rankings pic.twitter.com/nCF3aPS4i5
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) August 17, 2025
This is not too far off from our recent power rankings, released this past weekend, except that SEC Mike is far higher on Texas and OU than I am at this point. It's also quite a change from the initial power rankings that SEC Mike put out, showing just how far the Aggies have risen in estimation from then until now.
Notable here is that, if SEC Mike is right, the Aggies will only play one team that's ahead of them in the power rankings, when they travel down to Austin on November 28. LSU will always be a tough road trip, but the Ags could well have a rosier outlook than the Bayou Bengals at that point, and could finally get a win in Baton Rouge.
Regardless, though, this shows how prodigious the Aggies' chances at a spot in the twelve-team playoff actually are. The SEC only got three teams in this past year, but they could well challenge for four in the upcoming season— and it's extremely possible that A&M finishes in that top three