Texas A&M, Mike Elko picked for surprisingly high SEC finish in preseason media poll

Texas A&M has been selected to finish in fourth place in the SEC for the 2026 season, according to the preseason media poll released today at the conclusion of SEC Media Days. This is the highest preseason selection for the Aggies since 2022, when the sparks of optimism for the Jimbo Fisher era still had some life left.

Given the reigning sentiment that the Aggies are due for a step back, this was something of a surprise to many Texas A&M fans. The media did not seem super high on the Aggies, but this poll would certainly suggest otherwise in a lot of ways.

Texas A&M selected to finish fourth in SEC for 2026 season, showing Elko's rising star

Here's the full SEC poll:

One very interesting note is that Texas A&M under Mike Elko has always superseded the position in which they were selected to finish in the preseason media poll. In his first year, the Aggies were picked to finish eighth— they finished sixth. In his second year, the Aggies were picked to finish eighth again— and they finished in a four-way tie for first with Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss.

That shows a couple of things: first and foremost, it demonstrates that the Aggies under Elko have been consistently underrated by the media, rather than the inverse (which is what the narrative has been nationally). Second, it shows that Mike Elko has defied those expectations and is beginning to get some respect for it— this, after all, is the first time in his tenure that the Aggies have received any votes to win the league.

Of course, the way this is tabulated means that fourth place, where A&M is slotted, is probably not the most common pick for the Aggies, but because of the way the points are given for each individual poll, that's where things shook out. This is actually quite a close poll when you take a look at it, especially compared to previous years.

Texas A&M is only 37 points behind Ole Miss up in third place— a gap smaller than all but one from last year's poll. Smaller even than that is the gap between A&M and fifth-place LSU, which is only by 6 points!

The difference in points between third and seventh place here is basically miniscule in the grand scheme of things: it's a 90-point gap, whereas the gap between seventh and eighth place is 596 points.

This shakes out the SEC race into two tiers, according to this media poll: at the top are Georgia and Texas, who most would pick to meet in Atlanta for the championship game— of course, they were also selected at this time last year, and only Georgia made it, with preseason third-place Alabama as their opponent.

Then, you have the "potential contender" tier with that extremely small amount of separation between the third-place Ole Miss Rebels and the seventh-place Oklahoma Sooners. There could be any amount of mix-up in this tier, and most would nod their heads and say "that's right"— one could even make it to Atlanta without there being a ton of raised eyebrows from the media class.

Hopefully the Aggies are the one to emerge from the pack there and pose a challenge to those top two. The only team picked ahead of them here that they play is Texas, and they get that one at home— unfortunately, they play four of the top six (not counting the Aggies themselves) teams here, so it could be tough to remain with an unblemished record.

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