For the second time in Mike Elko's young tenure with Texas A&M football, the Aggies are ranked as a top-10 team via the AP Poll.
The latest edition of the poll, which was released today at 1 PM CT, sees the Aggie vault all the way from 16th inside of the top 10 thanks to their win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish— one which dropped Marcus Freeman's squad to 0-2, but not yet out of the top 25 altogether, as they land at 24th. The Aggies land at 10, their highest ranking since last year's win over LSU.
This represents a lot for this Texas A&M football program. Mike Elko pledged to get the Aggies back up to the estimation in which they were once held, and he's beginning to deliver on that promise. This, after all, was the third top-10 win for Elko in only 16 games as the Aggies' head coach, meaning he is now 3-2 in games against such teams.
Week 3 AP Poll Fallout: Texas A&M surges into top 10 but still faces loaded gauntlet
The Aggies are only 22 votes behind 7th place, as there is a huge bunch-up of teams in that 7-10 range. There is really no excuse for Texas in particular to be ranked ahead of the Aggies, as the Longhorns not only have a worse record, but have looked poorer in all facets thus far in the season. There's not much of an argument for Illinois to be ahead of the Aggies, either, given that A&M has accomplished more, but I can see FSU being ahead of A&M right now.
Considering that Texas A&M now has the number one strength of record in the entire nation, they probably should have been given a little more respect in this poll than they were, but it takes a while to overcome preseason priors (this is why the preseason rankings matter, by the way).
This also shows the gauntlet the Aggies will have to run. Both Missouri and Auburn climbed in the rankings this week, and though Auburn could fall out with a loss at Oklahoma before their game against the Aggies on September 27, it shows that this is a team that the Ags need to take very seriously.
The South Carolina Gamecocks, however, have fallen all the way out of the poll, as have their rivals, the Clemson Tigers. That's one fewer ranked opponent for the Aggies on the schedule, but it will still be a formidable team come November.