Why Texas A&M Should Be No. 1 in College Football Playoff Rankings

The Texas A&M Aggies found themselves ranked third in the first College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night, but should they be at the top of the list?

Oct 4, 2025; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko looks on during the first half against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies have exceeded the expectations of just about every single college football analyst in the 2025 season.

Starting Mike Elko's second year as head coach ranked No. 19, the Maroon and White wasted no time showing how well-rounded they are as a team, skyrocketing to No. 3 in the country with a perfect 8-0 record two and a half months later.

The success of their season so far was displayed when the College Football Playoff committee released their first rankings for the 12-team field Tuesday night, and spotted the Ags at No. 3, behind only the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Indiana Hoosiers, the same top three that sit atop the AP Top 25, but according to a couple of ESPN analysts, the Aggies have a strong case for the top spot.

Booger McFarland, Joey Galloway Plead Their Case For Texas A&M At the Top Spot

Right as the rankings were announced live on ESPN, analysts Booger McFarland and Joey Galloway immediately began stating their cases in favor of Mike Elko's team being No. 1 in the playoff rankings, despite the successful campaigns of Ohio State and Indiana.

Oct 17, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; Booger McFarland on the ESPN Monday Night Football Countdown set before the game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

McFarland, a two-time Super Bowl champion out of LSU, highlighted A&M's resume and between the three teams, it seems that the Buckeyes are the only ones that he would not put atop the list.

“I think Texas A&M’s resume, to this point and the way they’ve looked, deserves to be No. 1,” McFarland said during the selection show. “When you look at Indiana and what they’ve done going on the road to beat Oregon, I would even put them No. 1. I don’t know if I would put Ohio State at No. 1 based on what they’ve done.”

The Eye Test

Galloway, a former Ohio State alumnus himself, criticized the use of the "eye test" that many claim is used when selecting the playoff teams each year, and claimed that A&M's analytics in 2025 trumps that of the top two teams.

Jan 10, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; ESPN reporter Joey Galloway during Media day at Dallas Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images | Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images

“This tells me that they’re going a lot on eye test here,” Galloway said. “Because if we’re going on ranking and analytics, Texas A&M is best analytically over Indiana and Ohio State. So, they’re going a lot off of eye test. And when you start telling me we’re going off eye test, now all of a sudden, we have no idea where this thing is going. You say, 'who’s Ohio State’s best win?' A Texas team that didn’t look great early. This surprises me because it’s a lot of eye test and I don’t trust eye test as much as I do analytics.”

According to ESPN, Texas A&M's strength of record is the best in college football, and their strength of record is No. 15, while the Hoosiers and Buckeyes follow right after them in record strength and No. 39 and 33, respectively, in the schedule strength.

Of course, there is still another month of play remaining, plenty of time for these rankings to get shaken up in a hurry, but with the dominant and consistent play of the Aggies thus far in the season, who's to say they couldn't be at the top right now?

The noise will have to subside for now, however, as the Aggies shift their focus on the No. 19 Missouri Tigers, who they face Saturday afternoon in Columbia.