A&M took control of the SEC, the voters took notice
One week after no movement for Texas A&M in the polls, a 38-23 win over LSU saw the Aggies surge in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll, moving up to No. 10 and No. 11, respectively.
POLL ALERT: Miami climbs to No. 5 in AP Top 25, its highest ranking since 2017, while Notre Dame, BYU and Texas A&M move into the top 10 as top four remain unchanged.
Full poll: https://t.co/7dTTUiSC1j pic.twitter.com/WrjBP8HtSA
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) October 27, 2024
. in the Coaches Poll.#GigEm pic.twitter.com/ObKCXWrj8G
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) October 27, 2024
It marks the first time A&M has been in the AP Top 25 top 10 since Jimbo Fisher’s squad infamously lost to Appalachian State in 2022 when they were ranked No. 6. That team finished the season 5-7, but the current squad is setting up for a very different finish, currently sitting at 7-1 overall and 5-0 in SEC play. They are the only team still undefeated in conference play, and the Aggies enter November controlling their own destiny for the first time since joining the conference in 2012.
But of course, these rankings are on the verge of being made irrelevant, with the first batch of College Football Playoff rankings debuting a little over a week from now. While these rankings are often similar to the national polls, it’s also not uncommon for a few teams to have vastly different rankings, with the Playoff committee not beholden to poll inertia based on where a team ranked previously.
A&M next travels to South Carolina, where they open as a 4.5-point favorite, Win that game, and you then get a bye and a home game against New Mexico State, and conference championship game and Playoff hopes can get that much more real.