No. 3 Texas A&M (7-0, 4-0 SEC) will now head to Baton Rouge to take on No. 20 LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC). For those who don’t remember, the Aggies have not won in Death Valley since the 1994 season. However, this season feels different, and after seven consecutive wins, second-year head coach Mike Elko has his eyes on the program’s first bid to the College Football Playoff.
Through eight weeks of play, Texas A&M’s record, which continues to be headlined by the Week 3 road win over Notre Dame, instantly makes the Aggies a CFP contender, and knowing that the Fighting Irish have not lost since, dominating nearly every opponent since falling at home, bodes well for the Aggies down the stretch—needing to finish the year with no worse than a 9-3 record, 10-2, or 11-1 looks even more realistic heading into Baton Rouge.
If the Aggies win on Saturday, they will have consecutive home games vs. South Carolina and Samford before heading to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns, who might need to win out to have a shot at the postseason. Texas A&M will be heavily favored in both home games and is surprisingly a 2.5-point favorite or more to defeat LSU.
Texas A&M’s schedule and current 4-0 record in SEC play have kept the Aggies in the No. 1 spot in ESPN’s strength of record rankings according to ESPN’s College Football Power Index update and ranked No. 10 overall in FPI, the ranking system accounts for the strength of the opponent, the margin of victory, and projections of where each program can be placed based on its performance.
Top 10 ESPN Strength of Record Rankings
Texas A&M’s win over Notre Dame was the program’s first Top 10 nonconference road win since 1979, while SEC victories over Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, and Arkansas, where the Aggies scored over 30 points in the latter three wins, the Aggies’ have been able to defeat teams in multiple ways.
If the Aggies play a complete game against LSU, I fully expect the Aggies to leave Death Valley undefeated and a likely lock for the College Football Playoff.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.
This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Where does Texas A&M rank in ESPN’s latest FPI strength of record rankings?
Reporting by Cameron Ohnysty, Aggies Wire / Aggies Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
