Texas A&M cracks ESPN's 2023 College Football SP+ Top 25

Is the football season over? Yes. But is it really every actually over? Not in the slightest. The term “offseason” is a bit odd to me, because while the actual on the field playing season is over, recruiting season, rankings season, and “way-too-early” everything season is always in full swing. So, getting in the spirit of this, ESPN’s Bill Connelly has released his initial SP+ Top 25 Tuesday morning. And, even after a 5-7 season, Texas A&M made an appearance.

The SP+ has three factors to it. The first is returning production, meaning which teams bring back the most from a year ago. Then, recent recruiting and recent history also play a role in determining where teams are ranked. Connelly defines it as “a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year.”

The No. 1 team isn’t much of a surprise considering Georgia is coming off back-to-back national championships. Then, Ohio State — despite losing quarterback CJ Stroud to the NFL Draft — comes in at No. 2, closely followed by Michigan. Alabama and Penn State round out the top five.

While Texas A&M is not near the top-5, it is a good sight to see the Aggies in the list at all. Coming in one the list, the Aggies are ranked No. 17.

Here is ESPN’s full SP+ top 25:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan
4. Alabama
5. Penn State
6. Tennessee
7. LSU
8. Oregon
9. Texas
10. USC
11. Florida State
12. Clemson
13. Utah
14. Oklahoma
15. Notre Dame
16. Washington
17. Texas A&M
18. Ole Miss
19. TCU
20. Florida
21. UCLA
22. Kansas State
23. Mississippi State
24. Kentucky
25. Wisconsin

The SEC teams to make the list are Georgia (1), Alabama (4), Tennessee (6), LSU (7), Texas A&M (17), Ole Miss (18), Mississippi State (23), and Kentucky (24).

In the SP+ analytics, Texas A&M has a score of 16.7. On offense, they have a score of 29.7 (51st) and on defense, they have a score of 12.8 (3rd).

Average SP+ rating by conference
1. SEC (16.6)
2. Big Ten (10.1)
3. Big 12 (10.0)
4. Pac-12 (7.1)
5. ACC (6.1)
6. AAC (-7.4)
7. Sun Belt (-10.1)
8. Mountain West (-13.2)
9. Conference USA (-14.8)
10. MAC (-16.6)

“Buy, buy, buy!”

“We’re just rolling through the list of strong-recruiting underachievers now, aren’t we? Jimbo Fisher’s [Texas A&M] Aggies were the nation’s top underachievers in 2022, responding to hype from a top-ranked recruiting class by going 5-7 and losing quite a few star recruits to the portal. But most of the starters return — [Texas] A&M is seventh in returning production — and while the perpetually underachieving offense bears the burden of proof in offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino’s first season, the defense should be absolutely dynamite. That should drive at least a minor rebound.”