Forget dark horse, Texas A&M has earned the right to call itself an SEC favorite midway through the regular season.

The Aggies are one of three undefeated teams in SEC play alongside Ole Miss and Alabama and enter Week 8 as the second-betting favorite at +400 to win the conference championship, trailing only Alabama (+165) and ahead of third place Ole Miss (+550). 

Mike Elko’s bunch is 6-0 on the season and 3-0 in conference play with home wins against Auburn, Mississippi State, and Florida. The next three games are away from Kyle Field with a trip to Arkansas set for this weekend. The Aggies head to LSU on Oct. 25 and Missouri on Nov. 15 after an open week. They don’t return to College Station until a Nov. 15 clash with South Carolina – the only remaining SEC game in Kyle Field this season. 

Texas A&M has never played for an SEC championship and hasn’t won a conference title since 1998 as members of the Big 12. Dennis Franchione couldn’t do it and neither could Mike Sherman or Kevin Sumlin. Jimbo Fisher had the Aggies close in 2020 but couldn’t carry the momentum into after the pandemic despite signing the highest-rated recruiting class in industry history in the 2021 cycle. 

Much has been made of “Battered Aggie Syndrome” and how hard it is for the 12th Man to let go of past trauma and trust the success playing out in front of them. Texas A&M started 7-1 last year before shrinking down the stretch and losing its final four games against Power Four competition, including the bowl game against USC. Elko has pleaded for the fan base, and the media, to concentrate on the moment and not on history that he nor his players had any part in. 

Still, this is the SEC and the margins are small. His Aggies are 7.5-point favorites on the road against Arkansas and are ranked 4th in the latest AP Poll. This is the ninth season since joining the SEC in 2012 that the Aggies have reached Top 10 status. In the previous eight, Texas A&M finished the season outside of the Top 25 more often (5 times) than it did in the Top 25 (3 times). 

Things are currently great in College Station, but Elko knows how quickly it can change. So does the fan base. He was asked about his team looking like a winning program halfway through Year 2 of his tenure and he was quick to point out that those types of conclusions are a week-to-week proposition. 

“That’s rented,” Elko said of the winning label. “You’ve got to pay rent every week and prove that you can do it again.” 

If Texas A&M pays rent on time over the second half of the season, the Aggies will earn a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship and punch a ticket into the College Football Playoff – both would be firsts for the program. Few thought that would be true entering the season. The Aggies were picked to finish eighth in the SEC behind programs like South Carolina and Florida. Eleven different SEC teams received at least one first place vote in the preseason media poll. Texas A&M was one of four teams that didn’t, joining Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

But Elko’s Crew have made that look silly and the 2025 version of the Aggies doesn’t feel like a mirage. The 2024 start felt like a house of cards, and they eventually tumbled. Elko said in the offseason that his team probably wasn’t as good as a 7-1 start would indicate or as bad as the 0-3 finish to SEC play suggested. They were somewhere in the middle, a perfect 8-4 football team. 

This version has staying power. The Aggies are fifth in the SEC in scoring offense during conference play, tied with Alabama at 27 points per game. Say what you want about Auburn and Florida, but both field tremendous defenses. The defense is first in scoring during conference play at 12 points allowed per game. The Wrecking Crew is only allowing conversions on 6.06 percent of third down attempts against conference foes. The second-best defense is Alabama at 26.67 percent. 

Big plays on offense are also a difference between the 2025 version of Texas A&M and last season. Mario Craver and KC Concepcion are tied for second in the SEC for plays 10 yards or more with 23 each. Craver ranks first in the SEC in plays over 20 yards, 30 yards, and 50 yards. He’s second on plays over 40. He leads the SEC in receiving while Concepcion is fourth. 

The trenches are also a strength for Texas A&M on both sides of the ball. The offensive line might be the best unit in the country, although Miami has a strong argument for that spot. The Aggies are first in the SEC in tackles for loss allowed with 17. The defense is Top 10 in the nation in tackles for loss with 47, which is third in the SEC. Cashius Howell leads the SEC in sacks with 5.5 and he’s tied for the league lead in tackles for loss with nine. 

The schedule also sets up well for the Aggies despite the long road trip. A 10-2 record in the SEC is a guaranteed spot in the CFP. One of Texas A&M’s final six games are against Stamford so it’s essentially 7-0. That leaves five games of significance left and a 3-2 record is a golden ticket into the 12-team field. A 3-1 record likely stamps a trip to the SEC title game depending on tiebreakers.

The success or failure of the 2025 season will ride on road trips to Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, and Texas. Win two of those and hold serve at home and this is the best season for the Aggies since they were in the Big 12. We can look ahead like that, but Elko won’t let his team. That’s what makes him capable of leading this program to new heights. Texas A&M needed an adult in the room after the Fisher era, and it found exactly that. 

“There is humility, and there is confidence, and those two things can coexist,” Elko said this week in media availability. “We want to be the group that just goes to work, does our thing and produces. That is something that I always think pays dividends.”