Texas A&M fans, you may now exhale. The regular season has come and gone, and there is plenty to be proud about after the 11-1 season.

The Aggies may have ended said regular season with a loss in Austin to the Texas Longhorns, but for a team that has been chasing playoff glory for decades now, there is nothing to be ashamed of.

The 11 wins that the team notched are the highest since their 11-win season back in 2012, Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy-winning campaign.

With their success, the Aggies were a force to be reckoned with in the weekly AP Top 25 polls, reaching their highest rank since the 2020 season that saw them at No. 4.

The Aggies started the season ranked at No. 19 after the 8-5 season they had in Mike Elko’s first year as head coach, though the addition of wide receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver kept them in contention as one of the best in college football.

The Aggies were predicted to finish eighth of 16 SEC teams in the SEC media poll.

The A&M offense was as advertised through their first two games, with wins of 42-24 and 44-22 over the UTSA Roadrunners and Utah State Aggies, respectively, boosting them three spots.

Defeating a top 10 team will definitely get you props from the Associated Press, and the Aggies found themselves in the top 10 for the second straight season after their 41-40 win over No. 8 Notre Dame in South Bend.

The Aggies didn’t even have to play during Week 4 to move up one spot, as then-No. 9 Illinois took a massive loss to Indiana, plummeting them and moving A&M up one during their bye week.

Texas A&M held off a late charge by the Auburn Tigers in their conference opener to take a 16-10 win, and losses by Florida State, Penn State, and LSU, who were all ranked above them, shot the Aggies up to the doorstep of the top 5.

A 31-9 pummeling of the Mississippi State Bulldogs was enough for Texas A&M to overtake the Oklahoma Sooners in the ranks, despite Oklahoma defeating Kent State 44-0.

The Aggies defeated the Florida Gators with a sound 24-17 score, and after the Ole Miss Rebels suffered a near loss to Washington State, the Maroon and White were promoted one spot on the AP list.

The Ags marched into Baton Rouge and annihilated the LSU Tigers 49-25, and after the Miami Hurricanes’ loss to the Louisville Cardinals, A&M moved up to their highest ranking since the 1995 season, when R.C. Slocum was still calling the shots.

Mike Elko’s team stayed in third behind the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes and No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers, continuing their perfect season, which included their comeback win over the South Carolina Gamecocks until they finally tasted defeat at the hands of the Longhorns in the regular season finale, 27-17, dropping them down to No. 7 and out of the SEC Championship game.

The Aggies will now wait to see who the College Football Playoff gives them in the first round, as they will likely host an opponent at Kyle Field.

For the first time since the 2010 season, the Texas A&M Aggies took a trip to the Texas state capitol to combat their in-state foes, the Texas Longhorns, while looking to keep their undefeated season alive through the regular season.

Unfortunately for Mike Elko’s team, that wasn’t the case after 60 minutes at DKR, as the Longhorns would come back from a 10-3 halftime deficit to outscore A&M 24-7 in the second half, and after two interceptions by quarterback Marcel Reed late in the fourth quarter, the Aggies’ first loss of the season was in the books in a 27-17 finish.

And after being at the forefront of a team known for flawless performances in the second half of 2025, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko wasn’t too fond of Friday night’s results, needless to say.

During the opening statement of his postgame press conference immediately following the loss, Elko praised the Texas team for their efficiency in the second half and expressed his dismay with his own team’s performance.

“Yeah, I mean obviously give them (Texas) credit,” Elko began. “They went out in the second half and made the plays they needed to make to win the football game. From our perspective, just very disappointed in how we played in the second half. We didn’t play Texas A&M football at all.”

After expressing the heartache of coming up short in the rivalry game for the second year in a row, Elko made it clear that his team was going to be focused on the next task at hand, competing for a national championship.

“Uh, it hurts. It should. This game means a lot,” said Elko. “We got to regroup though and we’ve got to get ready for the playoffs.”

As for actually embarking on those preparations for the College Football Playoff, Elko admitted that he wasn’t exactly in the right mindset to turn the loss into motivation moving forward.

“I don’t know that we’re thinking like that right now,” Elko said. “I think we’re just thinking about not getting the job done tonight and coming out of this weekend, maybe we’ll regroup and figure out moving forward what the positives are of 11-1 right now. It just hurts that we lost to our rival.”

For the second straight year, Texas A&M’s chances to compete for a conference championship were dashed at the hands of the Burnt Orange, and now the Ags will wait patiently through the championship weekend coming up to see what their own fate is regarding the College Football Playoff next week.