Texas A&M’s path through the 2026 season is loaded with opportunity, but the back half of the schedule is the kind that can turn a promising year into a grind. The Aggies enter Mike Elko’s third season with enough offensive talent to chase the College Football Playoff, yet CBS Sports still pegs their slate as the eighth-toughest in college football.
The roughest part comes in November, when Texas A&M is lined up against Tennessee on Nov. 14, Oklahoma on Nov. 21 and then Texas on Nov. 27 to finish the regular season in the Lone Star Showdown. All three of those teams are included among the five opponents on the Aggies’ schedule ranked in ESPN’s preseason top 25.
That doesn’t mean this roster lacks the pieces to win big again. Elko landed the No. 4 transfer portal class in the country, according to On3 Sports, and also signed the No. 7 high school class.
The concern is up front, where five starting linemen are gone. Still, junior quarterback Marcel Reed will have help from transfers Tyree Adams from LSU, Wilkin Formby from Alabama and Trovon Baugh from South Carolina, all of whom bring SEC experience to the line.
The biggest question is whether that reshaped trench group can hold up against the kind of defenses Texas A&M will see all season. Reed’s development as a quarterback will also be under the microscope when the competition tightens.
Among the toughest tests, the season-ending trip to face Texas on Friday, Nov. 27 at Kyle Field stands out. The Longhorns have taken the last three meetings, including 27-17 and 17-7 losses under Elko, and Texas A&M is still chasing its first win in the rivalry since 2010. Texas enters 2026 with one of the most talented rosters of the Steve Sarkisian era, led by Arch Manning and transfer wide receiver Cam Coleman, and the outcome will hinge on how well the Aggies’ defense handles that offense.
Before that, Texas A&M gets a major road challenge at LSU on Saturday, Sep. 26 at Tiger Stadium. The Aggies have won the last two against the Tigers, but LSU has a new coach in Lane Kiffin, who became the first coach in college football history to lead three SEC schools after leaving Ole Miss.
Kiffin quickly brought in the No. 5 portal class in the nation, highlighted by quarterback Sam Leavitt, and he’ll try to push LSU back into elite territory. Texas A&M did win in Baton Rouge last year, its first road victory against the Tigers since 1994, but Death Valley is still a brutal place to play.
The other heavyweight matchup comes on Saturday, Oct. 24, when the Aggies head to Bryant-Denny Stadium to meet Alabama. It will be Texas A&M’s first trip to Tuscaloosa since 2022, and the first meeting between the programs since Alabama’s 26-20 win in 2023. This will also be the first time the Aggies face the Crimson Tide without Nick Saban on the other sideline.
Kalen DeBoer has already guided Alabama to the second round of the playoff, and while the Tide have question marks entering his third season, including a battle for the starting quarterback job, the roster still looks good enough to contend near the top of the SEC again. And when Texas A&M arrives in Tuscaloosa, Bryant-Denny Stadium figures to be at full volume.
In Other News...
Aggies Just Missed On An Elite Tackle That Felt Within Reach
Texas A&M has already built a strong foundation up front for 2026, landing four offensive linemen in a group that includes five-star recruits Mark Matthews and Kennedy Brown, along with four-star tackles DeMarrion Johnson and Kaeden Kent. For a program that has made protecting the line of scrimmage a clear priority, that haul gives the Aggies real momentum and plenty of reason to feel good about where the class stands.
Still, there was one tackle pursuit that carried a different kind of weight. Ismael Camara had been on Texas A&Ms radar early, and the Aggies were in the mix long enough to make the battle feel very much alive before the race shifted elsewhere. Losing out on a player of that caliber is the sort of miss that stings, especially when the staff had been pushing to keep the momentum going with another elite addition at a premium position. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Is Right Back At The Center Of NIL Backlash
Texas A&M has once again become the lightning rod in the NIL debate, this time because of the way it is building its incoming football recruiting class. The Aggies have the kind of budget, staff and facilities that let them operate at the top of a crowded market, and that reality has made them a natural target for complaints from around college football.
The latest criticism centers on the scale of the spending attached to that class, with the program reportedly pushing well past ten million dollars. For all the hand-wringing, the bigger issue may be that this is exactly the kind of bidding war the sport has invited, and it is hard to see the noise fading until enforceable rules finally catch up. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Is Suddenly Winning Big At A Long Troubled Position
Texas A&Ms receiver room has gone from a lingering question to one of the more encouraging parts of the roster, thanks to the emergence of players like KC Concepcion, Mario Craver and Ashton Bethel-Roman. The improvement matters because it gives the Aggies a stronger foundation at a spot that has not always been easy to solve, and it also gives the staff something real to sell as it keeps building for the future.
That momentum is showing up in recruiting, too, with the 2027 class already giving Texas A&M a chance to keep stacking talent at the position. The Aggies are in the mix for McFarland and Upshaw, two of the top receivers in that cycle, while the group already on campus gives the program more depth than it has had in a while. If the next wave keeps coming, this could turn into a position Texas A&M no longer has to chase so hard. [Read more 🡒]