No, Lane Kiffin, Even Though It's In The SEC, Texas A&M Should Not Be Number One

It's not surprising that Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin is an SEC booster. After all, it behooves him, his program, and his conference affiliation to promote SEC superiority. 

It's nothing new; the public relations campaign is relentless, acting as though each and every SEC game is an impossible gauntlet. But with the expanded playoff, it's becoming even more important and hyperbolic. The more prevalent that conception, the more SEC teams are likely to reach the College Football Playoff. 

Kiffin, during a recent press conference, tried the act again, this time by campaigning for the Texas A&M Aggies to be the number one team in the country. Then getting his reasoning wrong. 

"Texas A&M being [No.] 3 — what more do you want them to do to be [No.] 1?" Kiffin said. " ...People say, 'We need you to schedule hard teams. You're going to play nine SEC teams then another hard one.' Well, they went up to Notre Dame and won... What good did that do if it's not rewarded?

"They have the highest metrics of anybody and they're not No. 1."

No Lane, they do not have the highest metrics of everybody. And no, they do not deserve to be number one.

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. - Marcel Reed #10 of the Texas A&M Aggies warms up prior to the game against the UTSA Roadrunners at Kyle Field on August 30, 2025. (Photo by Maria Lysaker/Getty Images)

Texas A&M Has No Case To Be Number One

Before breaking down his ludicrous Notre Dame argument, it's important to note that Texas A&M isn't anywhere close to having the "highest metrics of everybody."

ESPN's SP+ is one of the better, analytics and "metrics"-driven ranking systems. It uses team efficiency on offense, defense and special teams and adjusts for opponents. In the most recent iteration of that ranking, Texas A&M is 5th. Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon and Texas Tech rank 1-4, respectively. But admitting that there are three Big Ten teams with "higher metrics" than the best SEC team this season would simply never happen. An SEC coach must act as though only the SEC has good teams, because that is their contractural obligation. It's an integral part of the SEC hypothetically winning each and every game.

It's even worse in ESPN's FPI. Again, this is an ESPN-created metric, the network that has a vested interest in promoting the SEC. A&M ranks seventh by those metrics. 

SP+ also has a resume ranking, defined thus: "…compares each team's scoring margin (capped at 50 points for a given game) to what an average top-five team would be expected to generate against a given opponent. If a top-five opponent would be projected to win a game by 10.0 points, and a team wins by 15 instead, that's a +5.0 rating for that game. By the end of the season, only a handful of teams will have a positive rating because clearing a top-five bar is obviously very difficult. (Note: A seven-point penalty for losses is applied to the rating as well, meaning your rating has seven points deducted for each loss.)"

Indiana ranks number one in that metric as well, with a +8.4. Ohio State is second, A&M is third. Third is exactly where they sit, and are likely to continue to sit in the CFB Playoff poll too.

Let's keep going. 

Another advanced, metric-based ranking system is FEI. Here's how those are calculated: "FEI Ratings (FEI), Offense Ratings (OFEI), Defense Ratings (DFEI), and Special Teams Ratings (SFEI) are opponent-adjusted possession efficiency data representing the scoring advantage per non-garbage possession a team or unit would expect to have on a neutral field against an average opponent."

Texas A&M ranks ninth in FEI, through Week 11. Though, to be fair, per FEI, their strength of record is second. So yeah, they do not have the highest metrics of everybody. Not even close. 

Only SEC Gets Credit For Big Wins, Apparently

Then there's the other part of Kiffin's argument, that the Aggies deserve to be first because of the win over Notre Dame. It was a great win for A&M, on the road, against a top-quality opponent. 

But has he forgotten that Ohio State beat Texas? Or that Indiana went on the road and dominated Oregon? Those wins were equally impressive, and in Indiana's case, even more so. 

A&M's SEC schedule has been remarkably easy, as far as SEC schedules go. Here's how their conference schedule has shaken out and their opponents' SEC record.

That Missouri game was against a freshman backup QB as well.

Does that mean A&M is a bad team this year, or doesn't deserve to be in the top-3? No, of course not. The Aggies are clearly one of the best few teams in the country. Winning all those games is extremely difficult; it's never easy to go undefeated in a major conference. Do they deserve to be number one, simply because they've played SEC conference games and beat Notre Dame? Also, no. 

Again, Kiffin is campaigning here. He's pushing for the conference he's part of to be given preferential treatment. But no matter how hard he tries, how little he apparently knows about the metrics he references, they do not deserve it.