Raise your hand if you thought Texas A&M would be 7-0 and ranked #3 (by the AP and SwampSwamiSports.com) at this point of the college football season.

That’s what I thought.  Me, neither.

Recent history has shown the Texas Aggies sounding quite confident early in many seasons but then fading away down the stretch.

The brief audio clip entitled “Sad Trombone” has been appropriate when trying to describe the growing frustration about Texas A&M’s late season football struggles for several decades.

Close, but no cigar!

Texas A&M has yet to play in a national championship game since the 1998 playoff era began with the BCS and, later, the College Football Playoffs.

Aggie fans may remind you that former coach Jimbo Fisher’s 2020 team finished 9-1. 

Alas, Texas A&M’s one loss that year came against Coach Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide during the regular season in the SEC West.  Despite that exceptional record, Texas A&M did not play in either the 2020 SEC Championship game or the College Football Playoff title game.

The 2020 season was the infamous COVID year. 

College football games were played in cavernous, mostly empty stadiums.  No more than 20,000 socially-distanced fans were allowed to enter and watch most college football games in person that year.

Prior to 2020, the 1998 Texas A&M team coached by R.C. Slocum played in a non-championship BCS encounter at the Sugar Bowl after winning the Big 12 Conference title.  The #8 ranked Aggies met #3 Ohio State.

Texas A&M lost to the Buckeyes 24-14.  (Time for that “Sad Trombone” tune again!)

Texas A&M’s last national championship came in 1939!

Coach Homer Norton led the Aggies to a 14-13 Sugar Bowl win over Tulane to finish with a perfect 11-0 record.  That team’s incredible defense gave up only 31 points for the entire season!

Texas A&M University is large, loud, and very proud

In the South, we like to tell a few good-natured Texas Aggie jokes.  Here are a few clean ones!

Q: How did the Aggie die from drinking milk?

A: The cow fell on him!

Q: How do you know when an Aggie has been using the computer?

A: There is white-out on the screen!

Texas A&M has the most on-campus students (72,500) of any traditional university in the United States.

The headcount for the school’s massive Association of Former Students is as large as some developing countries. 

According to their website, more than 574,000 remain in contact with the school.  These very proud former Aggies pride themselves on helping other Aggies to find a job in the business world.

The saying of, “Once an Aggie, always an Aggie” is quite true.

For as much pride as Texas Aggies take in their school, the Texas A&M football team has not measured-up to that same level of success.

It’s not that Texas A&M has a history of fielding lousy football teams.  The Aggies have posted only five losing records in the last 41 seasons since 1983.

They have gone through seven different football coaches during the same period.

Texas A&M football fans desperately want the same thing that Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and all other SEC schools desire.  A championship ring earned by the school’s football team would set-off the biggest celebration in College Station, Texas history.

Playing in the shadow of “Texas University”

Most Texas A&M fans truly despise the state’s flagship university located in Austin.

The second verse of the school’s fight song (The Aggie War Hymn) featuring the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band says it best:

“Good-bye to Texas University

So long to the orange and the white

Good luck dear old Texas Aggies

They are the boys that show the real old fight

“The Eyes of Texas are upon you…”

That is the song they sing so well

So good-bye to Texas University

We’re gonna beat you all to

Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem

Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem

Rough! Tough! Real Stuff! Texas A&M!”

The Aggies wisely decided to exit the Big 12 Conference and join the SEC in 2012.

It was time for Texas A&M to get away from that ever-present burnt orange shadow being cast by “Texas University” (that’s what they call that other school in Austin).  The move has been generally positive for Texas A&M as the Aggies have gained more national attention as a part of the SEC since 2012.

However, the Aggies are still seeking their first SEC football title midway through their 14^th season in their new league.

Nobody said it was going to be easy for Texas A&M in the SEC.  The Aggies have watched as Alabama (8 times), Georgia (3 times), LSU (2019), and Auburn (2013) took home SEC football championships.

Texas A&M fans desperately want this year’s surprising 7-0 Maroon and White football team to finally break through and earn a spot in December’s SEC Championship game in Atlanta.

Interestingly, the aforementioned rival “Texas University” (along with The University of Oklahoma) left the Big 12 and joined the SEC last year in 2024.

Worse yet for Aggies fans, the Longhorns qualified to play in the SEC title game last December (losing to Georgia) in their very first year of playing football in the league.

Ouch.

This year’s 7-0 Texas A&M team is all about hard work – without the chest-thumping

Texas A&M is all about being big.

The school has a huge campus in College Station which is the size of a small city to educate, feed, and house more than 70,000 students.  A&M students and “former students” are justifiably proud of their academics, the Texas A&M Corp