The Associated Press officially released the College Football Preseason Top 25 on Monday, and only two Texas teams are entering the season in the rankings.
The University of Texas Longhorns were the highest-ranked team from the Lone Star State. They were voted the fourth-best team in college football after making an appearance in the College Football Playoffs last season.
Texas is coming off an impressive final season in the Big 12. The university went 12-2, won the conference title for the first time since 2009, and matched up against the University of Washington in the College Football Playoff Semifinals.
Although the Longhorns lost to the Huskies 37-31 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the team will have many players returning as it looks to make a run to the National Championship.
Many will be watching junior quarterback Quinn Ewers following an offseason in which he has been discussed as a potential candidate to win the Heisman Trophy.
Ewers has appeared in 22 games during his three-year career and currently ranks eighth all-time in Texas history with 5,656 career passing yards, with 3,479 clocked during the 2023 season.
Another notable storyline for the Longhorns in the coming season is the recent loss of runningback CJ Baxter, who is expected to miss the entire season after suffering an injury during a practice last week, as reported by Dennis de la Pena.
Texas will officially begin its season with a home game against Colorado State University on August 31 before traveling to play the University of Michigan in Week 2.
The second team from the Lone Star State to be ranked in the Top 25 was Texas A&M University, which will enter the season as the 20th-best team in all of college football.
The Aggies are coming off a slightly disappointing 2023 season after finishing with an overall record of just 7-6 and a conference record of 4-4.
Texas A&M qualified for a bowl game and took on Oklahoma State University in the TaxAct Texas Bowl, losing 31-23 in the program’s final game of the 2023 season.
Despite finishing the year with a winning record, the Aggies struggled against the top competition, going 0–5 against opponents ranked in the Top 25 at the time.
The Aggies will likely lean on the players who have chosen to transfer into the university for this coming season, as the program boasts one of the highest-ranked recruiting classes in the country.
Texas A&M currently has the fourth highest-ranked transfer class going into the 2024 season, trailing only Ole Miss, Oregon, and Alabama for the top three spots, according to 24/7 Sports.
Both the Longhorns and the Aggies are members of the Southeastern Conference, which had a total of nine teams ranked in the Top 25 coming into the 2024 season.
These two teams will also face off against each other for the first time since 2011, renewing a long-time rivalry that was paused after the Aggies left the Big 12, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
This game is scheduled to take place on November 30 in College Station, though no official kickoff time has been announced yet.