Texas ranked No. 21 in preseason AP poll
The Associated Press released its preseason poll on Monday, and the Texas Longhorns were rated as the No. 21 team in country. Texas was ranked as the No. 19 team in USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll on Tuesday.
The Longhorns were one of three Big 12 teams to make the top 25, along with No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 7 Iowa State. The only other team from the Lone Star State to make the preseason rankings was Texas A&M, who appeared at No. 6 in the poll.
Alabama was selected as the No. 1 team with 47 of the 62 first-place votes. Oklahoma and No. 3 Clemson each received six first-place votes. No. 4 Ohio State gained one selection for the top spot, while No. 5 Georgia received three first-place votes.
Five Southeastern Conference teams made the top 25, while three Atlantic Coast Conference teams were selected. Five Big 10 teams and five Pac-12 teams made the list.
Independent Notre Dame was ranked No. 9. Group of Five schools to make the cut included No. 8 Cincinnati, No. 22 Coastal Carolina, and No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette.
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Oklahoma State, TCU, and West Virginia were in the receiving votes category.
Texas is no stranger to the AP preseason poll
This is the fifth consecutive AP preseason top 25 that has featured the Longhorns. Texas registered at No. 23 ahead of 2017 and 2018, and peaked at No. 10 in 2019. The Longhorns began the 2020 season ranked No. 14, finishing ranked No. 19.
Texas has never began the season ranked No. 1 by the AP. It has been a top five team to start the season 24 times, most recently in 2010. The Longhorns have appeared as the No. 2 team five times in AP poll history, the last in 2009.
This is the first time in school history Texas has appeared as the No. 21 team in the preseason poll and just the fourth time it has ever started the season in the 20s along with 1992, 2017, and 2018.
This is the third time a team coached by Steve Sarkisian has begun the season in the top 25. In 2014 ahead of his first year at USC, the Trojans began the season ranked No. 15. Ahead of the 2015 season, Sarkisian’s USC team was ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll.
Texas opens the season against No. 23 Louisiana. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 4.
Cover photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images
