Texas football fans are in shambles after missing preseason AP Top 25 rankings

The Texas football team is nowhere to be found on the AP Top 25 preseason poll for 2022.

The Associated Press believes there are at least 26 better options than the Texas football team.

That’s right. Coming in at No. 27 in the AP Top 25 Poll are the Texas Longhorns! With 164 votes, they beat out the likes of Iowa and Penn State. Unfortunately, the Associated Press thinks higher of programs like No. 22 Wake Forest (303 votes) and No. 25 BYU (234 votes) than it does the Longhorns. It even likes the Tennessee Volunteers (180 votes) slightly more than them as well.

Even though they did not deserve a top-25 ranking anyway, here is why it is going to be oh so very difficult for the Longhorns to realistically crack it at any point during this college football season.

AP voters hit Texas football with a Horns Down in its preseason Top 25 poll

Looking at Texas’ 2022 regular-season slate, the Longhorns will have no choice but to catch fire in the latter part of conference play to have any real shot at finishing the year at 8-4 and be around a top-25 team. This is because not only do they start out the season unranked, they are not beating No. 1 Alabama at DKR. If they do, they go into the top 10 and a movie will be made.

Matthew McConaughey will be alright, alright, alright if that was the outcome, but this ain’t Hollywood, bro. While there is no shame in starting the year out 1-1 if you are Texas, what happens if they drop another game before Red River? Even if they beat the likes of UTSA, Texas Tech and West Virginia, that may not be enough to get the Longhorns to No. 25 before Dallas.

However, if the Longhorns do beat Oklahoma at Red River, they will be ranked at 5-1, no matter how bad Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide run through Steve Sarkisian’s team like s**t through a tin horn. In short, they have to split the two hardest games on their schedule to have any realistic shot of staying inside of the top 25. Wins over Baylor, Oklahoma State and Iowa State would help, though.

Unfortunately, the Associated Press largely agrees when it comes to Texas. It thinks Texas will be back at some point soon, but now is not the time to prematurely coronate them. Should the Longhorns refrain from any monkey business in 2022, they can get to 8-4 and around a top-25 team. That should be enough to ensure everyone in Austin that Arch Manning is for sure coming.

Let’s be real. The coach who gave Texas a first-place vote in their poll is an absolute troll of a man.

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