AUSTIN — The new AP Top 25 was released Sunday afternoon, with the University of Texas ranked No. 1 for the first time since Oct. 26, 2008.
As expected, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about the matter during his weekly press conference, and his answer came as no surprise to those who have listened to Sarkisian speak about a variety of team topics over the years.
“Now more than ever, I’m not going to dismiss the polls, but it’s a 12-team playoff so I don’t think it really matters,” Sarkisian said. “I always say as a team, it doesn’t matter what other people think of us, it matters what we do. We’ve got to perform and be prepared to perform, because the way it was back then, the polls had a big impact because they determined who was going to play in the national championship and who was ultimately going to win the national championship.”
“These days you have to work to win so it’s good to show what we’re made of, but at the end of the day you still have to work to win and the mission is not over yet.”
Essentially, Sarkisian makes an excellent point.
For decades, the AP and Coaches Poll was used to determine the national champion, and there were years when different teams ranked No. 1 in the polls at the end of the season led to split national champions.
The four-team College Football Playoff was introduced ahead of the 2014 season, marking the first postseason tournament at the FBS level. The winner of the CFP is now recognized as the national champion. The Associated Press and Coaches Polls continue to determine their own national champions once their final voting results are released, but in the decade since the CFP’s introduction, its importance has declined significantly.
Additionally, once the weekly CFP rankings start coming out in early November, the public will begin to recognize the CFP rankings because that is what ultimately matters most.
The fact that the CFP has expanded to 12 teams starting this season doesn’t make the AP and coaches poll any less important — it began to lose importance in 2014 when the CFP rankings began determining the four semifinalists, but previously the polls were part of the process for selecting BCS bowl opponents.
“I’d rather be national champions than be ranked No. 1 in Week 4,” redshirt junior safety Michael Taaffe said. “It’s really nice to be recognized for how far we’ve come and how hard we’ve worked to get to this point, but I wouldn’t be a legend if I was satisfied with where we are now.”
Taaffe easily surpassed that on his way to becoming a legend, but he nailed it on why being No. 1 in the rankings is important, even if it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things this season.
When Taaffe was a true freshman walk-on in 2021, Sarkisian’s first Texas team went 5-7, including 3-6 against the Big 12. They lost five of six games by the end of the season and were not bowl eligible. In an overtime home loss to Kansas, they allowed 470 yards of total offense to a team that averaged 324.2 yards per game that season and was 113th nationally. The Jayhawks went 2-10 overall, with the win at DKR Memorial Stadium being their only Big 12 win.
There was no trophy awarded Sunday, no CFP invitation, and being ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press in mid-September before conference play even begins probably means nothing in the end, but considering where Texas was just three years ago, it doesn’t hurt to pause for a moment and reflect on how far they’ve come.
“We were 5-7, so this means a lot to me,” fifth-year senior center Jake Majors said. “I’ve been through those hard times. At the end of the day, it’s only Week 4. It doesn’t matter until Jan. 20 (College Football Playoff national championship). I want to be No. 1 by then.”
Taaffe added, “The coolest thing is, the guys who were here at 5-7 know what it feels like to be a losing team, so to go from 5-7 to now being the No. 1 team in the nation and get all the accolades we deserve is really gratifying.”
