Texas Falls To #5 In The AP Poll, Penn State Penalized For Bye Week

Here's the Top 10 of the AP Poll:

1. Alabama (46 first place votes)
2. Texas Tech (12)
3. Penn State (6)
4. Florida
5. Texas
6. Oklahoma
7. USC
8. Oklahoma State
9. Boise State
10. Utah

This has been a wild year. Lets look at Texas' schedule this year. They have already beaten the current #6 team, Oklahoma, the #8 team, Oklahoma State, the #13 team, Missouri, and very nearly beat the #2 team, Texas Tech.

Does Texas deserve to drop below Florida, who lost to Mississippi a few short weeks ago? Florida has beaten the current #15 team, LSU, and current #14 team, Georgia.

I think the polls suffer from long term memory loss. A recent loss almost always hurts a team more than a loss early in the season, and I find that to be unfair.

Last year, for example, Missouri was 11-1 and the #1 team in the country on December 1st. Their only loss came against Oklahoma. On 12/1, they lost the Big XII championship game to Oklahoma again, dropping their record to 11-2. Somehow, they did not even go to a BCS bowl! Kansas somehow earned that honor, despite losing to Missouri just the week before.

Why do we penalize teams who lose at the end of the year to great teams? Hell, by not playing on the Big XII championship game, Kansas essentially locked themselves into a BCS bowl. Not fair.

In my opinion, Texas deserves to be ranked above Florida, despite Florida's great play recently. Either way, Penn State has to go undefeated to even have a chance at the national championship game.