The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Football third in AP Poll
08.18.2006 | Football
The Texas football team was ranked third in the preseason Associated Press Poll when it was released on Friday afternoon. With a No. 3 ranking, the Longhorns open the season in the poll's Top Five for the second-straight season and the fifth time in the last six years. It is also the seventh-consecutive season UT has been ranked in the Top Seven.
It marks the fourth time Texas has been ranked third in the preseason poll since 1950, and the first since 1983, when the team completed an undefeated regular season before a 10-9 loss to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl. The two other occurrences came in 1971 and 1973.
Texas was ranked second entering last season, which matched its highest rating since 1970, and has now been rated in the Top 10 for 33 consecutive weeks, including 18 straight in the Top Five. The 33 straight weeks make up the second-longest active streak in the nation, trailing only USC with 55. It's also the longest for the Horns in the Mack Brown era. The current streak is the Longhorns' best in more than 30 years, since appearing in 40 straight Top 10s from 1968-71, and 60 straight from 1961-65.
The Longhorns have finished the year ranked in The AP Top 10 in four of the last six years and are riding a UT-record streak of six-straight AP Top 12 finishes.
Texas, which entered last season ranked No. 2 in the poll, won its fourth National Championship and completed its school-record fifth consecutive 10-win season in 2005. The Longhorns set another school record with 13 wins en route to an undefeated season and its second consecutive Rose Bowl Championship. The Longhorns open the 2006 campaign on Saturday, Sept. 2, when they host North Texas at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (11 a.m./FSN).
