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For the first time in nearly a half century, zero college football teams from the state of Texas were included in The Associated Press’ postseason poll when the final top 25 rankings for the 2016 season were released.
Houston (9-4), which lost to San Diego State, 34-10 in the Las Vegas Bowl, received eight points from voters, making it the highest-ranked team of any Texas program at 37th (if the poll stretched that far).
The last time this happened was 1967, and even then, the poll only ranked a top 10.
In addition to the lack of presence in the AP rankings, six Texas FBS programs failed to earn bowl bids this season: Texas (5-7), Texas Tech (5-7), SMU (5-7), UTEP (4-8), Rice (3-9) and Texas State (2-10).
In a down year for the state, Texas A&M (8-5) failed to take advantage of the situation. The Aggies, who are becoming well-known for collapsing during the latter half of the season under Kevin Sumlin, rushed out to a 6-0 start in 2016 but sputtered to a 2-5 record down the stretch.
Those two wins came against New Mexico State (52-10) and UTSA (23-10). Its five losses included the 33-28 finale against Kansas State in the Texas Bowl.
In 2015, the Aggies started 5-0 and ended the season 8-5. The same goes for 2014.
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
