College Football 2011: Texas A&M and 5 Teams We Can't Believe Were Ever Ranked

They were ranked why? Looking at the records of some teams, we start to scratch our heads as to why we ever thought they were good enough to grace the top 25.

Texas A&M lost their second game in a row this week by dropping to Oklahoma 41-25. They were manhandled by the Sooners and needed 15 points in the final quarter just to make the game as close as it was.

In light of their fourth loss of the season, the Aggies don't look anything like a team that should have been gracing the BCS standings as recently as Week 9.

They're not the only team that hasn't looked the part. Others have gotten the benefit of the doubt where pollsters are concerned and only needed some time to prove that they weren't worthy of the respect they were being given.

Here's a look at the Aggies and five other teams that never should have graced the top 25.

Texas A&M

The Aggies started the season in the polls and worked their way inside the top 10 early in the year. Their first two victories over SMU and Idaho were enough to propel them up to No. 9 by the time they took on Oklahoma State.

In fairness, the Aggies played the Cowboys incredibly tough and only came away with a tough 29-30 loss to a very good program. They followed it up with another disappointing 48-42 loss to Arkansas.

They rebounded with wins over Texas Tech, Baylor and Iowa State but struggled with the win over the Red Raiders. Plus, does anyone really care that the Aggies are better than mid-tier Big 12 teams?

In their last two outings, they've dropped to a Missouri team that had a losing record at the time they met and were handled this week by Oklahoma.

You're going to read this a lot in this short slide show, but it bears repeating as many times as necessary: you've got to win some of the tough ones too.

Yes, this is a tough schedule. That's part of what had kept A&M in the standings even with two losses. With four strikes against them, they're starting to look much less like a power team and much more like a bully. They can beat up on the weaker guys but can't handle someone who isn't afraid to punch them back.

West Virginia

I haven't really been able to wrap my mind around this one all year. What about West Virginia made people think that they were going to be that great this year?

Go back to last year for a second. The Mountaineers finished 9-4, which is a worthy record. However, they were just 4-4 against FBS teams with a winning record, were 1-2 against ranked opponents and played in a soft conference.

This year, they're not only not one of the best teams in the country, they're not even the best team in the Big East.

They lost by 26 to LSU (which wasn't even that close if you watched the game), lost to 5-3 Syracuse (23-49) and have now lost to a Louisville team that was 4-4 coming into the game (35-38).

There are certain teams that you just know have a right to be ranked, even early in the year. No team from the Big East deserved that respect until it was earned and West Virginia really hasn't done anything to earn it.

Yet, they have been in the top 25 from the very beginning of the year and have managed to stay there until now. Certainly, they will drop from the standings in light of this latest loss, but I still wonder why they were ever there in the first place.

Mississippi State

Remember this team? Yeah, they started the season in the rankings and held on through the third week before dropping out for good.

Losing at Auburn is nothing to be ashamed of. Neither is losing to No. 1 LSU the following week.

In fact, none of their losses are all that horrible when taken one at a time. All of their losses have come to ranked opponents, and the largest margin of defeat is 14 points to Georgia. They've beaten the teams they were "supposed" to beat.

The problem is though, they haven't beaten anyone to demonstrate that they belong among the nation's elite. It's not good enough to beat average opponents. You've got to get a signature win, and Mississippi State doesn't have one.

They've got a tremendously difficult schedule with six ranked opponents on slate. However, you've got to win at least a couple of those if you're going to sit among the top 25.

Mississippi State hasn't gotten that done, and that's why they haven't been a part of the rankings for a while now.

South Florida

The Bulls rushed out a quick 4-0 start to the season and found themselves in the rankings in the fifth week. In fact, they found their way inside the top 20 at No. 16 going into Week 5.

Now, that just looks a little silly.

South Florida has lost their last three coming into this week. What's worse, those losses weren't even necessarily to great teams.

They were handled 17-44 at Pitt, lost 10-16 to a Connecticut team that's just 3-5 on the year and lost narrowly to Cincinnati.

Okay, so that last one might not be such a terrible loss, but Connecticut? Really?

The Bulls may have looked impressive after beating Notre Dame en route to their hot start, but since then, they've left us wondering how we ever thought they were deserving of a spot in the rankings.

Missouri

This one really isn't so hard to believe, if you look closely at their record. No, 4-4 isn't a record that you would expect of a team that was ranked at one point. If that's all you're looking at, then this team definitely belongs on this list.

None of their losses are all that damning either. They've dropped to Oklahoma and Kansas Sate. Both of those were on the road and both are ranked teams. They've also dropped to Arizona State and Oklahoma State. Both of them are also ranked, and the game against the Sun Devils was on the road.

Their loss to Oklahoma was only by 10 points.

However, as mentioned before, if you're going to sit among the ranked, you've got to win some of those games. Missouri hasn't been able to get it done against the better opponents on their schedule.

They're a "decent" team with the ever-present threat of knocking off a ranked team. They just can't seem to find a way to get that one extra score or to stop that one extra score.

At 4-4, they're a mile out of the rankings now, and well, should be.

Florida State

Somebody really wanted the Seminoles to be a top 25 team this year. Actually, they could be ranked again and soon.

But they don't deserve it and never did.

Sure, they've got talent. They've practically always had talent. They're Florida State after all. Their history alone is a draw to prospective recruits.

Yet, they haven't done anything with that talent. Who have they beaten?

Louisiana-Monroe, Charleston Southern, Duke, Maryland, NC State and Boston College. That's who.

A couple of those names might have earned them some respectability in years past. Not this year. Not a single one of those teams had a record above .500 coming into this week. Not one.

The Seminoles started the year ranked and held on as long as they could, but a three-game losing streak knocked them out. Their schedule is weak enough that they could work their way back into the standings, but they wouldn't have really earned it.

Over-Rated...