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Despite a week one victory, for the second straight week, Oklahoma State found themselves on the outside of the Associated Press’ Top-25 poll.
The Cowboys are still in the receiving votes, or “RV” category with 62 points, and now sit essentially two spots outside the Top-25 at No. 27.
In the preseason poll, we knew that at least 14 voters had OSU in.
Now that the AP has finally fixed itself, we know that 19 voters actually had OSU ranked last week, This week, that’s up to 20 out of the 62 media members.
| Week | Ranking | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preseason | NR | NR | 21 (2) |
| 2 | NR | NR | 21 (3) |
The highest the Cowboys are rated is still No. 21, but now three members have them there. The Cowboys also saw a rise in votes at No. 22 this week.
What’s interesting is that while OSU picked up one more vote total from last week, two voters actually took the Cowboys out of their polls; Lauren Brownlow (No. 24 in week 1), and ESPN’s Rece Davis (No. 25 in week 1).
One of the voters who moved the Cowboys into their top-25 is Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“I didn’t change my mind about the Cowboys,” said Murphy. “They were among about 20 teams that were “just out of my poll” for the preseason, but with the change at quarterback I wanted to see some results first. The convincing win over Missouri State showed that the loss of Mason Rudolph hasn’t slowed Oklahoma State down much. I still have about 20-25 teams lurking just outside the top 25 on my poll. I also feel a small pull to be a regional representative with my vote, so the Cowboys were just as good a pick as any among a large cluster of 1-0 teams to include among the last few spots.”
Most voters needed to see OSU before making a decision, and like Oklahoma State fans, still need to see more to determine how good the Cowboys can be this season.
Plus, like Murphy, many voters use their polls as a way to raise awareness for teams. That would explain why Hawaii got three votes at No. 25 this week. It’s still early, and as we all know, in the end doesn’t really matter.
If the Cowboys can put together a similar or better performance this week against South Alabama, they might just find themselves ranked heading into their big week 3 clash with Boise State.