College Basketball Rankings: Texas Is No. 7 and Houston No. 8 — and East Texas A&M, an Hour From Dallas, Just Got Its First AP Vote Ever

DALLAS — The first regular-season Associated Press college basketball rankings landed Monday, and Texas is all over them. Florida kept the men's No. 1 spot with 53 of 60 first-place votes and 1,490 points after a 2-0 opening week, ahead of Duke, Illinois and UConn. The highest-ranked Texas team is Texas itself: the Longhorns are No. 7 at 2-0 with 1,092 points, one of seven SEC teams in the poll. Houston climbed two places to No. 8 at 2-0, and Texas Tech sits No. 16.

Just outside the 25 is where the Metroplex shows up. TCU received 13 points in the voting — sixth among the teams left out — and Baylor took 14, with Texas A&M at five. For Fort Worth, the stronger number is on the women's side: TCU's women are ranked No. 15 in the AP women's poll at 3-0, in a top five led by No. 1 South Carolina, Michigan, USC, UConn and Duke, with the Texas women at No. 6 and Baylor also receiving votes.

The smallest line in the men's poll may be the week's best Texas story. East Texas A&M — in Commerce, roughly an hour northeast of Dallas — received one vote. One. It is the first time the program has ever received a vote in a national poll, and the first in any sport in the school's Division I era, according to the university. The Lions earned it the hard way: a 2-0 start, the program's first in the Division I era, built entirely on the road with wins at Oklahoma and at Rice. East Texas A&M is one of six mid-majors to receive a vote this week.

The Lions come home Wednesday for a 10:30 a.m. Education Day tip against FDU, and the ranked neighborhood around them gets moving again this week as well — Texas, Houston and Texas Tech defending top-16 positions, TCU's men trying to turn 13 points of respect into a number beside their name, and TCU's women defending No. 15. The next poll arrives Monday, and for one week at least, the bottom of the ballot belongs to Commerce.