What did the College Football Landscape look like the Last Time Houston was Ranked?
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In just two seasons, head coach Willie Fritz has turned around the Houston Cougars completely, inheriting a four-win program before he got there to another four-win season in his inaugural year with Houston, to now, after a decisive victory over the defending Big 12 champion Arizona State Sun Devils, the Coogs find their way back onto a national scale for the first time in a couple of years.
As with the new AP Poll released on Sunday afternoon, Houston can look up and find its name in the rankings for the first time since the 2022 season. Now the Cougars are ranked No. 22 in the country ahead of the USC Trojans, fellow Big 12 team in the Utah Utes, and the Memphis Tigers.
After week nine of the 2025 season, the Coogs now sit with a 7-1 record, having already clinched bowl eligibility the week before, and will carry over the momentum of their upset victory over the Sun Devils into the final stretch of the season. However much has changed about the Coogs and college football as a whole since 2022, so here is a look at some of the widespread shifts.
Houston's 2022 Season
The Cougars, still led by former head coach Dana Holgorsen, headed into the 2022 season riding high from their season a year before, in which the Coogs went 12-2, made an appearance in the AAC conference title game, won their bowl game, and ended the season ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll.
However, the 2022 season was a lot more difficult, with Houston not being able to repeat its success after starting the season ranked No. 24 in the preseason. After week one, the Cougars dropped down a spot to No. 25, even after a season-opening victory over the UTSA Road Runners in triple overtime; however, a loss against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in double overtime dropped the Coogs completely out of the top 25, with Houston unable to make its way back into the AP Poll the rest of the season.
The 2022 season for the Cougars was a step back, finishing the year 8-5, without a conference championship appearance, but ended with a bowl game win. Quarterback Clayton Tune led the charge offensively with 4,074 passing yards, 40 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. The quarterback was also the Coogs' leading rusher with 546 yards and five touchdowns.
The following season would be the start of the changing landscape entirely for college football, as the Coogs would leave the American Athletic Conference to join the Big 12 ahead of the 2023 season, joining the conference along with the BYU Cougars, Cincinnati Bearcats, and UCF.
College Football as a Whole
The Georgia Bulldogs ended that season on top once again, officially establishing themselves as one of the premier programs in all of college football with back-to-back national championships after defeating the TCU Horned Frogs in one of the most lopsided title games ever, winning 65-7.
The season's Heisman Trophy winner resided out west with quarterback Caleb Williams becoming USC's eighth Heisman Trophy winner after totaling 4,075 yards on 296-of-448 passing (66.1%) with a national co-leading 37 touchdown passes against just four interceptions.
Current Cougars head man, Willie Fritz, finished his seventh season at Tulane with a 12-2 record, a victory in the AAC conference championship, and an upset victory in that year's Cotton Bowl Classic, defeating No. 10 USC led by the 2022 Heisman Winner, winning the game 46-45. Fritz also faced what would be his future program, in the Cougars that year, beating Houston at TDECU Stadium 27-24 in overtime.
Undoubtedly, the biggest changes to the landscape of college football were the conference realignments that followed after the 2022 season. As already mentioned, Houston, along with three other schools, moved to the Big 12 right after the 2022 season.
And a year later, one of the main reasons why realignment even began, Texas and Oklahoma officially headed to the Southeastern Conference before the 2024 season. The Big 10 got in on the action, adding Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC, the same year, along with the Big 12 continuing to expand, adding four former Pac-12 schools in Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.
