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TCU's inclusion in the AP Top 25 ignores its dreadful schedule

TCU's inclusion in the AP Top 25 ignores its dreadful schedule

In amassing a perfect 11-0 record so far this season, TCU has a decent win at Ole Miss, victories over two of the worst power-conference teams in the nation in Washington State and Mississippi State and nothing else remotely significant.

Somehow, someway, AP voters completely ignored that this week.

TCU checks in at No. 25 in this week's newly released AP Top 25 despite playing a schedule soft enough to give a quality Division II team hope of racking up a handful of wins. Seven of the Horned Frogs' 11 victories came against teams ranked 250th or below in the KenPom rankings and only the win at Ole Miss came in a true road game.

It's possible TCU could establish itself as a Top 25-caliber team with some marquee wins in Big 12 play this winter, but the Horned Frogs haven't earned such respect yet. In reality, the non-league opponents they have played this season were hand-picked to provide them the best chance for some confidence-building wins prior to the start of the Big 12 gauntlet.

Prairie View and Mississippi Valley State finished near the bottom of the dreadful SWAC last season and have a combined 2-20 record this year. New Orleans is still rebuilding a Division I-caliber roster after flirting with dropping down to a lower division post-Hurricane Katrina. McNeese State, Furman and Texas-San Antonio are each lightweights in their own lower-echelon conferences.

It's understandable TCU coach Trent Johnson would want to get his team some early wins given the trouble the Horned Frogs have had since joining the Big 12. Injury-plagued TCU went 2-16 in league play in its debut Big 12 season and 0-18 last season, falling by 10 or more points in 27 of their 34 losses.

Credit TCU for avoiding bad losses this season and for annihilating many of the worst opponents on its slate, but the 120 points the Horned Frogs received in Monday's poll are a disservice to the many teams more deserving than them.

San Diego State has no bad losses and victories over Utah, Pittsburgh and BYU. Indiana has atoned for one bad loss against Eastern Washington with quality wins against SMU, Pittsburgh and Butler. VCU has three losses to teams with a combined 31-1 record and victories against Tennessee, Oregon, Northern Iowa and Cincinnati.

TCU might very well prove that it belongs among that group of teams by the end of the season, but the barometer for how good the Horned Frogs are won't arrive until Big 12 play begins.

Up next for the Horned Frogs is a Grambling State team ranked dead last in KenPom among the nation's 351 Division I teams. Then comes a Tennessee State team that is 2-10 with zero victories against Division I opponents. Then, at last, TCU starts Big 12 play with a three-game stretch against West Virginia, Kansas State and Baylor.

Only then will we have any clue whether TCU's gaudy record is a product of its improvement or its schedule.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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