On the heels of winning their second straight Sun Belt Conference championship and a return trip to the New Orleans Bowl, the North Texas Mean Green cracked the Mid-Major Top 10 poll as released Tuesday by ESPN.com.
North Texas ranked No. 9 in the poll of the nation's best college football teams not affiliated with one of the six conferences in the Bowl Championship Series.
"The goal here is simple," writes ESPN. "A list of the best teams outside the BCS bubble. So, no one from the six BCS conferences or Notre Dame will ever appear on this Top 10 . . . This is just a chance to recognize some of the better programs that get lost in the considerable shadows of the major conferences."
This week's Mid-Major Top 10:
1. Boise State (10-1)
2. Colorado State (9-2)
3. TCU (8-1)
4. Hawaii (8-2)
5. Marshall (7-2)
6. South Florida (8-2)
7. Northern Illinois (8-3)
8. Air Force (8-3)
9. NORTH TEXAS (6-5)
10. Bowling Green (8-2)
