Has an 0-2 team ever been ranked in the AP poll?

Can an 0-2 Team Make the AP Poll?

Starting the college football season with two straight losses usually spells doom for a team's ranking hopes. Conventional wisdom suggests that voters will quickly drop a struggling squad out of the Top 25. However, history proves that an 0-2 start does not completely lock a resilient team out of the AP poll.

The most famous instance of this rare feat belongs to the Michigan Wolverines. Despite dropping their first two games, they landed at No. 19 the following week and remarkably went unbeaten for the remainder of the season, finishing 9-0-1. This incredible turnaround showed that pollsters are sometimes willing to look past early stumbles if a powerhouse team demonstrates massive improvement.

Michigan isn't the only program to pull this off. A handful of other historic teams managed to hold their ground in the rankings despite an early hole, including 1984 Auburn, 1958 SMU, 1949 Missouri, and 1948 Purdue. While these occurrences are exceptionally rare and typically require an extraordinary winning streak afterward, they prove that a slow start isn't always the end of a ranked season.