Following last week's win over TCU, linebacker Delano Robinson told reporters that a top-25 ranking isn't the focus of the team.

"If it comes, it comes," he said. "We'll just keep our heads down, keep focused and keep going."

Sunday afternoon, SMU added something new to hang its growing list of achievements this season. The 5-0 Mustangs are ranked No. 24 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll and cracked the poll for the first time in 33 years, according to Sports Reference. The last time SMU was ranked in the poll was 1986, when the team got as high as No. 16.

Voters rewarded SMU for its 48-21 American Athletic Conference-opening victory at USF on Saturday. Those same voters began to take notice when SMU earned a 41-38 victory over then-No. 25 TCU, garnering 55 votes -- which was good enough then to rank the Mustangs No. 28 in the country.

While a national ranking isn't the goal for the Mustangs, earning respect as a contender always has been high on the team's totem pole. The new ranking is a major step to earning the national respect of the rest of the college football world.

"We worked for this. We earned this," Robinson said. "It's something that we deserve."