After a three-week absence from the AP Top 25 rankings, the football team reclaimed national prominence as the No. 18 team in the nation after beating the No. 3 Louisville Cardinals last Thursday.
The victory made the Cougars the nation’s only team with two wins against top five ranked opponents and 6-0 against ranked teams under head coach Tom Herman.
The Cougars, then No. 11, were evicted from the rankings when they fell to the Southern Methodist University Mustangs on Oct. 22.
The team remains comfortably behind the No. 17 University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, who lead the Cougars by 103 points in the rankings.
The No. 19 West Virginia Mountaineers check in to their position just 42 points behind the Cougars.
Louisville now has no chance to make the 2016 College Football Playoff. The loss also drops them eight spots to No. 11 in week 13 rankings.
Houston joins No. 22 Texas A&M University as the only teams from Texas to land in the rankings.
The University of Alabama Crimson Tide unanimously top the rankings with 61 first-place votes. Alabama has been in the No. 1 spot for 12 consecutive weeks, dating back to last season.
Rounding out the top five is, in order, the Ohio State University, University of Michigan, Clemson University and University of Wisconsin.
The College Football Playoff rankings will be released Tuesday evening.