MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The Texas Tech basketball team checks in at No. 13 in the first Associated Press poll of the 2019-20 season, a sign that the program is finally making believers out of national experts.

One year ago, Texas Tech basketball fans were miffed when the Red Raiders entered the season unranked after reaching the Elite 8. What’s worse, Chris Beard’s team was picked to finish just seventh in its own conference. The team was able to use those slights as fuel during their memorable run to the National Title Game. But this year, Beard’s team will have to find their fuel somewhere else.

That’s because the Red Raiders are being given the benefit of the doubt this time around. Monday, the first A.P. poll of the year was released and the defending co-Big 12 champions can be found at No. 13. That news comes just days after Tech was picked 3rd in the Big 12 preseason poll behind Kansas and Baylor.

If you are of the mind that preseason rankings don’t matter, your perspective is understandable. What good are rankings for a bunch of teams that haven’t played a single game yet? Certainly, a significant number of the teams in the preseason top-25 will find themselves on the outside looking in when the final poll is released in April.

But for a program like Texas Tech, this is significant because it is yet another step towards cementing its place as a legitimate yearly factor on the national scene. By coming in at No. 13 to start the year, the Red Raiders have been validated as a program.

There’s not too much difference between the state of the program this year as compared to last year. Last October, Tech was coming off the best season in program history but facing the prospect of having to replace six of the previous season’s top eight scorers. This year, Tech is coming off the best season in program history but facing the prospect of having to replace six of the previous season’s top eight scorers.

The difference? People now believe in Chris Beard the way we did prior to last year.

That’s important. Now the third-highest paid coach in the nation, Beard’s immediate future in Lubbock is secure and he can now continue the task of building a program that will stand the test of time.

Part of that task is changing public perception on a national scale. Far more than football, basketball is a national game. Not that it is more popular on a national scale than football but in the sense that where programs go to find their resources is more wide-ranging than the regionally-based mindset of football programs.

On its roster this year, Texas Tech will feature players from Illinois, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Virginia. What’s more, Beard and his staff have also turned their roster into an international map that would make Carmen San Diego proud. On this team are natives of Russia, Italy, Cameroon, France, and the Congo.

In a sense, basketball polls are less important than football polls because the NCAA Tournament includes 68 teams, all of which get to settle the national title on the court. In football, polls are a huge factor in influencing the playoff selections committee when it picks the four teams that get to compete for the ultimate prize.

But for programs trying to move from the land of the irrelevant to the most exclusive neighborhood in the sport, preseason polls are an indication of how they are being perceived on a national scale. If pollsters are now starting to believe that Texas Tech is a program with staying power, then it is only logical to believe that the nation’s top recruits fell that way as well.

So while a preseason top-25 ranking means little in regard to how this season will play out, it should not be overlooked. It is an acknowledgment of what Beard is building in Lubbock, which, in just three full seasons has come to be on par with the top programs in the nation.