Washington State drops five spots to No. 12 in Associated Press Top 25

PULLMAN – The second loss of the season meant a rare setback for Washington State in the national polls.

Following a 28-25 defeat to Washington in Friday’s Apple Cup, the Cougars fell five spots to No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, released Sunday morinng.

After missing out on a third straight opportunity to win the Pac-12 North and advance to the conference championship game, WSU will now await its bowl fate and learn next Sunday where it’ll be headed for the postseason – most likely a post-Christmas game in San Antonio, Texas (Alamo Bowl) or Glendale, Arizona (Fiesta Bowl).

The Huskies climbed back into the top 10 after winning the rivalry game for the sixth consecutive season, moving up six spots from No. 16 to No. 10. UW moves on to play Utah in Friday’s Pac-12 championship game, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

The Utes were the only other Pac-12 team ranked when Sunday’s Top 25 poll came out, staying put at No. 17 after a 35-27 rivalry win over BYU.

Stanford and Oregon are both receiving Top 25 votes.

There was movement elsewhere in the top 10, which shook out like this when Sunday’s poll was unveiled: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 UCF, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Texas and No. 10 UW.

In addition to WSU, LSU was the other team to fall out of the top 10, following a 74-72 seven overtime loss to Texas A&M.

The Cougars dropped to No. 13 in the Amway Coaches’ Poll, while UW moved up five spots to No. 11. Utah didn’t move, keeping its place at No. 17.