Washington State moves up four spots to No. 10 in Associated Press Top 25; Washington falls out of national poll

The Cougars are back inside the top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 rankings for the first time since last October.

Fresh off a 41-38 road victory over No. 24 Stanford on Saturday, Washington State climbed up four spots from No. 14 to No. 10 in this week’s edition of the national poll. The Cougars haven’t been this high in the AP Top 25 since they went into a 2017 game at Cal with the No. 8 ranking. Coincidentally, the Cougars host the Golden Bears this Saturday at Martin Stadium.

When WSU vaulted from No. 25 to No. 14 last week, the Cougars became the top-ranked Pac-12 team in the poll for the first time since 2002. That’s still the case this week – WSU is the only Pac-12 team in the top 15 and one of only two teams from the conference ranked at all.

The Utes moved up seven spots to No. 16 after cruising past UCLA 41-10 on Thursday. Three Pac-12 teams fell out of the poll after losing games Saturday. Washington went from No. 15 to unranked after a 12-10 loss to Cal in Berkeley, Oregon, previously ranked No. 19, got clobbered by Arizona 44-15 in the desert, and No. 24 Stanford dropped out by virtue of its loss to WSU.

The top five of the AP Top 25 remained unchanged: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 LSU and No. 5 Michigan all held onto their places. Alabama, LSU and Michigan all had byes, while Notre Dame beat Navy 44-22 and Clemson beat Florida State 59-10.

WSU also jumped four places in the Amway Coaches’ Poll, from No. 15 to No. 11. Voters bumped Utah to No. 16 and kept the Huskies in the poll despite their loss to Cal, ranking them No. 19.

The Cougars are also expected to receive a high mark when the first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings come out Tuesday afternoon.