WSU climbs two spots to No. 20 in new AP Top 25 ahead of first round of CFP rankings

PULLMAN — Washington State may have been idle this weekend, but that didn’t stop the Cougars from climbing in the national rankings.

WSU checked in at No. 20 in the new AP Top 25, released Sunday morning, marking the program’s highest ranking since Week 7 of last season. The Cougs first appeared in this year’s poll last week, when they earned a No. 22 spot.

WSU (7-1) owns a win over Texas Tech, so the Cougs likely got a boost from the Red Raiders’ upset win over Iowa State, which was ranked No. 11 at the time. Teams above WSU in the previous poll also lost this weekend, including Pittsburgh and Kansas State.

In this week’s rankings, one voter ranked the Cougars as high as No. 13, two slotted them at No. 15 and one more pegged them at No. 16. No voters left WSU off their ballots this week. Three did so last week.

The first round of College Football Playoff rankings is set to release on Tuesday, which is when the AP poll will begin mattering less. From there, the CFP selection committee will release a new round of rankings every Tuesday until Dec. 8, when the full 12-team field will be released.

Does WSU have any shot at making the playoff? The Cougars will almost certainly need to win the rest of their regular-season games (home vs. Utah State, away vs. New Mexico, away vs. Oregon State, home vs. Wyoming), then get some help from teams above them. If the Cougs do win out, ESPN gives them a 34% chance to make the field, a figure generated using ESPN’s Football Power Index to simulate the college football season 200,000 times.

WSU returns to action on Saturday, hosting Utah State at 7:30 p.m. on The CW.