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The Associated Press released the first Top 25 poll for the 2016 season and the Washington Huskies are #14. This is the highest preseason ranking for the Huskies since 2002 when they began the year at #9. That season the Huskies finished unranked at 7-6. In fact, the last three times UW has begun the season ranked in the AP poll, they have finished the year out of the top 25.
Washington is the second highest rated of the five Pac-12 teams in the poll, with Stanford at #8, UCLA at #16, USC at #20 and Oregon at #24.
Alabama, one of six SEC teams in the poll, tops the list with 1469 points, edging out Clemson’s 1443. The Crimson Tide captured 33 of the 61 first place votes, while Clemson topped just 16 of the writers’ ballots.
Washington tallied 651 poll points, 56 behind #13 TCU and just 7 points ahead of #15 Houston. The Huskies are the highest ranked team that was not in the Top 25 at the end of last season.
Utah (74 pts) and Washington State (68 pts) were the only other Pac-12 schools receiving votes. Utah would rank #28 and WSU #29.
See the the complete AP Top 25 here.