Washington Enters Rankings in AP Poll, Coaches Poll

After a victory over a ranked Michigan State team at home and a 3-0 start the Huskies certainly feel they deserve to be ranked. That feeling was validated this morning as Washington made its debut this season in both the Coaches Poll and the AP Poll. This is the first time the Huskies have been ranked since the preseason in 2021.

Generally speaking, the AP Poll is viewed as the most reliable of the subjective ranking sets up until the College Football Playoff rankings come out later in the season. That’s where Washington did the most damage as they went from not receiving votes to 18th with the win over previously #11 Michigan State. The loss was disastrous for the Spartans who fell out of the top-25 completely and are the first team in “others receiving votes” so essentially ranked 26th.

Washington is one of 4 Pac-12 teams currently in the top-25 alongside #7 USC, #13 Utah and #15 Oregon who moved up substantially after throttling BYU. Despite starting out ranked behind Michigan State, the Cougars fell to 19th rather than out of the poll after a similarly bad loss to the Ducks. Both Washington State and Oregon State received votes and essentially rank 30th and 32nd respectively with their 3-0 starts.

Meanwhile, the Huskies ranked 24th in the USA Today Coaches Poll after receiving a few votes last week. They are somehow 3 spots behind Michigan State who remain ahead of Washington despite their decisive defeat in the head-to-head matchup. Some shaky ballot submissions from the aides who fulfill those duties for coaches who are much too busy to actually take the time to fill it out.

Washington will look to preserve their spot in the rankings with a 4th straight home game this upcoming Saturday against Stanford in the conference opener.