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Washington State on the brink of AP Top 25

WSU celebrates after defeating Oregon State during the second half of a college football game on Saturday, October 6, 2018, Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore. WSU won the game 56-37. (Tyler Tjomsland/Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

The wait continues for Washington State, which once again was denied a place inside the Associated Press Top 25 despite an impressive 56-37 win over Oregon State Saturday night in Corvallis that improved the Cougars to 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in Pac-12 play.

The Cougars collected a season-high 46 votes from AP voters – and were third among teams “receiving votes” – but couldn’t earn their first Top 25 ranking of the season. The 46 votes are 32 more than what WSU received last week, indicating the Cougars are right on the cusp of a spot inside the Top 25 and would probably get there with a win over No. 17 Oregon at Martin Stadium following the bye week.

The Ducks, who just had their own bye week, moved up one spot in the poll. Their next test is this Saturday, against No. 7 Washington at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. The Huskies moved up three spots from No. 10 after beating UCLA 24-17 in the Rose Bowl.

Colorado, which beat Arizona State 28-21 to stay undefeated on the season, jumped two places in the poll from No. 21 to No. 19.

Stanford, one of two teams receiving more votes than the Cougars, fell out of the Top 25 after suffering a 40-21 home loss to Utah. The Utes received nine votes this week.

The top four teams in the AP Top 25 remained the same this week: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Clemson. But Notre Dame jumped to No. 5 after a win over Virginia Tech and former No. 5 LSU fell all the way to No. 13 after losing to Florida.