The Week 7 Ap Top 25 has been revealed and the Washington State Cougars are ranked No. 8 in the nation. This is huge news for WSU and a reward from the Associated Press voters for a big win over the Oregon Ducks. Luke Falk led WSU to a decidedly one-sided victory over the Ducks on Saturday (Oct. 7), winning the road game 33-10 to move the Cougars to 6-0 on the season.
Not only is WSU already bowl eligible, but the team is in the conversation for an invite to the College Football Playoff. That would be much later this season, though, and WSU would still need to take care of business over the next seven weeks to be in serious contention for one of those invites.
For now, fans of the Washington State Cougars can just enjoy the new Week 7 AP Top 25.
How does the top 10 look in the AP Poll?
Alabama received 43 first-place votes to earn the No. 1 ranking and Clemson has 18 first-place votes to slide in at No. 2 in the Week 7 AP Top 25. They are followed by Penn State, Georgia, and Washington as the rest of the top five. That’s a bit different than the Week 7 Coaches Poll, where Washington was No. 4 and Georgia was No. 5 after getting bumps in the voting. WSU was ranked No. 9 in that poll.
As for the rest of the AP top 10, those teams are (in order) TCU, Wisconsin, Washington State, Ohio State, and Auburn. Having both Washington schools ranked this high certainly gives a positive outlook for the 2017 Apple Cup in late November.
Could that rivalry game end up deciding which school wins the North and moves on to the Pac-12 Championship Game?
WSU Cougars schedule
While the win over the Oregon Ducks was certainly memorable for the Washington State Cougars, the marquee win of the season is still the victory over the USC Trojans. USC had been ranked No. 5 in the nation, but WSU put an end to their undefeated season.
Two of the biggest challenges of the 2017 WSU schedule are now in the books, as a road game in Autzen is never an easy task. There are still two rough games at the end of the schedule, though, coming against Utah on Nov. 11 and Washington on Nov. 25 to end the season.
Next up for WSU is a game against the California Golden Bears on Oct.
13. This is a night road game, with a 7:30 PM PT start time, so it’s not something the team and head coach Mike Leach should overlook. After California, the Cougars play Colorado (Oct. 21), Arizona (Oct. 28), and Stanford (Nov. 4). No opponent in the Pac-12 Conference is easy to beat, so there are still a lot of stumbling blocks left on the schedule for the Washington State Cougars. Winning against California and moving to 7-0 should give them another bump in the AP Top 25.
