Washington State left out of coaches poll top 25

The first of the two major preseason polls is out and WSU failed to crack the top 25 of the Amway Coaches Poll. Instead, the Cougs will begin their season where they finished in 2015, among the teams "receiving votes."

If you were to extend the rankings Washington State is ranked 30th, and interestingly enough one spot behind their week 2 opponent Boise St. While getting votes is nice and all, I don't feel that biased in saying that WSU should have been included in the top 25. The Cougs have consistently been included in writer's preseason rankings (like this one from Stewart Mandel) and their resume from 2015 supports that status.

Of the Pac-12 teams included in the Coaches Poll (Stanford, USC, UW, Oregon, and UCLA), WSU had as good a record or better than all teams except Stanford, and went 2-2 against the four of those teams they played. Combine this with the fact that they return almost all of their effective offense and their exclusion a bit head scratching. Alas, the program simply does not have the history or prestige of UCLA, nor the recent success of Oregon.

This won't make a huge impact on the team itself, but it will probably decrease how much WSU is talked about nationally. I have to imagine if that game in Boise featured two ranked teams, instead of two teams just on the outside, it would get more hype from ESPN and the media.

You can see the complete coaches poll here. The AP preseason poll is schedule to be released Aug. 21