WSU moves up to No. 8 in AP poll

On the strength of a 31-7 road victory over the Colorado Buffaloes, their ninth win of the season, the Washington State Cougars leaped the Ohio State Buckeyes and LSU Tigers to move up to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll.

The Cougars also remained No. 9 in the coaches poll.

Saturday was a remarkably uninteresting day for results in college football, as each of the teams ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll won their games. However, the Cougs must have impressed a little bit with their victory, given the reshuffling around them — you might remember that teams 7 through 11 were tightly bunched last week. Here’s how it looks now:

Associated Press

Still tightly bunched!

Joining WSU in the top 25 from the Pac-12 are the Washington Huskies (up three spots to No. 17 despite not playing) and the Utah Utes (coming back into the poll at No. 21 after beating the Oregon Ducks by a TD).

Of course, the only ranking that really matters now is the College Football Playoff, which will again be announced on Tuesday. The Cougars also sit at No. 8 there; will the committee find the 24-point road win impressive enough to move WSU up, possibly past LSU (as the AP voters did) after the Tigers’ ho-hum 7-point win over the Arkansas Razorbacks, who are pretty bad?

The Cougars will next be in action on Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. PT on ESPN.