By Theo Lawson

The Spokesman-Review

Washington State improved to 3-0 last Friday and a 31-24 victory over Houston also pushed the Cougars up one spot to No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

With 13 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, the Cougars currently own the longest streak in the Pac-12 Conference. That’s better than Washington (10) and both Oregon and Utah, who each have a streak of four weeks.

WSU was able to move up in the weekly poll and achieve its highest ranking of the 2019 season largely because of Michigan State’s loss to Arizona State, which dropped the Spartans from No. 19 to unranked.

The Cougars also rose one spot in the Amway Coaches Poll, climbing from No. 20 to 19.

WSU is one of six Pac-12 teams ranked in this week’s poll. Utah moved up one position from No. 11 to 10 after beating Idaho State, Oregon jumped from No. 16 to 15 after a win over Montana, Washington climbed one place from No. 23 to 22 by beating Hawaii, while No. 23 Cal and No. 24 Arizona State made their Top 25 debuts, respectively notching wins over North Texas and Michigan State.

With the exception of the Utes knocking Michgan out of the No. 10 spot, the rest of the AP Top 10 remained the same.

Heading into week four, it looks like this: No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 Auburn, No. 9 Florida and No. 10 Utah.