By Theo Lawson
The Spokesman-Review
Washington State climbed two spots to No. 20 and jumped ahead of a Pac-12 rival in the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll released Sunday morning.
While the Cougars moved up by virtue of their 59-17 win over FCS Northern Colorado, making them 2-0 on the season, the Washington Huskies fell 10 places to No. 23 after losing to unranked California in a game that finished just shy of 1:30 Sunday morning because of lightning and weather delays.
WSU, which also checked in at No. 20 in the Amway Coaches’ poll, collected 343 points from the 62 AP Top 25 voters. The Huskies, now No. 21 in the Coaches’ Poll, earned 161 points.
One Pac-12 team dropped out of the rankings while another one made its Top 25 debut. USC collected just one vote last week, but vaulted into the rankings at No. 24 after beating Stanford 45-20 Saturday. That loss also moved the Cardinal out of the rankings.
Utah moved up two spots from No. 13 to 11 after improving to 2-0 with a win over Northern Illinois and Oregon climbed one place in the rankings, to No. 15, after the Ducks’ dominant 77-6 win over Nevada at Autzen Stadium.
Three other Pac-12 teams are receiving Top 25 votes: Cal (95), Colorado (21) and Arizona State (4).
There was plenty of movement in the top-10 after Saturday’s slate of games. This is how it appeared when Sunday’s rankings were released: 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 Michigan.