Washington Huskies Football: UW Ranked 15th In New AP Poll

Coach Sarkisian’s Huskies have officially moved into the top-15 this morning with the release of this week’s new AP top-25 rankings. The team moved up one slot from #16 based on on the 31-13 win over previously 3-0 Arizona. Meanwhile, in the USA Today Coaches Poll the Huskies have moved up to 18th in the nation.

Washington’s climb up the polls has been just one marker of success for a team that started the year unranked. The team’s 4-0 start is the first since 2001, and this is the longest continuous stretch of holding a top-25 ranking in well over a decade. Those statistics point towards the depth of Washington’s decade-long decline, but they also indicate that this year may be delivering the promise Husky fans have been looking for over the past three straight seven win seasons.

UW is one of five Pac-12 schools represented in the AP poll. Two schools have stayed in the top-ten, with Oregon at #2 and Stanford at #5. Next comes UCLA at #12, Washington at #15, and Arizona State at #23 following their detonation of USC in Tempe last night. This makes the Pac-12 one of the most well-represented conferences in the nation, and should also make the Pac-12 North the most dangerous individual division in all of college football, given a top-three of Oregon, Stanford, and Washington.

Washington will take this week’s ranking to Palo Alto on Saturday for a clash of undefeated Pac-12 North hopefuls. That means that the #15 ranking won’t stay for long. The Huskies will either slide down a few spots with a loss to the top-five Cardinal, which is most likely, or they will soar up to the top-10 with a top-five divisional road win.