Best of the West College Football Top 25: Oregon drops flag for Pac-12 while Air Force keeps flying high in Front Range

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Oregon paid the terms for dropping the Pac-12’s emblem successful the College Football Playoff chase. Meanwhile, Air Force keeps flying precocious supra the remainder of the programs on the Front Range.

Arizona State and Oregon State support climbing, Chip Kelly’s Cinderella carriage looks similar a pumpkin again, and there’s a caller No. 1 — the 5-0 BYU Cougars — successful the latest installment of The Denver Post’s Best of the West College Football Top 25.

The Ducks (4-1), who’d held the apical spot for astir of September, slipped to No. 2 aft a 31-24 overtime nonaccomplishment astatine Stanford past weekend. The decision apt puts a superior dent successful the Pac-12’s hopes of slotting a programme into the CFP for the archetypal clip since 2016-17 (Washington). While the triumph astatine UCLA by the Sun Devils (4-1) takes the radiance disconnected of Kelly’s accelerated commencement successful Westwood, it looks arsenic if the Civil War crippled betwixt the Ducks and Beavers (4-1) could determine the victor of the Pac-12 North.

Among section schools, the Falcons (4-1) look to beryllium connected way for their 11th vessel successful 15 seasons nether manager Troy Calhoun aft a 38-10 triumph astatine New Mexico this past weekend. Wyoming (4-0) visits the Academy connected Saturday successful a showdown of the champion 2 FBS programs successful the area. The CSU Rams (1-3) travel disconnected a bye week to big San Jose State this play portion CU (1-4), presently connected a descent of 4 consecutive defeats, adjacent plays connected Oct. 16 against Arizona.

The Denver Post Best of the West College Football canvass each Monday ranks the apical 25 FBS programs from the Front Range to the Pacific Ocean, arsenic culled from the Pac-12, the Mountain West and BYU. Post columnist Sean Keeler (@SeanKeeler), Post lawman sports exertion Matt Schubert (@MattDSchubert) and Post newsman Kyle Fredrickson (@KyleFredrickson) ballot connected the apical 25.

The remainder of the latest rankings follow, with in-state squads listed successful bold:

THE DENVER POST BEST OF THE WEST TOP 25 POLL — OCT. 4

School	Previous	Up next
1. BYU (5-0)* (2)	2	vs. Boise State
2. Oregon (4-1)* (1)	1	BYE
3. Arizona State (4-1)	6	vs. Stanford, Fri.
4. Oregon State (4-1)	5	at Washington State
5. San Diego State (4-0)	7	vs. New Mexico
▲6. Stanford (3-2)	12	at Arizona State, Fri.
▲7. Nevada (3-1)	13	vs. New Mexico State
8. UCLA (3-2)	3	at Arizona
9. Air Force (4-1)	11	vs. Wyoming
10. Wyoming (4-0)	9	at Air Force
11. USC (3-2)	16	vs. Utah
▼12. Fresno State (4-2)	4	BYE
13. Utah (2-2)	15	at USC
14. Utah State (3-2)	14	BYE
15. Boise State (2-3)	8	at BYU
16. Hawaii (3-3)	19	BYE
17. San Jose State (3-2)	17	at Colorado State
▼18. Washington (2-3)	10	BYE
19. Washington State (2-3)	22	vs. Oregon State
20. Colorado State (1-3)	20	vs. San Jose State
21. California (1-4)	18	BYE
22. Colorado (1-4)	21	BYE
23. New Mexico (2-3)	23	at San Diego State
24. Arizona (0-4)	24	vs. UCLA
25. UNLV (0-5)	25	BYE