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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-05-29 13:55:46+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
In an incredible coincidence, the #86 team in the countdown is Washington State (high = 81, low = 91), which in reality has them tied with Oregon State, meaning the consensus view is that the Pac-2 is truly a tossup. In reality, three of the four rankings had Oregon State ahead, but USA Today had the Cougars so far ahead of the Beavers that it made it a virtual tie, and I have been using the greater variance teams as the tiebreaker as I count them down (though listing the consensus rankings as a tie).
Washington State comes off an 8-5 season last year and a valiant Holiday Bowl loss to Syracuse, and few teams have been decimated more than the Cougars. They rank third from last in FBS in returning production, getting hit on both sides of the ball as well as on the coaching staff. Jake Dickert is gone to Wake Forest, and he’s been replaced by former South Dakota State head coach Jimmy Roberts. The Cougars lost 60 players to the portal, most notably QB John Mateer to Oklahoma, but starting RB Wayshawn Parker (Utah), 4 star CB Ethan O’Connor (Miami), 4 star OT Fa’alili Fa’amoe (Wake Forest) and 4 star CB David Gusta (Kentucky) shows how much talent left the Palouse in the offseason. Rogers did what he could, bringing in the 72nd ranked recruiting class in the country and the 70th ranked portal class, but the 2025 outlook is definitely harder to project from a talent perspective. In terms of the schedule, though, you can see where it could go in any direction. Opening up with Idaho and San Diego State, the Cougars go on the road at North Texas. Win that game and you’re 3-0 heading into the Apple Cup. While the road game at Ole Miss is the only game that projects to be a beatdown, the road games at Virginia and James Madison don’t seem like prohibitive mismatches, so it’s not hard to imagine a ceiling of double digit wins. But it’s also not hard to imagine those games going poorly, dropping most of their other road games and suddenly not even qualifying for a bowl as a floor. The former would be a helluva way to head into the Pac-12 in 2026. The latter would be a kick in the nuts.