Rankings Update Week 11

Cal continues their season long tradition of dropping out of the polls as soon as they work themselves back into them. Although, it was a bit of a stretch to expect to Cal to stay in the rankings after their matchup with USC, it’s still a bit discouraging to see Cal develop an allergic reaction to being ranked.

The good news is that Cal didn’t drop as much as I thought they might. After entering the game ranked 21st, it appears the voters placed some added value on Cal’s strong defensive performance, and placed the loss more on USC being a dominant team, rather than Cal being a bad one.

Cal is ranked 26th in both the AP and USA Today Polls with 73 and 50 points respectively.


Of note is that Oregon State has broken into the AP and USA Today polls at 23rd and 25th, just in time for their matchup against Cal on Saturday. If Cal wins, expect Cal to switch spots with the Beavers to get back into the rankings. Assuming Cal can win out, it’s reasonable to think that Cal can finish in the mid teens in the polls to finish the season.

Drop one of the next three however, and Cal might finish their second consecutive season unranked. Stay tuned.