Arizona Lands Outside Top 25 in Final AP Poll Rankings
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The Arizona Wildcats won’t finish the season as one of college football’s top 25 teams this year, as the final AP Poll of the season left them out completely.
Following the National Championship game of the College Football Playoff between Indiana and Miami, which Indiana won 27-21, the final AP Poll dropped the previously ranked Wildcats.
:Loss to SMU proved painful
Prior to the start of the playoffs, Arizona was ranked 17th in the poll, but then would go on to lose to unranked SMU in the Holiday Bowl, dropping their record to 9-4 on the season. They, along with Georgia Tech, and Missouri, were dropped from the final rankings on Tuesday.
Some other notable shifts in the Big 12 include BYU finishing ranked 11th, Texas Tech finishing 7th, Utah finishing 14th, Houston finishing 22nd and TCU finishing 25th. Arizona received 54 votes for the final rankings, but it wasn’t enough to keep them in the top 25.
Arizona boasted a 2-2 record in ranked wins last season, losing to then-#14 Iowa State, then-#18 BYU, while beating #25 Cincinnati and #20 Arizona State. Arizona also lost to Houston, who was unranked at the time.
Three-year streak
After never being ranked at all from 2018-2022, Arizona has found itself ranked in the AP Poll for at least one week in each of the last three seasons, the first time since 1998-2000 that they’ve been ranked at one point in three consecutive campaigns.
After beginning the season unranked, the Wildcats surpassed expectations, eventually finding themselves in the top 25 on the last week of the regular season, and peaking at #17 before the Holiday Bowl, where they would go on to lose SMU in disappointing fashion to end the season.
They were led this season by veteran quarterback Noah Fifita, who threw for 3,228 yards with 29 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Fifita will be back at Arizona next season as the Wildcats look to claim a Big 12 title, and possibly a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Nonetheless, the Wildcats were able to notch their second nine-win season in the last three seasons, and have made themselves a prominent figure in the Big 12 for the foreseeable future. Head coach Brent Brennan has been able to turn around a program that went just 4-8 in his first season at the helm, and their rapid rise has put everyone on notice for next season.
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Justin Backer brings a wealth of experience to his role as a college football and basketball general sports reporter On SI. Backer is a proud graduate of Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies, and has worked for such media companies as The Sporting News and the Palm Beach Post.