San Diego State continues to receive votes in both college football polls

Aztecs make slight gains in The Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll

San Diego State Aztecs quarterback Jayden Denegal. | Photo courtesy of San Diego State University Athletics.

The Aztecs had their second bye week and still made some progress in the two college football polls. 

The Aztecs appeared on two ballots in The Associated Press poll on Sunday, good for seven points. That essentially is good for 31st in the country. The Aztecs debuted at No. 22 on the ballot of Stephen Means of Cleveland.com and were up one spot, to No. 23, on the ballot of Keith Farmer of WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky.

Over in the Coaches Poll, the Aztecs had four points, up from one point the week before, which basically is tied for 34th with North Texas.

It was a wild weekend for the AP Top 25. After nine ranked teams lost, including four in the top 10, No. 1 Ohio State was the only team to hold its spot.

Why this matters

The Aztecs continued their resurgence in Sean Lewis’ second season as head coach with a second straight Mountain West rout, a 44-10 victory at Nevada on Oct. 11. It was SDSU’s most complete win this season, with the Aztecs scoring a touchdown in all three phases — special teams, defense and offense — in taking a 21-0 lead just one play into the second quarter. 

At 5-1, the Aztecs have won two more games than they did all of last season and are just one win shy of being bowl eligible for the first time since 2022. 

At 2-0 in the Mountain West, they trail just Boise State (5-2, 3-0), which routed previously undefeated UNLV 56-31 on Saturday. UNLV has three points in the Coaches Poll but didn’t receive any votes in the AP poll.

Boise State, meanwhile, has four points in the AP poll and two points in the Coaches Poll. Those were the first votes BSU received since it was No. 25 in the AP’s preseason poll. The Broncos lost their opener  34-7 at South Florida and immediately disappeared from the rankings.

What’s next

The Aztecs return to action Saturday afternoon in a road game against longtime rival Fresno State. The Bulldogs (5-2, 2-1) also will be well-rested coming off a bye week. They lost 49-21 at Colorado State on Oct. 10. A week before that, Colorado State was routed 45-24 by SDSU.

After Fresno State, the Aztecs host Wyoming, are at Hawaii, host Boise State and San Jose State, and finish on the road at New Mexico. 

SDSU misses UNLV this season.

Poll history

The Aztecs were last ranked in the AP Top 25 in 2021, when they were in the AP Top 25 for a total of seven weeks. Their highest ranking was No. 19 and they were No. 25 in the final poll. They finished that season with a school-best 12-2 record.

Before 2021, the Aztecs were most recently ranked for stretches during the 2016, 2017 and 2019 seasons.