A lot of changes in the third week of the Top-25 West Coast college basketball power rankings. A pair of underperforming Pac-12 teams – Utah and Cal – get the boot, as it feels wrong to have .500 or sub-.500 teams ranked above high performing mid-major programs.
The Utes and Golden Bears aren’t the only two teams getting replaced, as the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV see their only week in the rankings end after losing to Air Force, and the Big West is no longer represented in the power rankings after UC-Irvine lost to Fullerton, bringing them to just 6-6 on the season.
Four new teams join the power rankings in their place – three coming from the up-and-coming WAC, and one new squad from the Pac-12.
Before we get in to the new additions, a few teams that just missed the cut: Weber State (13-5), LMU (9-7) and Arizona State (6-9) were all given consideration, but fell short of making the list for this week.
Now, on to the actual list, which had a major shakeup at the bottom but remained fairly consistent at the top – although the top-five has been altered after struggles from some of the Pac-12’s elite programs.