Sports Illustrated.com released its college football preview today and there’s wasn’t much love given to Washington. The web site ranked all 119 Division I teams and Washington was ranked 98th, the worst among Pac-10 schools by far. Oregon State was next at No. 79. In fact, only two schools from BCS conferences were ranked any lower than Washington (Syracuse at 99 and Duke at 100).
Even San Jose State, which the Huskies are expected to beat in the season-opener, are ranked four spots in front of Washington at 94. The other two non-conference teams are ranked 14th (Oklahoma) and 30th (Fresno State).
Four Pac-10 teams are ranked in the Top 20: USC (5), Cal (8), Arizona State (16) and Oregon (20). UCLA is 45th, Washington State is 51st, Arizona is 54th and Stanford is 76th.
As a conference, SI ranked the Pac-10 5th.
As far as bowl projections, UCLA is picked to play TCU in the Las Vegas Bowl; Arizona State will play Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl; Oregon should play Louisville in the Sun Bowl; Cal will play Texas in the Fiesta Bowl; and USC is picked to play Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
Six Pac-10 players were picked as preseason first-team All-Americans: USC’s Dwayne Jarrett (WR), Sam Bakker (OT) and Lawrence Jackson (DE), Cal’s Brandon Mebane (DT), Arizona’s Antoine Cason (CB) and Arizona State’s Terry Richardson (kick returner).
You can check out the entire preview here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/specials/preview/2006/
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