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Colorado State has finally received national recognition for its 10-0 start to the season.
The Rams broke through into the AP Top 25 poll this morning, entering the rankings at No. 23.
POLL ALERT: Baylor takes over at No. 1 in the AP Top 25, followed by Duke, Purdue; Arizona, Southern Cal into top 10; Xavier, Colorado State, Texas Tech in.
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 13, 2021
Full poll: https://t.co/pA6Y3MfEVF pic.twitter.com/k4aB6OPxht
Colorado State is coming off a 66-63 neutral site win against Mississippi State at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Texas. The Rams trailed by as many as 11 points in the game before they made a comeback.
The 10-0 start is the best start for Colorado State since the 2014-2015 season when they started 14-0.
The Rams now have non-conference wins against Creighton, St. Mary’s, and Mississippi State. They have one more big marque game, before Mountain West play begins, against No. 6 Alabama on Dec. 21.
11 teams in last week’s Top 25 poll lost games over the last seven days, including No. 20 Florida (who lost twice last week), No. 22 Wisconsin, and No. 24 BYU.
Also released Monday morning was Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracketology report for ESPN. He has the Rams slated as an eight-seed and as the Mountain West auto-bid at the moment.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) December 13, 2021
St. Mary’s is solidly in Lunardi’s projected field at a nine-seed. And he has Creighton and Mississippi State on the bubble as two of the first four teams out. So if Colorado State stumbles in conference play, they will have head-to-head wins over both those teams that can give the Rams an edge if things get tight on Selection Sunday.