{"id":435507,"date":"2026-08-17T19:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T19:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435507\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T19:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T19:26:14","slug":"san-diego-state-gets-preseason-coaches-poll-nod-ahead-of-pac-12-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435507\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego State gets preseason Coaches Poll nod ahead of Pac-12 debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5g\">The preseason football polls are out, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/san-diego-state\/football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego State\u00a0<\/a>shows up as a blip at the bottom of the Coaches Poll with two points.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5j\">That\u2019s better than the alternative, of course. The Aztecs didn\u2019t receive any votes in the Associated Press preseason Top 25.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">It should be encouraging that the Aztecs received mention in the Coaches Poll. While the Aztecs finished 9-4 last fall, a big turnaround in coach Sean Lewis\u2019 second season. They lost their final two games, including a wild 49-47 defeat to North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">Most pundits have the Aztecs picked to finish second behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/boise-state\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boise State<\/a> in the first year of the revitalized Pac-12 Conference.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">The Aztecs received votes at certain points last season, although not enough to crack the Top 25.<\/p>\n<p>Other new Pac-12 teams getting votes<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\">Also not surprisingly is that Boise State is the only other Pac-12 team to show up in the polls. The Broncos are just outside the Top 25 in the AP poll, checking it at No. 28. However, the Broncos\u2019 43 points are well behind No. 25 Missouri, which has 117 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01m08fcmxjxfjx74c0tz.jpg\" alt=\"Boise State Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson. \" title=\"Boise State Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson. \" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"68\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dec 31, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Boise State Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The Broncos are 36th in the Coaches Poll with 24 points.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">The Aztecs beat the Broncos late last season at Snapdragon Stadium. However, SDSU lost a double-overtime thriller at New Mexico in the regular-season finale that cost it the chance to host the MW title game. Boise State swooped in and earned the right to host, and then beat UNLV.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">San Diego State and BSU peeled off to join the Pac-12, along with Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State. They\u2019ve joined up with fellow newcomer Texas State and holdovers Washington State and Oregon State.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">SDSU plays at Boise State on Nov. 21. The regular season ends the next weekend when each Pac-12 team plays a \u201cflex\u201d game, with the opponent and location to be determined.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other teams to watch<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">James Madison, which visits Snapdragon Stadium on Sept. 19 in the third of four non-conference games, also received votes and has six points in the Coaches Poll and three points in the AP poll.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Former MW foes UNLV and New Mexico also received votes in both polls.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Plenty of former Pac-12 teams show up in the poll, from Oregon, which is No. 2 behind Ohio State in both polls, all the way down to California, which squeaked into both polls on the \u201cothers receiving votes\u201d list. SDSU beat Cal 34-0 at home last September.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>San Diego State\u2019s poll history<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">The last time the Aztecs were ranked was in 2021, when they finished a school-best 12-2. They spent a total of seven weeks in the AP Top 25, achieving a high of No. 19 and settling at No. 25 in the final poll.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The preseason football polls are out, and\u00a0San Diego State\u00a0shows up as a blip at the bottom of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-435507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}