Washington State is the pride of the Pac-12 this week.
There really hasn't been much to celebrate in the old “Conference of Champions” since mass defections left just WSU and Oregon State. Those two are hanging together until five recently announced schools — and hopefully a sixth — join what will be a reconstituted football league in 2026.
Until then, the Pac-12 will take whatever glory it can get. Right now, that's Washington State's season debut in The Associated Press poll.
The Cougars are No. 22 following their 29-26 win at San Diego State and 7-1 for the first time since the 2018 Mike Leach-Gardner Minshew team started 10-1 and finished 11-2.
Jack Dickert's team is led by sophomore quarterback John Mateer, who brought the Cougars back from a 26-14 deficit with 13 minutes left against the Aztecs and also led fourth-quarter comebacks to beat San Jose State and Fresno State.
“That's why they give you 60 minutes. It's the Cardiac Cougs," Dickert said. "There's no quit in our football team. There's a lot of grit, a lot of heart, a lot of passion. That comes from within, that comes from the team, that comes from the leaders. There's no die. It was what, 14-26, right? And they came back, kept believing. We've done it before, we do it again.”
Washington State is playing eight opponents from the Mountain West and Oregon State is playing seven as part of a one-year scheduling agreement with that conference. Oregon State has lost three straight and is 4-4. The Cougars and Beavers were left to cobble together schedules for 2025 and will play each other twice next November.
Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State and San Diego State will leave the MWC to join the Pac-12 the following season. Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference will join as a non-football member. In the meantime, the Pac-12 is looking to add an eighth football member so it can regain its status as a Football Bowl Subdivision league.
Dickert said his program can build for its future in the new-look Pac-12 by stacking wins this season and next.
“It just means for recruiting that Wazzu is here to stay,” he said. “We've got a strong brand on the West Coast. It's resonated throughout this whole class. Obviously, we let five of those (2026) teams in as equals, and that's different. So you've got to stay ahead of them. To stay ahead or them you have to invest more than they do. That's the biggest thing we have to continue to do as Cougs.”
Checking in on five of the Top 25:
With the Nittany Lions' top-five matchup with No. 4 Ohio State sure to be the talk of the week in college football, the status of quarterback Drew Allar will get much of the attention. Allar was sacked on Penn State's final series of the first half and did not play in second half of the road win at Wisconsin. He wore a brace on his left knee. If Allar can't go, it'll be Beau Pribula's show.
The Longhorns have an open date before they host Florida. That begins a three-game stretch against unranked opponents before the regular-season finale against Texas A&M on the road. Texas is giving its fans cause for concern. Some of the problems it had against Georgia cropped up in the 27-24 win at Vanderbilt. Quinn Ewers had his two interceptions converted into touchdowns, and the Longhorns had 10 penalties.
The Broncos solidified themselves as the favorite to earn the Group of Five spot in the College Football Playoff with their 29-24 win at UNLV. National rushing leader Ashton Jeanty ran for a season-low 128 yards and the winning touchdown. The defense shined with six sacks, the third time in four games they've had at least that many. The last sack, by Ahmed Hassanein and Herbert Gums, forced UNLV to punt with just over 8 minutes left, and the Rebels never got the ball back.
The Mustangs go into their home showdown with No. 18 Pittsburgh off a quirky win at Duke. They won 28-27 in overtime but not before they blocked Duke's field-goal try for the win at the end of regulation and forced an incompletion on the Blue Devils' 2-point pass for the win in OT. They also committed six turnovers with no takeaways.
The Buffaloes are bowl eligible for the first time since 2020 and back in the Top 25 for the first time since they were ranked three weeks early last season. They've come a long way since their 28-10 loss at Nebraska in Week 2. The defense is giving up about 13 points and 90 yards less per game than a year ago, Shedeur Sanders has thrown for a Big 12-leading 21 TDs and two-way star Travis Hunter is a Heisman Trophy contender.
Ohio State and Penn State have both been ranked each of the last seven times they've met. Saturday's meeting will be the first since 1996 that both are in the top five. ... Pittsburgh and SMU will meet for the seventh time and the second in a Top 25 matchup. The first was in 1983, when No. 4 SMU beat No. 6 Pitt 7-3. ... Missouri stayed in the rankings, falling from No. 21 to No. 25, despite losing 34-0 at Alabama and appearing on only 18 ballots. Vanderbilt appeared on 23 ballots but went from No. 25 to the team receiving the most votes among the unranked. Only three points separate the two, largely because five voters had the Tigers 21st or 22nd.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Washington State head coach Jake Dickert looks on during the second half of an NCAA college football game against San Diego State Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Washington State wide receiver Kris Hutson (1) dances with teammate wide receiver Josh Meredith (18) before the first half of an NCAA college football game against San Diego State Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Washington State quarterback John Mateer (10) celebrates a touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against San Diego State Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew.
The account was suspended early Monday with a brief note appended to it saying: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.” It wasn’t immediately clear what the violation was. The Elon Musk-owned social media company did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The move came after Israel openly attacked Iran for the first time this weekend. Khamenei said in a speech on Sunday that Israel’s strikes — in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack this month — “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for retaliation.
The X account opened Sunday with a message in Hebrew reading: “In the name of God, the most merciful,” a standard Islamic greeting.
Khamenei’s office has maintained multiple accounts for the 85-year-old supreme leader on X for years and has sent messages in a variety of languages in the past.
A second message corresponded to a speech Khamenei gave on Sunday and was sent on his English account as: “Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran. They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.” The message referred to Israel’s attack Saturday on Iran.
This isn’t the first time Khamenei has seen a suspension or removal from social media. In February, Meta removed Facebook and Instagram accounts for the supreme leader over his support of the militant group Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Social media platforms like X and Facebook have been blocked in Iran for years, requiring Iranians to use virtual private networks to access them.
Here’s the latest:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard made his first public comments Monday after Israel’s weekend attack on the country.
Gen. Hossein Salami, in a condolence message to Iran’s regular military, called Israel’s strike “illegitimate and illegal.” Four soldiers in Iran’s air defense network were killed in the attack on Saturday, as was one civilian, Iranian state media say.
The attack was “a sign of miscalculation and the inability” of Israel on the battlefield with Iranian-backed militants “particularly in Gaza and Lebanon.”
The “bitter consequences will be beyond the imagination of the occupiers,” Salami added, referring to Israel.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq has submitted a memorandum of protest to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council saying Israel violated its airspace in carrying out its attack on Iran over the weekend, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The statement said that Israeli “aggressor aircraft violated Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty and used Iraqi airspace to carry out the attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on Oct. 26.”
It added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had directed Iraq’s foreign minister to discuss the matter with the United States. The two countries recently reached an agreement to begin winding down the mission of a U.S.-led coalition formed to fight the Islamic State militant group and to withdraw many of the U.S. troops who remain in the country.
On Sunday, the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah issued a statement accusing the U.S. of coordinating with Israel to use Iraqi airspace to launch the attack on Iran and threatening retaliation against U.S. forces.
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday afternoon at Iran’s request on Israel’s air strikes against the country.
Switzerland, which holds the council’s rotating presidency, announced the meeting on Sunday and said the Iranian request was supported by Russia, China and Algeria, the Arab representative on the council.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country will respond to Israel “appropriately," after Israel openly attacked Iranian military sites for the first time this weekend.
“We are not seeking war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country and will respond appropriately to the Zionist regime’s aggression,” Pezeshkian was quoted by state TV on Sunday as saying.
Pezeshkian also said the U.S. had promised Iran to stop the war in Gaza and Lebanon if Iran restrained. “They had promised to end the war in response to our restraint, but they did not keep their word,” he said.
The Iranian president also warned tensions will escalate if Israel’s aggression continues, adding, “We know that the United States is encouraging Israel to commit these atrocities.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran announced Sunday that a civilian had been killed in Israel’s attack on the country, without offering any details on the circumstances of his death.
The state-run IRNA news agency identified the dead man as Allahverdi Rahimpour and said he lived in a suburban area of southwestern Tehran.
While offering no details on what he was doing or where he was killed, IRNA made a point to say he was not a member of Iran’s armed forces.
Iran has offered few details on the attack and the damage caused by them so far.
In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)
In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran's onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program, satellite photos analyzed Sunday by The Associated Press show. The damaged structures are in the bottom center of the image. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
