The San Diego State University football Aztecs are voted to finish second in their division of the Mountain West Conference.
The poll is conducted by media representatives who cover the conference SDSU plays in, which was voted at their annual league media gatherings in Las Vegas this week.
The winner of the West Division has gone on to win the Mountain West Conference championship four of the past seven seasons, in which SDSU was the winner in 2016 and 2016 on consecutive occasions.
San Diego State received 148 points to projected to win first-place, just behind Fresno State's 20 first-place votes for the Bulldogs.
Last year, The Aztecs won the West Division but eventually lost to Utah State in the Mountain West Conference Championship game in a brutal 46-13 rout.
However, even with the defeat at the end of last season, the Aztecs are still considered one of the favorites to contend for the West Division, which would mean that they can also be considered contenders to win the whole conference by the end of the year.
With this latest polling, the Aztecs have now been considered either first or second over the past decade of West Division competition since 2013.
The Aztecs wrapped up their season last year with a school record of 12 wins in a single season, also becoming one of just 10 football programs with a minimum of 12 victories. Only four college football teams won more games than SDSU in that season, including the national champs Georgia Bulldogs, and other big college football programs such as Alabama and Cincinnati. Let's not forget that Aztecs did not just beat conference teams, but also won over the Pac-12 champs, Utah, who also participated in the Rose Bowl title game.
San Diego State opens the highly-anticipated Snapdragon Stadium on September 3 against the University of Arizona.
