Best of the West debuts: Oregon, Utah, Arizona and Boise State lead first ranking of the 2024 season

The Best of the West offers fans an unapologetic assessment of the top teams in the western third of the country — a collection of schools now scattered across five conferences: the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Mountain West.

The rankings will be available on the Hotline each Sunday during the regular season with the exception of Labor Day weekend, when we’ll delay publication by 24 hours to account for the USC-LSU showdown on Sunday evening.

(The Hotline will publish a basketball...