The Cal football team is back in the national rankings today after putting up a 66-spot on Saturday.

The Bears are No. 23 in the AP rankings and No. 25 in the USA Today poll. I’d venture a guess that everybody associated with the team will stress just how much unimportant the rankings really are. Coach Tedford is going to say that he hasn’t seen them (which is probably true.) But that little number goes a long way in the eye of the national viewer.

The hits just keep on coming for Cal baseball, as the Bears (9-1-1) climbed even higher in the Baseball America rankings to No. 12, right behind the Baby Bears of Los Angeles, who are falling fast, going 2-3 last week. Arizona (10-1) remains at No. 1 with cross-state rival Arizona State (12-0) checking in at No. 2.  Cal and UCLA (7-4) are the next two Pac-10 teams in the rankings, followed by Stanford (8-4), which climbed from unranked to No. 18 … sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The last Pac-10 team in the mix is struggling No. 22 Oregon State (5-5), the two-time defending NCAA champion. All of a sudden, head coach David Esquer’s assertion that this is the best the conference has ever been doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch. Even a .500 team in the Pac-10 is worthy of a ranking. Sweet.