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No. 7 Arizona State looks to remain unbeaten against No. 18 Cal

Oct 27, 2007 - 11:35 AM No. 18 California (5-2) at No. 7 Arizona State (7-0) 10:00 pm EDT

TEMPE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Arizona State has faced some criticism for playing a perceived soft schedule.

But that changes this weekend, when the seventh-ranked Sun Devils, one of five unbeaten teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, host No. 18 California in a Pac-10 Conference contest.

The game begins a rugged stretch in which Arizona State (7-0, 4-0 Pac-10) plays road games at No. 5 Oregon and UCLA and hosts No. 9 Southern California.

"I think we have played some good teams," Sun Devils quarterback Rudy Carpenter said. "If you look over the course of the season, Stanford beat USC, Oregon State beat Cal and Washington played a good game with Oregon this weekend.

"Everyone is kind of beating each other, so they can say whatever they want. Maybe it is tough to argue with them, but we can only play who is on our schedule every week and that's what we've been doing."

Ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings - its highest ranking ever - Arizona State remains very much alive in the national championship race.

The Sun Devils are tied for first place in the Pac-10 with UCLA, one game ahead of USC and Oregon.

Arizona State has additional motivation - trying to avenge a 49-21 loss at California last season in which it surrendered 42 points in the first half. The Sun Devils also have dropped two straight at home to the Golden Bears.

With two conference losses, California (5-2, 2-2) has been reduced to playing the role of spoiler. The Golden Bears have dropped consecutive games to Oregon State and UCLA after climbing to No. 2 in the polls following a win at Oregon.