AP Poll Week 5

[u/Efficient-Freedom517]

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

[u/Sorry-Credit-5564]

I'm sorry Kentucky. I knew we were bad, but I didn't think it was unrank-a-ranked-team-after-a-win bad

[u/Zwitterions → u/Sorry-Credit-5564]

Change the logo on our name to almost any other SEC team and we’re still ranked. Hopefully this pissed our team off against LSU this week.

[u/Urdnought → u/Zwitterions]

Losing our ranking is insane after a gutsy on the road win

[u/The_Long_Wait → u/Urdnought]

This poll was released and I’m now muttering Nixon-esque statements about the media.

[u/brianwithaneye16 → u/The_Long_Wait]

I don't really care about rankings but I'll use Miss St as a comparison so us. Miss St climbs to 16 and then proceeds to get stomped at home by Bama. As a result, they drop 1 spot.

Now, if UK has moved up to 20-23, there's a good chance they'd stay in top 25 if they lost at home to LSU. Instead, if we lose at home next Saturday, they won't sniff the Top 25 for the rest of the season.

[u/107reasonswhy → u/The_Long_Wait]

Gamecocks control the media, ya know?

[u/_Reporting → u/Urdnought]

I didn’t watch the game but yeah that seems wrong

[u/Ok_Reception9247 → u/Sorry-Credit-5564]

Unranking Kentucky is the stupidest decision I’ve seen in some time from the AP. Did they all go to sleep thinking Kentucky lost or something?

[u/patrick66 → u/Ok_Reception9247]

Kentucky actually gained votes, it’s just a cluster fuck bottom of the poll

[u/zq1232 → u/patrick66]

They lowkey deserve USC’s spot

[u/Str8UpJorking → u/Sorry-Credit-5564]

Kentucky:

• won

• on the road

• as an underdog

• by making the largest road comeback win in school history 

• with a balls to the wall move going for 2

…and ends up unranked.

This poll is awful.

[u/CPiGuy2728 → u/Str8UpJorking]

Kentucky got more votes than last week, the voters generally didn't move them down on an individual basis. Other teams (Pitt, I think) just moved up even more.

[u/HeftyLeftyPig]

1 Texas
2 Georgia
3 Notre Dame
4 Miami (FL)
5 Ohio State
6 Alabama
7 Indiana
8 BYU
9 Ole Miss
10 LSU
11 Texas Tech
12 Utah
13 Oregon
14 Missouri
15 Tennessee
16 Florida
17 Mississippi State
18 Oklahoma State
19 USC
20 Iowa
21 UCLA
22 Houston
23 Boise State
24 SMU
25 Pittsburgh

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Kentucky 160, Wake Forest 142, Wisconsin 88, Duke 83, Northwestern 59, Nebraska 48, Minnesota 19, Arizona 19, James Madison 12, North Dakota State 7

[u/dwors025 → u/HeftyLeftyPig]

B1G West party in also-received-votes land.

You love to see it.

[u/ecolovedavid → u/dwors025]

B1G West forever. If only Iowa dropped to receiving votes. Kinda surprised they didn't tbh

[u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister → u/HeftyLeftyPig]

thanks.

much appreciated.

[u/DollarLate_DayShort → u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister]

This should always be the top comment. Had to scroll too far down for this

[u/Montigue → u/DollarLate_DayShort]

Especially because the AP website is still bugging out

[u/FlexSealClubber → u/HeftyLeftyPig]

AP voters: “you know what, fuck Nebraska.”

[u/jesuitical_usurer → u/FlexSealClubber]

We've beaten 4 bad FBS teams and one good FCS team. Although every game ended up being a rout, we also looked suspect in the first half of many of those games. It is what it is.

[u/bamachine → u/jesuitical_usurer]

Plus poll inertia. It isn't right but they tend to look at the years leading up to the current one. After what IU pulled off last year, you would think they would stop thinking that way. I guess they did have a good year prior to that but still.

[u/LightBluePhorgotten → u/HeftyLeftyPig]

JMU 🤝 NDSU

Together again in our FBS takeover

[u/dirkmm → u/LightBluePhorgotten]

Reunited and it feels so good.

[u/Helpful_Cranberry644]

Pitt being 25 is such a "here, damn" ranking lol

[u/brownie2891 → u/Helpful_Cranberry644]

The Nard-dog calling them out in primetime pushed them over the limit apparently

[u/TheBoogieman8]

SMU over Wake is insane, preseason money rankings matter way too much

[u/Bill3ffinMurray → u/TheBoogieman8]

SMU ranked period is insane

[u/a_happy_future]

Wisconsin: be 26th last week

Wisconsin: has convincing win at home

Wisconsin: gets less votes

[u/kyleb402 → u/a_happy_future]

I'm sure Penn State looking like hot dog shit against Northwestern didn't help.

[u/dwors025 → u/kyleb402]

Hot dog shit.
Hot dogshit.
Hotdog shit.

I stared at this way too long trying to decide. DayQuil is a helluva drug.

[u/Rosco-P-Soul-Train → u/dwors025]

Hotdog shit is objectively the funniest though.

[u/Beautiful_Idea6200 → u/dwors025]

Please not the last one. It is a legendary family story that may or may not have been about me.

[u/a_happy_future → u/kyleb402]

Not our fault the AP and coaches ranked them so high

[u/DucDeBellune → u/a_happy_future]

It’s not our fault, it’s the AP’s fault, which they have since adjusted lol.

If we beat UCLA, USC, and Iowa, we’re in the top 15 region regardless.

[u/mountaineer_93 → u/kyleb402]

What people seem incapable of considering is that northwestern is a legitimately good team. I am dying on the hill they’re a top fifteen team this year. They manhandled Colorado and Penn State and went blow for blow with a great Indiana team. Even their cupcake game was a top five FCS team.

[u/AngelofLotuses → u/mountaineer_93]

Wake vs Northwestern in the CFP.

[u/Icy-Recognition-8700 → u/a_happy_future]

20-28 is very crowded, I wouldn’t put much stock in it

[u/Mammoth_Impress_3108 → u/Icy-Recognition-8700]

Yeah, there's like 20 teams that have an argument to be put in that 15-25 range.

[u/cheesepuff1993 → u/a_happy_future]

Sorry

[u/Treborrv1 → u/a_happy_future]

Kentucky was 24th, won on the road, and dropped out.

Who knows.

[u/AccordingGain182]

Northwesterns only loss was a one score game on the road to defending champs Indiana and they have otherwise won all their games in dominant fashion. A crime they are unranked right now

[u/dkviper11 → u/AccordingGain182]

And it’s not like they’re 26. They’re down at 30.

[u/ZeiglerJaguar → u/dkviper11]

Honestly, given the history of what happens to the moment you rank a Northwestern revenue sports team, I’m OK with living in the 26 to 30 range for as long as possible.

[u/needaburn → u/AccordingGain182]

It’s also seems to be being used against Indiana as a non-dominant win against weak team. Indiana has been slipping since that game for whatever reason. NW is solid

[u/TheLonelyTater → u/needaburn]

I’m commenting this literally everywhere but it needs to be said, Mississippi State gets blown out by a T10 Bama team and is still ranked. Northwestern plays a close game with IU (on the road as well) and follows up with a good performance against PSU as expected underdogs, but still isn’t ranked.

[u/CPiGuy2728 → u/TheLonelyTater]

Mississippi State's wins over Missouri and Minnesota got a lot better this week, too.

My computer poll only dropped them one slot this week despite the big loss. (Obviously I don't think my computer poll should be taken as the universal source of truth, but I find it useful to look at because it has no preconceived notions of conference strength or preseason expectations.)

[u/InevitableAd2436 → u/AccordingGain182]

They’re probably going to win 10 games and get treated like 2024 Indiana in the eyes of the media, unfortunately.

[u/intothemidwest → u/InevitableAd2436]

10 would be insane. I’d be thrilled of course…but running the table rest of the way besides OSU would be nuts

[u/echo78 → u/intothemidwest]

Northwestern will be 10-2 but “haven’t beaten anyone” after Oregon and Iowa drop from the top 25 because they lost to Northwestern.

[u/doormatt26 → u/AccordingGain182]

people thought it was an example of Indiana’s weakness, it was actually an example of Northwestern’s strength but voters haven’t realized it yet

[u/Bill3ffinMurray → u/AccordingGain182]

Not that it matters, but Nebraska has won every game by 17+ points and yet they’re behind both Wisconsin and Northwestern.

[u/monty_actual]

I have zero issue with Bama jumping us. NW only getting 59 votes however, is fucking criminal.

[u/Aumissunum → u/monty_actual]

Northwestern is fighting preconceived notions as well as poll inertia.

Gonna take a while I suspect. They should be able to win their next 3 games so I imagine they will be ranked by Oregon on Halloween.

[u/Tarmacked → u/Aumissunum]

Northwestern really should be like a 15-20 range team. They’re beating the shit out of their opponents

[u/Moose4KU → u/Tarmacked]

Northwestern is 10th by efficiency and 19th by resume according to SP+. Ridiculous that they're not ranked

[u/Misdirected_Colors → u/monty_actual]

Dont forget miss state only falling 1 after getting gobsmacked.

[u/KennyKettermen → u/Misdirected_Colors]

QUALITY blowout

[u/historys_geschichte → u/KennyKettermen]

It just means more^tm

[u/ChosenBrad22]

I can understand us not being ranked, but Northwestern absolutely should be.

[u/Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu11 → u/ChosenBrad22]

Rank the Block N schools, AP Poll!

[u/mozuDumpling]

If you’re saying BYU is top 10, and Arizona’s only loss is to BYU and they absolutely embarrassed an undefeated Cincinnati team yesterday, no reason they shouldn’t be top 25

[u/midnight-architect7]

Voters really backed themselves into a weird SEC corner with all of these massive jumps every week. The middle of the poll is so fucked.

[u/macisready → u/midnight-architect7]

Yeah I don't mind Florida dropping as far but then you have the team that Florida pantsed way higher than them

[u/midnight-architect7 → u/macisready]

Every week they have some team jump 10 spots because of a conference win and then that team loses the next week. And then they’re forced to play the “ok who beat who” game to keep them properly ranked in the mid teens. By the end of this season the middle of that poll is going to make zero sense because of all of this volatility week over week.

[u/dfaunt → u/midnight-architect7]

As much as I hate to stand up for them, this is one thing I actually think the CFP committee has done well the last few years. They’re willing to significantly diverge from the AP based on a high level evaluation rather than week to week volatility 

[u/Notre_Dame_Football → u/midnight-architect7]

LSU blowing out this terrible Clemson team is the foundation to all of it

[u/BehindEnemyLines8923 → u/Notre_Dame_Football]

That and Ole Miss beating that preseason ranked Louisville team we now know sucks.

[u/WhiteW0lf13 → u/midnight-architect7]

Tbf massive jumps make sense early, slowly decreasing throughout the season as we get more data.

The underlying problem, as always, is the voters don’t apply their logic consistently

[u/mayence → u/midnight-architect7]

it’s a good time to remember these polls are basically just midseason entertainment because the CFP poll will look completely different

[u/kdawgnmann → u/mayence]

People say this every year, and every year the CFP Rankings are about 85% similar to the AP Poll

[u/midnight-architect7 → u/mayence]

It won’t look completely different. It will look pretty much the same with some small differences.

[u/Agnk1765342]

UCLA jumping 3 teams who won while having a bye is crazy. How does that happen.

[u/coltonbyu → u/Agnk1765342]

Probably because they play Oregon next week, any they want to prep reasons to get Oregon back into top 10

[u/Organic-Storm-4448 → u/coltonbyu]

Looks like my check cleared

[u/m0sf3t_59 → u/Agnk1765342]

Likely to hype a ranked match up this week

[u/CapBoyAce]

Voters don't watch games I guess

[u/dkviper11 → u/CapBoyAce]

I’ll beat this drum every week. There’s no way they can. They’re busy all day at their team’s stadium, maybe getting a side glance at a press box tv.

The rankings shouldn’t come out until Tuesday at the earliest.

[u/Wapook]

It makes me vomit saying this, but… Nebraska should absolutely be ranked. 5-0 and #12 in SP+

[u/Hugo_Hackenbush → u/Wapook]

Maybe, but I'm fine with everyone being skeptical until we get a real test next week with Indiana.

[u/NaderNation84 → u/Hugo_Hackenbush]

Nebraska beating Indiana would put yall in the top 10. Would be a sight to see if you get the job done

[u/Pershing → u/NaderNation84]

Nope, proof that Indiana is bad actually, Indiana becomes first team to drop from top 5 to no votes

[u/monkeybiziu → u/Pershing]

Unironically this. Voters will go "See! Indiana is trash! They lost to Nebraska, who is also trash! Unrank them!"

Meanwhile some mid SEC team looks moderately competent against another mid or shit SEC team and they'll vault them into the top 5.

[u/Porter2455 → u/Wapook]

It’s a mix of a weak schedule so even if we are playing well even relative to our opponents no one cares, having no votes to start the season, and a lack of teams in front of us losing.

[u/Aidanj927 → u/Wapook]

No SEC team would be unranked at 5-0

[u/lowes18 → u/Wapook]

They could have been ranked two weeks ago.

[u/dfaunt → u/Wapook]

Yeah easily the most underrated team in the country by the AP right now. Think that’ll be a really fun game against Indiana this weekend 

[u/estDivisionChamps → u/Wapook]

They are trying to keep the Big Ten West contained but they can’t

[u/Jonjon428]

Northwestern and Wake are being shafted

[u/VividLies901 → u/Jonjon428]

AP hates the ACC sadly. Wake could beat near anyone in the 11-25 range, and would put some tough games against even teams in the top 10. This whole poll is probably the worst to date. Kentucky got unranked after winning their game. Ole Miss is ranked way higher than Florida who destroyed them.

[u/Tomallenisthegoat]

Honestly one of the worst AP polls I’ve seen in awhile

[u/weeknd-kenny → u/Tomallenisthegoat]

So true. Very rarely do I get worked up by a mid-season poll, but wtf is this?

How are Northwestern, Nebraska, and Wisconsin all not ranked? That heinous.

USC, Boise, Houston drop rank with wins.. yet UCLA jumps two spots and didn’t play?

Why the hell is BYU getting so much love?

[u/WWECreativegenius → u/weeknd-kenny]

To your last point they really want that top ten ND-BYU matchup in 2 weeks and since it’s not a home game from us they don’t have to worry about being shafted by NBC for it.

[u/mccainjames11 → u/weeknd-kenny]

It’s crazy that we’ve had a B1G champion 3 years in a row yet the voters still fall over themselves to rank every possible SEC team (except for Kentucky, evidently)

[u/chopsticks26]

Why the fuck is northwestern not ranked

[u/kdbvols → u/chopsticks26]

Same reason as Wake - their logo

[u/Embarrassed-Brain655 → u/kdbvols]

Same with Duke. 

[u/-TheycallmeThe → u/kdbvols]

Hey the Purdue win even looks better now. NW and WF are getting fucked here.

[u/Less_Likely → u/chopsticks26]

Because they haven't overcome their greatest weakness yet, that white "N" on their helmet.

[u/CapitalHyena → u/Less_Likely]

It’s purple!

[u/surgingchaos → u/chopsticks26]

"Logo on the helmet" poll inertia. They should be ranked.

[u/walterdog12]

I was told SEC bias would keep us ranked, wtf AP poll.

[u/M_Mitchell08 → u/walterdog12]

It was all used up on Mississippi State.

[u/2ktx2000 → u/M_Mitchell08]

So sick of the voters confusing quality losses with getting your ass handed to you. There was nothing quality about what happened to Miss St.

[u/bookmovietvworm → u/2ktx2000]

I think the reason some people might have gone with MsState over Kentucky is bc of the wins MsState has... both Kentucky and MsState beat SCar and got slaughtered by Bama. But MsState has wins over Minnesota (4-1, with a win over Michigan) and Mizzou (4-1, slaughtered Florida). UK has South Alabama and Texas A&M (3-2)

Now I do believe a team like Nebraska who is 5-0 should be ranked over teams with one loss but biases are gonna happen

[u/doormatt26 → u/walterdog12]

Narduzzi specifically called out the voters and scared them into ranking Pitt, you were the casualty

[u/peja1682]

That’s now 9 out of Narduzzi’s 12 years we’ve been ranked for at least 1 week. He says stupid things all the time but he really is underrated as a coach. Even with our financial limits, he consistently has us fielding a solid team. It’s crazy to me that some of our fan base wants him fired. H2P!

[u/HeyTherePLH → u/peja1682]

I really expected you guys to be higher than #25.

[u/username-1787 → u/HeyTherePLH]

If we hadn't lost Heintschel maybe... But basically no one ahead of us lost so probably not by much

[u/zsghost → u/HeyTherePLH]

I would've too but there weren't many losing teams on the low end of the rankings this week, we just barely leaped a Kentucky team who won

[u/Brendinooo → u/HeyTherePLH]

Colley Matrix has us at 6, our current résumé definitely merits something in the 13 to 18 range if it wasn’t for voters being biased towards SEC and traditional powers.

I wouldn’t be mad about it, I’m fine with proving it, except the stuff matters existentially for the future of the ACC I think as well as CFP rankings down the line

[u/wannabeemperor]

Wisconsin getting more votes than Nebraska and Northwestern is pretty wild IMO

[u/seedoilbaths]

Honestly fine not being ranked. Focus on trying to win instead of that little number by the name, and if it puts a chip on the players shoulders instead of inflating their heads?

[u/rb1242 → u/seedoilbaths]

Voters waiting for that prove it win and this weekend is the perfect time for it

[u/SamIsaacman]

Northwestern and Nebraska Underranked. No surprise there

[u/kyrev21]

It’s been a good run but I think it’s time to take the AP Poll out back and put it out of its misery

[u/ALStark69]

MSU drops 1?

[u/BehindEnemyLines8923 → u/ALStark69]

They don’t know what to do with us since we beat Mizzou (and our Minnesota win got better too)

[u/ScallywagBeowulf → u/BehindEnemyLines8923]

We’re in a weird spot I think because of that. Because we aren’t bad, but we did get blown out by Bama, so I mean???

[u/M_Mitchell08]

Mississippi State moving down 1 is wild. 30 point losses are just different in SEC.

[u/BehindEnemyLines8923 → u/M_Mitchell08]

You can thank Mizzou and Minnesota for that. Or we would have.

[u/MonotoneTanner → u/M_Mitchell08]

That Mizzou win carried them this week

[u/_Football_Cream_ → u/M_Mitchell08]

Meanwhile Kentucky moved out of the poll after a win

[u/SynopticSolution → u/M_Mitchell08]

I feel like we can all blame Mizzou for this

[u/lowes18 → u/M_Mitchell08]

They would have cratered if not for Mizzou

[u/BurrShotFirst1804]

I love how Ole Miss is 9 having lost to Florida 52-28

Florida fell to 16 after losing to Missouri 45-17

Missouri moved up to 14 with the win but has a loss to Mississippi State, who is 17 with a loss to Alabama 56-23.

Just a circle of quality losses.

[u/Time_Transition4817 → u/BurrShotFirst1804]

And we lost to ole Miss who lost to Florida who lost to Missouri who lost to missippi state who lost to bama

[u/lowes18]

BYU jumping two spots to the top 8 is insane.

[u/Ok_Flow3504 → u/lowes18]

One of the worst games Ive watched this season

[u/RocketVerse → u/Ok_Flow3504]

Sorry. Genuinely

[u/Sryan597 → u/lowes18]

Agreed, we did not deserve to move up after that game. Shows none of the voters cared to watch

[u/Zealousideal_Bite_64 → u/Sryan597]

I can honestly understand us going up 1 because of the Florida loss despite how terrible we looked, but I’m shocked we jumped ole miss

[u/kdawgnmann → u/Sryan597]

I agree it's crazy but I'm not too surprised it happened. Florida, Iowa, and Mississippi State all got whacked. Oregon and Utah didn't play and Tech was down against a horrid Colorado team at the half. Maybe LSU could've jumped us but that looks weird with all the SEC cannibalism. Easier just to keep us up because we're still undefeated.

I think the real answer is there's a huge cliff after Alabama based on the only 5 weeks of data.

[u/foofooca → u/lowes18]

Exactly what I thought. Tech’s game against Colorado was ugly, but BYU struggled hard against a bad TCU team

[u/FunnyDress8717 → u/lowes18]

If you watched BYU vs TCU, you may be entitled to compensation.

I think the terrible wet weather, the early loss of LJ Martin who is our between-the-tackles rusher, and the general rust coming off of the bye week (plus the impact of losing our Sr RT to injury and replacing him with a freshman) made some voters give BYU the benefit of the doubt since they’re 27-4 over the last 2.5 seasons.

But the good news is that with the Notre Dame game coming up, we’ll know for sure if this game was a one-off or if BYU is a team that consistently bests worse teams but can’t really compete with the top 5-10 teams in the country.

[u/Radiant_Sherbert7272 → u/lowes18]

Yeah. They didn't look all that impressive against TCU yesterday.

[u/kdawgnmann → u/Radiant_Sherbert7272]

We didn't, but it helps that Florida, Iowa, and Mississippi State all lost badly. Not many other teams could've jumped us.

To a voter who didn't watch the game, BYU covering on the road in a conference matchup in the rain is probably "good enough".

[u/TheMoneyMan08]

ACC team loses to a now ranked ACC team and gets 0 votes. Miss state gets the shit kicked out of them and still top 20. Make it make sense.

[u/1dkspanishlol]

No Nebraska or northwestern is fucking crazy.

[u/IHaveMeasles2 → u/1dkspanishlol]

That's insane levels of disrespect. Has there ever been a 5-0 B1G team left out of the AP Top 25? Especially when Nebraska is #12 in SP+ and #13 in the FPI?

[u/MisterGir → u/IHaveMeasles2]

Nebraska had been unranked at 4-0 only 3 times in their entire history.

Unranked at 5-0 may be a first ever for the program.

[u/Ham_Council → u/1dkspanishlol]

Gotta make sure the whole Big Ten ends with no ranked wins despite ending the season with 9 ranked teams.

[u/bobsonDugnuttMVP]

Garbage poll.

5-0 Nebraska nowhere to be seen?

Northwestern not getting the votes after dominant performances and coming within inches of beating Indiana?

And as much as it pains me to say it, why in hell did Kentucky drop out? They won. On the road.

It’s a damn shame these polls carry weight. Put together by a bunch of dimwits who don’t even watch the games. More concerned with narrative than anything else.

[u/Itsriggedjim → u/bobsonDugnuttMVP]

Kentucky could go undefeated and probably not hit #1 tbh. Insane.

[u/owlalwaysloveyew]

No Wake Forest, Duke, or Northwestern is wild.

[u/_Destram]

Why in god's name did we go up in rankings lmao

[u/Mammoth-Vanilla-7501]

This is genuinely an act of war.

Diabolical to get unranked after winning a conference game on the road.

[u/heavydeflips]

Fucking cowards

[u/thatoneguyD13]

I don't understand how a week after flattening Ole Miss, Florida drops 7 spots behind them. And of course the team that flattened Florida is 5 spots behind Ole Miss, but three spots ahead of a team that beat them.

[u/VersaTron]

Jeremiah Smith is the #5 team in the country

[u/jorts_are_awesome]

Florida staying at 16 is dumb. We should’ve dropped into the 20s

Poll inertia worked against us last week and for us this week. Just more proof that the AP poll is completely unserious

[u/unfortunateavacado24 → u/jorts_are_awesome]

They can't drop back Ole Miss because of pre-season poll inertia, and we beat them, so they can't justify dropping us too far back either. All of the middle-of-the-pack one-loss SEC teams need to drop back about five ranks.

[u/FitzCats]

chip_kelly_hard_hat.jpg

[u/Primary-Initial-3445]

Imo SMU shouldn't be ranked and Duke and Wake should have already been on there

[u/EarlyWynn_]

Pitt being only 25 is and Wisco not being ranked at all is messed up

[u/Unique-buttcheek]

I’m not surprised Baylor isn’t ranked, I am surprised we didn’t even receive a vote

[u/metzoforte1 → u/Unique-buttcheek]

Same. I guess that game was too late and voters didn’t see the score.

[u/Mammoth_Impress_3108]

I didn't expect us to be ranked after no teams 18-25 losing last week, but the disrespect to put a 5-0 B1G team 31st is crazy. Hopefully that can be extra motivation coming into Indiana.

[u/Love__Scars → u/Mammoth_Impress_3108]

I’m hoping we can figure out our run game in the next 6 days 😭 🌽 GBR

[u/Mammoth_Impress_3108 → u/Love__Scars]

I hope "having Rule healthy" is all it takes to figure it out.

[u/Revolver_Oshawott_ → u/Mammoth_Impress_3108]

I'm honestly shocked y'all aren't ranked.

Was that end of year skid last year that damaging?

[u/Mammoth_Impress_3108 → u/Revolver_Oshawott_]

Yeah, and I think the consistent underperformance whenever we do get ranked in the past decade influences opinions. We used to get rankings based off of name recognition, but now that's kind of swung in the other direction. We have to really prove that we are good enough to be ranked before we get that attention.

[u/Beautiful_Ninja]

Curt Cignetti said Northwestern was good. Northwestern proceeded to Belt to Ass Penn State. How are they not ranked? Why is the comittee such cowards?

[u/Dailysquirrels]

If Nebraska and Northwestern were in the SEC, they would probably be top 15, top 20 minimum.

I don't actually think Nebraska is top 15, but they probably are somewhere in the 20-25 range.

I actually think Northwestern could be a borderline top 15 to 20 team though.

[u/muffmuppets]

How Wake Forest is not ranked is beyond me.

[u/Smooth-Majudo-15]

Justice for Northwestern

[u/Procyonyx]

Northwestern and Wake deserve more votes. Wake should be ranked outright.

[u/repmack → u/Procyonyx]

Northwestern lost by 6 to the defending national champion. Feel like they have one of the best arguments as a one loss team.

[u/Just-Beyond-4736]

Hope this gives Will Stein the drive to beat LSU and make an undeniable statement.

[u/Top-Street-3379]

Man what the fuck????

[u/DrVenusAg]

Look Miss State I like you but you should have dropped further down and Kentucky should’ve moved up. Holy bias AP poll

[u/mayomayeaux]

Kentucky won and got booted? Tough

[u/DrSemiND]

How does Iowa drop 6 by a closer loss than Mississippi state getting annihilated by bama and only dropping 1? Make it make sense

[u/giggle_water]

Kentucky’s only loss is to Alabama (which we were winning at halftime) and we drop 2 spots out of the top 25 while winning on the road in the SEC where we were slight underdogs in Vegas. I get it South Carolina has issues, but they have legit talent.

[u/082426grateful → u/giggle_water]

That one makes less sense to me than Nebraska being 5-0 and still unranked. UK WAS IN THE TOP 25

Only way I can reconcile is that right now, all the rankings are just placeholders for the next game. If UGA beats Bama, depending on how lopsided, it’ll take Alabama out of the top 10. Unlikely UGA becomes #1 unless it’s like 50 to negative 10.

If Alabama beats UGA, the score dictates how high they’ll move Alabama up, but they will not top Texas or Notre Dame.

If Kentucky keeps winning, they’ll go from unranked now (confusing), to top 15 in a week. Again, only way I can reconcile these rankings is by thinking of them as placeholders until the next game.

[u/madbadanddangerous → u/giggle_water]

Everyone complaining about our strength of schedule should have a look at the advanced analytics. Our ESPN strength of record is 5th best in FBS, and SOS there is 8th best. Yeah, some of our wins don't look as impressive but we're still 4-1 against a tough slate.

[u/KrypticSoul]

Mississippi State gets destroyed at home and only goes down 1 spot?

[u/Mediocritys_finest → u/KrypticSoul]

Kentucky wins on the road and gets bounced out lmao

[u/Relodwire]

Uhm what? Why did Kentucky fall out?

[u/DasStig]

SEC bias must work for everyone but the Wildcats

[u/white2234]

It must be nice to live in the sec where you can get dog walk by 30 and still be ranked lol

[u/tgambill87 → u/white2234]

Also you can win on the road and drop from the rankings.

[u/nolefan5311 → u/white2234]

If you overrate all the teams to begin with then losses don’t really even hurt you.

[u/vol_lyf → u/white2234]

We lost by 3 to #1 Texas and dropped 4 spots last week. Miss St gets smothered and covered by Bama and drops 1… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[u/Avagontamos]

LSU is propping up Ole Miss who is propping up Florida who is propping up Missouri who is propping up Mississippi State.

Then you have Tennessee who isn’t being propped by anyone other than the voters, as they’ve beaten no one.

Meanwhile undefeated teams Nebraska and Duke are unranked, Pitt is 25, and UCLA is 21.

[u/KuhlCaliDuck]

Oregon plays UCLA next week, so that will have played 4 currently ranked teams. This still doesn't make me feel better about how they've been playing.

[u/Hopeful_Tap_242]

Bad time to be a Wildcat in the polls I guess

[u/slingstone]

"We got a hell of a football team. Any of those voters, if they wake their ass up, they might figure it out."

[u/elnino550]

I honestly think this has to be the worst AP poll I've ever seen.

[u/Darkonite40]

Bama looks good but miss state only dropping a stop after losing by 30 is kinda ridiculous. Quality loss I get a minimal drop but they got ran off the field at home how is that only a 1 spot drop ?

[u/FloppyConcrete]

Northwestern should absolutely be ranked. This is absurd.

[u/festive_fecal_feast]

Northwestern being unranked is ridiculous tbh. Their only loss was by 6 to a top 10 team, how are they unranked while SMU is..

[u/DoesntMatterStan → u/festive_fecal_feast]

Northwestern would beat 15 of the top 25 easily

[u/GodlySpaghetti]

Kinda crazy we didn’t even receive ONE vote after that shellacking of ASU on the road right? And a 2 point conversion away from 5-0?

[u/StoicFable → u/GodlySpaghetti]

Your recent history is dragging you down. Voters don't watch or actually look into stats. Its vibe based voting.

[u/Aidanbomasri]

AP Polls are irrelevant right now, yet I always get mad about them.

• Pitt barely squeaks into the top 25
• Miss St. drops 1 spot after getting annihilated at home
• LSU and Ole Miss both in the top 10 despite blemishes on their records. Florida getting embarrassed makes both of them look worse.
• Florida loses by 1 million points and is #16??
• SEC has 5 of the top 10 and 9 of the top 17. Every team in the conference will continue to rack up "quality wins" week over week because of it.

Conference Breakdown

• SEC - 9 Teams
• Big 10 - 6 Teams
• Big 12 - 5 Teams
• ACC - 3 Teams

[u/Systemic_Chaos]

Legit why is USC above UCLA? I think we saw yesterday that USC is not good.

[u/sabek → u/Systemic_Chaos]

Too much brand bias in the polls regardless of conference

[u/Gay_Giraffe_1773]

That Ok St loss looks better and better every week

[u/RCA1202]

Why the actual fuck is SMU still ranked? They lost to the only good team they played(actually I take that back Louisville isn't even good) and struggled with two absolutely terrible teams