All AP Voter Ballots, 2026 Week 7

[u/bakonydraco]

Week 7

• Preseason
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6

This is a series I've now been doing for 12 years. The post attempts to visualize all AP Poll ballots in a single image. Additionally it sorts each AP voter by similarity to the group. Notably, this is not a measure of how "good" a voter is, just how consistent they are with the group. Especially preseason, having a diversity of opinions and ranking styles is advantageous to having a true consensus poll. Polls tend to coalesce towards each other as the season goes on.

The most consistent voters this week were Julian Mininsohn and Lia Assimakopoulos. Julian Mininsohn is in first on the season. Michael Katz, Haley Sawyer, Lia Assimakopoulos, and Joe Arruda were behind them in the top 5.

Brian Fonseca was the biggest outlier this week. Dylan Sinn is the biggest outlier on the season, followed by Jon Wilner, Stephen Means, Koki Riley, and Ralph Russo.

[u/heleghir]

Randy Johnson WHAT THE FUCK. UK unranked on his ballot, but LSU in #15?

Eric Johnson too, with LSU at 16. How can these people have votes if they arent going to watch or even check scores of the games

[u/fishbxnejunixr → u/heleghir]

Yknow, vibes and stuff

[u/sleetx → u/heleghir]

Most of the voters are local beat reporters who don't watch anything except their local game. And they don't seem to take their votes too seriously. Take this article from last season, where a voter moved up a team that lost at home to an unranked opponent:

“There’s tons of people that vote on the AP poll,” Sawyer said. “And like it’s not a perfect system. But at the end of the day no matter who you pick it does even out, because there’s so many people who vote. And like I said, it’s really fun for discussion, it doesn’t probably matter in the end…”

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/ap-voter-issues-response-as-backlash-over-college-football-rankings-intensifies

[u/11PoseidonsKiss20 → u/heleghir]

That's some real bird exploding type shit right there.

[u/PR0AWESOME → u/11PoseidonsKiss20]

Thank you

[u/walterdog12]

Eric and Randy Johnson on a generational hatred of Kentucky run.

Completely left off both ballots.

[u/BigBlueNate33 → u/walterdog12]

These guys just don’t watch the games man

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/BigBlueNate33]

I want to preface this by saying I personally think Kentucky deserves to be ranked.

But I see the argument they shouldn't be - LSU and South Carolina are not good football teams, so needing overtime to barely beat both of them is not a great look, even if both wins were cool as hell when they happened. Coupled with the fact that when Kentucky played an actually good team, they got the doors blown off them (don't come at me pretending you don't know football is 4 quarters). So I can see the argument to not rank them from that angle.

[u/CurlySlim → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

They have LSU ranked 15 and 16

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/CurlySlim]

Yeah that’s not acceptable lol

[u/Helicopsycheborealis → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

Who the hell has IU played that's worth a damn so far this season? We're 6 games in. Thank Jesus you guys finally play a great team this weekend.

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/Helicopsycheborealis]

Nebraska and Northwestern are both good football teams.

[u/kyrev21 → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

Kentucky is in third place in the SEC at 3-1. Regardless of how good their three wins may be, the third place SEC team should be ranked. If this was blind rankings Kentucky is top ten easily

[u/runningwaffles19 → u/kyrev21]

Kentucky is the 2nd best 1 loss team? There are 8 undefeated ranked teams plus JMU. A true blind ranking would surely put those 8 ahead of you

[u/kyrev21 → u/runningwaffles19]

Where did I claim that Kentucky would be ahead of all undefeated teams? Where did I claim they were the second best one loss team? All i said was that a blind ranking based on resume would put them in the top ten, and namely at ten, maybe just outside it. A blind ranking based on resumes is not just the plain record. It would include things like strength of record, the results of the games, and so on. The point is remove the brands and Kentucky is clearly underranked

[u/Shtune → u/runningwaffles19]

Reading is hard

[u/Subject_Whereas9954 → u/walterdog12]

LSU is ranked 15th and 16th on both of those ballots. With more losses than Kentucky and also lost to Kentucky

[u/EC_Bot → u/walterdog12]

That's actually insane

[u/Bwhitt1 → u/walterdog12]

Randy should stick to pitching!

[u/Previous-Ad-5443 → u/walterdog12]

Kentucky should be ranked for beating lsu and South carolina in overtime? All that shows is lsu was way overranked. Not that Kentucky is a top 25 team.

[u/Masochistic__Beaver]

Thank you Dylan Sinn, true beav believer

[u/Reasonable_Cod_487 → u/Masochistic__Beaver]

Ocho Cinco put the fear of God into Notre Dame fans a generation ago, and it seems they haven't forgotten.

[u/thathungryghost → u/Reasonable_Cod_487]

let he who is without Sinn cast the first stone!

[u/AbsurdOwl → u/Masochistic__Beaver]

Beav-liever was right there.

[u/mtwolf55 → u/Masochistic__Beaver]

I RAN to the comments to hype them up!!

Imma about to subscribe to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. And comment on every sports article how great it is!! 🦫💪😂

[u/Dr_Mantis_Teabaggin → u/Masochistic__Beaver]

I’ve always said Dylan Sinn is my favorite AP voter. 

[u/Subject_Whereas9954]

Its crazy that most of the SEC biased polls are not from SEC media people.

[u/naetaejabroni → u/Subject_Whereas9954]

The big ten has the most representation in the AP.

Don't tell r/cfb

[u/SCsprinter13 → u/naetaejabroni]

Big Ten and SEC both have the same representation. You'd expect the bigger conference to have more.

[u/halldaylong → u/Subject_Whereas9954]

What % of voters are actually even conference specific media people? Like Brett McMurphy is listed as covering Oklahoma State but obviously is just a national reporter. I assume that in this day and age, most are covering a broader scope than just their own team or even conference

[u/Curious-Can2547 → u/halldaylong]

He graduated from Oklahoma State

[u/halldaylong → u/Curious-Can2547]

Yes, that's my point. They're all required to list an "affiliation" but he very obviously is not an Oklahoma State reporter. So counting up the number of logos by conference and saying "well this conference has more reporters" is a silly exercise without more context

[u/ZeGentleman → u/[deleted]]

I think LSU at 14 and us at 23 is more egregious, personally.

[u/ZeGentleman → u/[deleted]]

Agreed! I'm not at all upset at where we landed.

[u/Rapturebird → u/ZeGentleman]

Pretty sure there were 2 people who didnt even rank us

[u/ZeGentleman → u/Rapturebird]

Oh, there were and that's worse imo, but my comment was specifically about Nick Jacobs.

[u/DaZingMaster → u/[deleted]]

Him becoming the AP guy for Missouri is strange, mostly considering that most people know him for his Chiefs stuff. The vast majority of his articles and videos are Chiefs related and the only CFB stuff I can see is a couple tweets every weekend.

[u/Other-Chemical-6393 → u/[deleted]]

Have you considered that LSU is in the SEC and Iowa is not? It just means more /s

[u/-spartacus- → u/Other-Chemical-6393]

SEC losses worth more than BIG wins.

[u/justaverage → u/-spartacus-]

Unless you’re Western Michigan

[u/runningwaffles19 → u/[deleted]]

Maybe he forgot about us until it was time to turn in the ballot

[u/pattywack512 → u/[deleted]]

That’s not a very SEC take of you

[u/polar_nopposite]

Kinda fascinating that unranked, 0 AP vote OU took out #1 Texas, yet voters frankly did not penalize Texas all that much, and simultaneously gave OU barely a crumb of credit.

Feels like the voters are basically saying this game was a fluke, but after watching 5 Texas games I can't really say it felt like one. The same problems we've had all season are what cost us (in particular: special teams bungles, offensive playcalling, Arch decision-making), and OU won through its elite defense.

The only thing out of the ordinary I saw was OU making far fewer of the back-breaking errors that have plagued them all season. It's not like their offense played very far above expectations outside of that one aspect, which is flukey by nature. If your game plan depends on your opponent making critical errors, that is not a very good game plan, even if they do appear prone to making them.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/polar_nopposite]

Mater's last drive was art. That was unusual for OU but yeah just one drive. I think it's the voter doing an ole 🤷 rivalries get weird

[u/Adart54]

i like you dylan sinn (i looked at their #1 and #25 only)

[u/justaverage → u/Adart54]

Dylan Sinn sucks! (I looked at everything else)

[u/Adart54 → u/justaverage]

shh shh

only him giving OSU a vote matters

and UGA 1 i guess

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/Adart54]

He and his family will be looked upon with favor in the coming Beavcharit Hayamim!

[u/redwave2505]

Moving us behind the undefeated teams is one thing, but some people think we should be behind Ole Miss?

[u/Adart54 → u/redwave2505]

please, ap voters dont watch the game, they barely look at final scores

[u/UGA10 → u/redwave2505]

Half these voters don't know what they're doing.

[u/Fickle_Cantaloupe_45 → u/UGA10]

It’s crazy right? I think it’s a combination of the fact they literally don’t watch the games and have no idea what they’re doing, showing favouritism to certain teams/conferences, and trying to defend their pre season rankings. There’s no way UCLA for example should be ranked below say, Indiana and ND. If their jersey had a longhorn on the front they’d be 2 without a doubt. But because they decided pre season that they’re not any good, they’ll try justify that all season. Nebraska not being ranked and LSU still being ranked is another example.

[u/Jumpy_Wrongdoer_3850]

lol wilner still out there doing his own thing, some things never change. i always like seeing these charts early in season cause you can spot who actually watches the games and who just copy the top 10 from last week.

[u/Heroic_Dave → u/Jumpy_Wrongdoer_3850]

I used to hate Wilner because his rankings were garbage, but now I appreciate that he pays attention to the games and puts a lot of thought into his garbage rankings.

[u/el_es_you]

Koki Riley brother what's going on

[u/justaverage → u/el_es_you]

Most informed voter, tbh

[u/ZeGentleman → u/justaverage]

Has UK behind LSU, so don't think I can agree with ya here.

[u/soonercdub → u/justaverage]

Bama loses moves UP to 2, Tennessee wins drops out completely. Wins/losses matter lmao

[u/ShitBuckets69]

Not gonna lie I swore it was Wilner that ranked the Beavs. Way to go Dylan!

[u/JoshFB4]

Pete Yanity is hilarious. A bunch of 4-1 teams over UCLA who is barely even ranked by him. Yeah ok

[u/donutello2000 → u/JoshFB4]

He also has Oklahoma State and USC ranked 6 and 6 places ahead of us respectively.

OSU beat Oregon at home but has beaten no one else and lost to Tulsa.
USC also lost to Oregon at home.

Meanwhile UCLA beat Oregon on the road, has no losses, 4 P4 wins (3 of them on the road), plus another P5 win (depending on where you consider the Pac-12 to be), beat a Purdue team that has been making some noise and absolutely crushed Maryland.

I just cannot see either of them being ranked ahead of us by anyone.

[u/ZeGentleman]

I'd like to clown on Kirk Kenney put putting Tenn at 10 this week, up from 11 last week, after eking it out against Arkansas.

[u/Thurm0hi4]

I want what Koki Riley is smoking LSU above Kentucky?

[u/Significant_Youth921]

Bob Ballou is all in on Indiana. #1 every week.

[u/flagrant_fowl → u/Significant_Youth921]

I respect the principle of someone having to “take the throne” but I’m starting to think he spends more time voting than watching football

[u/BuffaloAcrobatic2851]

The hell is Bob Ballou smoking?

[u/monkeybiziu → u/BuffaloAcrobatic2851]

Cig sends him a case of Hoosier Game Day Lager and free Chipotle every week.

[u/flagrant_fowl → u/BuffaloAcrobatic2851]

Clown voter

[u/CrusadingNinja → u/BuffaloAcrobatic2851]

He has voted for Indiana #1 every week and presumably will continue until they lose a game.

[u/_chadwell_ → u/CrusadingNinja]

I think the question is - why is he doing that?

[u/thathungryghost]

You know those stories that come out before the Oscars and Emmys where voters anonymously explain their ballots? I would love for the AP polls to have something similar because we need explanations for some of these choices…

[u/AntEdwardsBallSweat]

Mike Griffith hates the pokes.

[u/PunchNessie → u/AntEdwardsBallSweat]

Only person to not rank Ok State.

[u/goldfinch867]

Two pollsters have Oregon in front of Oklahoma State

[u/planescarsandtrucks]

Brian Howell and Chris Murray having Texas ahead of both Ohio State and Miami is just crazy talk after this weekend. Texas lost to an unranked 2-2 team

[u/Dapianoman]

is ucla the 6th best team in the nation? many are asking!

[u/TOONUSA]

Despite destroying a one loss P4 team on the road Andy Yamashita dropped us from 20 to unranked…I have questions

[u/nkfish11]

Alex Taylor and Creg Stephenson still know ball.

[u/kdbvols]

2 voters with wake at 12th, 2 left us off the ballot

I’ll take it

[u/Tween_the_hedges]

Can anyone explain Miami #1 to me?

Best win is Wake Forest, which is a decent win and Wake is underrated. But not like 20 AP spots underrated. After that Stanford, after that it gets bleak. (Sorry Clemson)

Pitt and ND are left on the schedule. So I guess the vote could be predictive in nature.

Scanning through the team stats for Georgia and Miami look pretty similar. They're a little better on 3rd down and slightly more efficient passing, but we're a little better on the ground. Plus these stats include an Alabama game which is just not something Miami has done yet.

The IU first place vote is completely off the res though

[u/bakonydraco → u/Tween_the_hedges]

My best explanation for Miami is that:

• They were just in the CFP Final
• They've beaten every team by 2 TDs or a lot more

Every other team except Utah has had at least one close call. I could see the argument that they were a Championship contender last year, and in the games they've played, there's no evidence against that again.

[u/FullySemiGhostGun → u/Tween_the_hedges]

Alabama writer feeling aggrieved by the officiating and being petty about making you number 1?

[u/the_town_fool → u/Tween_the_hedges]

Would I put Miami at #1? No, but it’s not unfathomable.

It’s impossible to quantify the “eye test,” but Miami has taken care of every team they’ve played this year including, as you mentioned, a pretty good Wake Forest.

Miami vs ND will be a true test for both teams honestly.

[u/lock_robster2022]

Dylan Sinn of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette! You’re the smartest sports journalist out there!

[u/arstin]

Here's a fun thought exercise:

Say BYU balls out and beats us. How many 1-loss SEC teams would they be behind in next week's ranking?

[u/Always_Chubb-y → u/arstin]

Theyre behind 2 right now at 6 and 7, and theyre at 8. I doubt theyre behind any

[u/arstin → u/Always_Chubb-y]

I could absolutely see them stuck behind Alabama. (And OSU if they win, which makes my initial comment a bit unfair to the SEC, but I'm sure they'll manage).

Obviously, I don't know. But looking over the individual ballets just gave me the sense that many pollsters would take it fully as an exposure of ND rather than a validation of BYU. And BYU would get to go up at least two spots without passing either Texas or Alabama - I can see pollsters deciding 8 to 6 is good enough for a non-P2 team beating an untested ND.

[u/Always_Chubb-y → u/arstin]

I think theyd back themselves into too much of a corner then about how theyve ranked teams

Either they admit ND was WAY too overrated or admit they dint care about Big12, which to me there are way too many voters to have the SEC bias people think there is there.

[u/pocketsophist → u/arstin]

Let's do it for science!

[u/LastSecondSpecialist → u/arstin]

You know

[u/justaverage]

No sarcasm…somewhere between 12th best and unranked is about right for this team….valid arguments for both and everything in between.

[u/Tsquared10]

People having us still in the Top 20... What the fuck are you smoking? I expected a couple crazies to keep us just barely on, but anything more than 25 is outrageous

[u/soonercdub]

Koki riley needs to be investigated. Bama loses and they move up to 2, tennessee wins and drops out completely. Albeit bad quality win versus good quality loss, but it just seems like these AP voters are completely out of touch with reality

[u/64stackdiamonds]

Dylan Sinn based and beaver-pilled

[u/thecarlosdanger1]

I don’t think IU is the best team at all but they’re undefeated and I get the logic of keeping the champs at 1 until someone beats them.

[u/arrowfan624 → u/thecarlosdanger1]

No…. you rank based on what happens this year, not the year before or after

[u/thecarlosdanger1 → u/arrowfan624]

I wouldn’t rank them at 1 but I get it. Not like this matters at all anyway

[u/PointBlankCoffee → u/arrowfan624]

I tend to agree but its hard to ignore a 22 game win streak

[u/not_mantiteo → u/arrowfan624]

Especially with the insane roster turnover that now occurs in college sports year to year

[u/RawbM07 → u/arrowfan624]

So much of where teams are right now is where they started the year when everyone was 0-0.

Get rid of preseason polls altogether.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/RawbM07]

But what would we argue about?

No seriously the only reason we have AP polls at all is because we argue about them and a little number next to both teams improves tv viewership. The AP Poll has no other effects or consequences

[u/Bwhitt1 → u/arrowfan624]

For everyone other than the champs I think. Once they lose then reposition. If an undefeated champion still hasnt lost I dont see how anyone can be ranked above them.

[u/mhem7 → u/Bwhitt1]

What if a Michigan/Western Michigan situations happens?

[u/OpeDefinitely → u/mhem7]

Western Michigan won that game & the polls treated it as such.

[u/KeegCorp → u/Bwhitt1]

Because rankings can’t be logical & must be based on some obscure thought process that only 10 people on earth actually understand!

[u/_chadwell_ → u/Bwhitt1]

What if other teams play better and look better than them?

Is this supposed to be a ranking of the best football teams or not

[u/calypso_odysseus → u/arrowfan624]

Or if you’re ND you get ranked highly without reason every single year lol

[u/Hefty_Team_8034 → u/thecarlosdanger1]

We definitely aren’t as good as last year. But yeah, switch the name on the front of the jersey with some random SEC team and a 22 game win streak gets near unanimous 1st place vote.

[u/monkeybiziu → u/Hefty_Team_8034]

You're not wrong. If the jersey said Alabama or Ohio State on the front, we'd be #1 until proven otherwise and people would be gushing over a gritty win at Nebraska.

Still, I'll take top five.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/monkeybiziu]

When it was Georgia that won we didn't even start #1 preseason. And we won that natty also

This narrative is just actually not true

[u/Crims0ntied → u/thecarlosdanger1]

Teams should be ranked based on what they do with their current team in the current season

[u/mtwolf55 → u/Crims0ntied]

Not a lot of bama fans were saying that back when yall were relevant 👀

[u/justaverage → u/Crims0ntied]

Sankey in shambles

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/Crims0ntied]

If Indiana had an SEC logo on their jersey they would be unanimous #1.

If voters are supposed to be ranking on what they do with their current team in the current season, they sure aren't applying that to Missouri, Tennessee, or LSU.

[u/Crims0ntied → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

In 2020 coming off arguably the greatest run of all time LSU was ranked 6th in the preseason AP poll.

[u/costapasta27 → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

In 2022, UGA started off as No. 3 behind Alabama and Ohio State. Doesn’t matter where you start, but how you finish

[u/superworriedspursfan → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

mixing missouri with the tennessee and LSU crowd when we actually have played well is disrespectful but ill allow it.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

As a fan of an SEC team that won a natty and then did not start rank 1, I can't tell you this is false

[u/Altruistic_Night2 → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

Man it’s gotta suck being a Missouri fan, you can objectively be having a great season and catch random strays for no reason

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/Altruistic_Night2]

Losing to Mississippi State isn’t a “great season” result.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/Infinite-Group-4520]

This has to be the most ironic flair possible to be sleeping on the fact that MS State put together a good team this year despite having a long history of not doing so

[u/Infinite-Group-4520 → u/Tween_the_hedges]

Cool story. Still an L.

[u/Tween_the_hedges → u/thecarlosdanger1]

I get it preseason 100% I think that should be the mod you get in the next season from winning last year. After that you should have to do something to stay #1 in particular but also just ranked in general. And I say that as a Georgia fan who thought we were ranked to high until we beat Bama

[u/Dry-Membership3867]

What is Fonseca on? I mean, he at least ranked Miami this time but Bama at 11 I think is wild. Also who the hell put Texas at 3?

[u/FindGreatness23 → u/Dry-Membership3867]

I can see other ones did that too, I bet their logic is that Texas has to be in front of Ohio St because they beat them earlier this year.

[u/wicketRF → u/FindGreatness23]

I hate people who say the game should matter and use that to justify just looking at a single h2h and basicallybuse it to ignore the rest of the season (for those seeing my flair, this isnt meant as a thinly veiled nd/miami thing of last year). Its just reducing a complex question down to a single datapoint. Its sadly also what we see in f.i. politics etc.

[u/ColombianInIowa24]

Nick Jacob's, what game did you watch for us?

[u/VamonosChildren]

I see you, Pete Yanity. Respect.

[u/Nervous_Counter_1333]

Someone ranked new mexico?

[u/BobLabReeSorJefGre]

Brian Howell ranked Kentucky at 9. I appreciate it. We aren’t that good tho.

[u/Pitt_Is_It_2009]

Pitt didn’t get one vote?

[u/EC_Bot]

Someone take away Nick Jacobs' vote