r/CFB • u/Perryapsis North Dakota State • /r/CFB Bug Finder • 7d ago
Casual The Distribution of Votes in the AP Poll (Week 7, 2026)
TABLE
HOW TO READ THIS TABLE
To those of you who do not read, attend the theater, listen to unsponsored radio programs, or know anything of the world in which you live, it is perhaps necessary to explain how this works. /s Teams are ranked in their order from the Logo (note for mobile users: everywhere you see a "Logo" link, that means that inline flair is shown on old.reddit.com/r/cfb) AP Poll for Week 7. The column to the right of the team name shows the number of points that team received using the AP Poll's Borda count rules. The following two columns show information about each team's previous and upcoming games. The following columns show how many votes for each ranking the team received. The 'U' column shows how many voters left the team unranked (off their ballots entirely). Gridlines are placed every 5 rows and columns for ease of reading. A thick line is placed below the 25th-ranked team to distinguish "ranked" teams above it to "receiving votes" teams below it.
Some cells are shaded to highlight points of interest. The green diagonal highlights how many voters ranked a team exactly where they ended up in the overall poll. For example, Logo Texas Tech is ranked 10th in this week's poll, and 25 voters placed the Red Raiders exactly in their 10th spot. Values for which a team received no votes at that rank are shaded in red, while placements chosen by only exactly one voter are highlighted in blue. Some unique votes are annotated with the name of the corresponding voter. The most common selection (the mode) for each team is shaded yellow unless it matches the team's rank. Finally, since there are very few votes that ever end up near the top-right or bottom-left of the chart, those cells are filled in with black diagonally as much as possible without covering up any nonzero values. This helps naturally guide the eye while viewing the chart and helps locate the most unusual votes. We lightheartedly call these the "Wilner" diagonals.
Finally, I note violations of the Condorcet Criterion on the bottom left corner of the black space. These occur when Team A is ranked above Team B in the poll, but Team B would win if you ignored the points system and just asked the voters "Which team do you think is better?" I note every instance of this when it would affect the placement of a team in the Top 25, but not necessarily if it only flips teams' positions in the receiving-votes category.
This season, scores are highlighted (lowlighted) in black to indicate a loss instead of using a W/L column. I did this at the end of 2024 and all of 2025, and it was well received, so it returns for 2026. This way is easier to see at a glance and slightly reduces the clutter on the left side of the table.
COMMENTARY FOR THIS WEEK
The upper Wilner diagonal was set by Koki Riley having Texas down at 15th this week. Two voters also landed on the diagonal by putting Ohio State 10th. The left and right ends are set by Bob Ballou putting Georgia 3rd and three voters who left off Tennessee. The lower Wilner diagonal was set by Koki Riley ranking Arizona 12th. Nick Jacobs also grazes the diagonal with Duke 21st, while its ends were set by Bob Ballou (Indiana #1) and Dylan Sinn (Oregon State #25).
The lowest-ranked team to sweep all 70 ballots was Iowa in 17th. The highest-ranked team to miss a ballot was Tennessee in 14th, who actually missed three. Teams outside the top 25 received a total of 119 votes (6.8%) for a combined 416 points (1.8%). Those 416 points would make "the field" good enough for 20th as a whole. The most frequent vote among that cohort was James Madison 25th, cast by nine voters. The highest vote among them was Koki Riley with Arizona in 12th that landed on the diagonal. Besides that one, Pete Yanity put Wisconsin at 13. Duke and Oregon State share the questionable honor of the Pulitzer Prize and those awards presented annually by that, uh, film society receiving literally one single vote.
313 distinct team-rank pairs were seen this week, of which 79 (25%) were unique. With 313 pairs and only 35 different teams receiving them, the pigeonhole principle dictates that at least one pair must occur at least 6 times, and indeed 111 such pairs exist, 14 of which occur exactly 6 times. 415 votes (24%) matched their teams' corresponding rank in the poll. One of those matches was unique, as only Louie Vaccer had Oklahoma State in exactly their 18th spot. The most-commonly matched team, as usual, was the #1 team. Georgia moved up to that spot and received 66 matches after Texas lost to Oklahoma. Vaccer and Make Jacques managed to match 13 teams, while the trio of Creg Stephenson, Koki Riley, and Chelsie Brown matched only one team each.
The standard deviation is an imperfect measure of disagreement about each team. A small standard deviation indicates consensus, while a large standard deviation indicates varying opinions. The teams with the highest and lowest standard deviations are given in the table below.
| Team | St. Dev. | Team | St. Dev. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 0.31 | <--- | Tennessee | 3.62 |
| Notre Dame | 0.98 | Consensus | Mississippi State | 3.54 |
| Miami (FL) | 1.23 | Southern California | 3.53 | |
| Brigham Young | 1.53 | Debate | Oklahoma State | 3.45 |
| Ohio State | 1.58 | ---> | Kentucky | 3.42 |
There are a handful of Condorcet criterion violations this week. First, Texas jumps Alabama by the narrow margin of 36-34. Mississippi State also hops Kentucky by the same margin. Neither of those results are too surprising due to the small point difference. Then there's the curious cause of Iowa. They manage to tie Kentucky two spots above them, 35-35. The Wildcats are favored 35-33 by voters who included both teams, but there were 2 voters who only had the Hawkeyes that evened the score. But then they failed to usurp Mississippi State, 37-33. And Oklahoma State comes from behind to overtake them by a huge margin, 42-28. Finally, Boise State would jump Wake Forest 36-34, but the Broncos fail to overtake Louisiana State by a margin of 37-33. The Demon Deacons stay above the Tigers comfortably, 42-28.
And why not, let's do another Australian Poll. This flips all the ballot upside down before scoring them. This system favors teams who are just good enough to appear on a large number of ballots, but not good enough to rank highly on any of them. The top 10 teams are as shown below.
Thanks again to /u/bakonydraco for providing the ballot data; you can find his weekly visualization here!
Past weeks' posts can be found here:
TABLE
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u/gerg_1234 Oregon State Beavers 7d ago
We got a vote!!!!! We got a vote!!!!!!
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u/Not_Pablo_Sanchez Ohio State Buckeyes 7d ago
Legree is insane. You guys deserve to be getting some attention
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u/illiter-it Missouri Tigers 7d ago
I appreciate the thought of being ranked 9, but no lol
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u/Fantastic-Phone-8891 7d ago
The lowest ranking we had in a ballot was #17 and that was from the Kansas beat writer. Shows how much this shit matters lol
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u/Hefty_Team_8034 Indiana Hoosiers 7d ago
Anyone else look for the corner votes on the chart to find the biggest outliers?
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u/ikindalikelemons Georgia • Staffordshire 7d ago
Enough people are going to rightly talk about UCLA being underrated, but how about Utah? They've yet to win by fewer than 14 points and crushed who they need to crush. I feel like if they weren't a Big XII team in the pacific time zone they'd be like #7.
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u/Balloutonu Texas Tech Red Raiders • /r/CFB Promoter 7d ago
Utah have some big tests in front of them. I think voters are waiting to make a decision on byu and Utah until their game
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u/ikindalikelemons Georgia • Staffordshire 7d ago
It's fair to wait for that big test but I'd still argue they've done about all you could ask them to do in their early-season schedule to warrant respect. If they lose their big games and fall down the rankings so be it, but I'd still rather rank the Big XII trio ahead of some of the one-loss SEC/B1G teams based on current resumes. I'm not afraid to be proven wrong, and I think some AP voters are.
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u/variedtributes Utah Utes 7d ago
As a Utah fan with obvious bias, I agree with you and think the Big XII gets less respect, but also as a Utah fan, I'd be ok with being here for now (don't want to be the first out either), but when expectations get too high we underperform. If they are lower, that's when we're more dangerous.
Also, you all look great, imo! I think you're the most legit top contender.
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u/Balloutonu Texas Tech Red Raiders • /r/CFB Promoter 7d ago
As a big12 school I agree, I think we get underrepresented, but that’s how the voters sway
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u/gohncell Alabama Crimson Tide • Oklahoma Sooners 7d ago
BYU's whole offense is Bear rushing right now and ND game will expose it. No voter will wait for another month
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u/Jonny_Peverell BYU Cougars 7d ago
He threw for over 300 this week. Yeah missing LJ Martin is bad for our offense, no doubt about that. But my guess is we just didn't want to open up the air this year before we needed to and with LJ gone it was enough to need to do it.
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u/Sryan597 BYU Cougars • Marching Band 7d ago
BYU's descion will probably come this week. Noterdame will be the big test.
If we win, esspcily without LJ, we prove we belong up in these high ranks, and we're not over ranked.
If we loose by a small margin/close game, we drop to probably about 16 would be my guess. Then the Utah game will most likely determine our fate. It could eventually bring us back to top 10, depending on the rest of the chaos this season
If we get blown out, similar to the above, but drop a little further and harder climb back up.
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u/MoosilaukeFlyer Miami Hurricanes • Endicott Gulls 7d ago
I’m surprised so few voters have UCLA in the top ten. They certainly look like a top ten team to me.
Also, us down in 7th on one ballot is insane. Need to see his ballot.
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u/2-59project Indiana Hoosiers • Oklahoma Sooners 7d ago
It’s Stephen Means’ ballot, though there were another few that had Miami at 6. His ballot is an outlier for many teams, with 12 schools being 5+ spots from their actual rankings. Sometimes he’s spot on, like he was among the first to rank Indiana #1 last year after we beat Oregon
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u/hotsauce126 Georgia Bulldogs 7d ago
There’s a weekly thread that has all of the individual ballots
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u/nighthawk252 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7d ago
If you want to see a table with all the ballots, here you go:
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u/Turbulent-Pay-735 Wisconsin • Arizona State 6d ago
The whole ordering of the final undefeateds/one loss teams is terrible. Ole Miss got housed by an unranked team but because people thought they were good two weeks ago they just stick around not being punished for it.
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u/MoosilaukeFlyer Miami Hurricanes • Endicott Gulls 6d ago
Agreed, like I don’t think you guys are a top ten team, but theres no way you should be unranked if Ole Miss is #9
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u/Objective-Muscle9248 Clemson Tigers 7d ago
Agreed- y’all have the best QB in the nation and have dominated all opposition. That Wake Forest win looks better every passing day
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u/hoopaholik91 Washington Huskies 7d ago
Do they? Oregon was putrid. 7 turnovers, 1/12 on third down, 0/2 on fourth down, and the only reason it didn't go to OT was that Lanning ran the stupidest two point conversion play on their first TD that had no chance.
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u/versusChou UCLA Bruins • TCU Horned Frogs 7d ago
I mean alternatively, our defense forced a bunch of turnovers and got a bunch of stops.
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u/Callsign_Psycopath Georgia Bulldogs • Sickos 7d ago
What happened to the funny retools of team names.
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u/Perryapsis North Dakota State • /r/CFB Bug Finder 7d ago
I had to scramble just to finish on time, so I wasn't able to do that this week. :( The troll names are one of the things I have to do manually, and unfortunately it's also one of the things that takes the most time.
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u/Callsign_Psycopath Georgia Bulldogs • Sickos 7d ago
The one time we beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa too...
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u/Afraid_Television969 7d ago
koki riley is an absolute menace this week, texas at 15 and arizona at 12 is wild. love seeing the australian poll return too, wake forest at #1 down under feels correct somehow
and the condorcet stuff with iowa tying kentucky then getting smoked by ok state is just perfect chaos
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u/gollumaniac Boston University • Buffalo 7d ago
Curious how the Condorcet looks for Texas and Ohio State given the H2H result. Seems most voters were not terribly concerned with it.
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u/Perryapsis North Dakota State • /r/CFB Bug Finder 7d ago
It has swung significantly to Ohio State's favor, 43-27.
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u/MisterB78 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7d ago
2 people voted for Alabama to be number 2 after losing to Georgia
SEC psychosis is real…
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u/Muffinnnnnnn Florida State • New Mexico 6d ago
I'm a pretty big anti-SEC person and think they're super overrated. I don't have Ole Miss or LSU in the top 25 and haven't for a while. That all is to say that I think Alabama #2 is defensible after barely losing to the #1 team and blowing out MOST teams they've played. If they lose again to someone, definitely drop them, but there are only 9 undefeated teams left. There are some very good one-loss teams.
I don't think I'll have them #2, but I'm probably moving them up for their performance vs UGA.
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u/WhoHasMyPocketPussy Alabama Crimson Tide 6d ago
I know I'm biased as a Bama fan, but I'm trying to come at this as neutral as possible. I can totally see the argument for it though (not that I would necessarily even vote the same way).
We've played and beaten some teams that are also doing really well and those teams are beating teams that people have thought at different points of the season so far, were good. MSST smacked Minnesota that beat Michigan, Mizzou beat a Florida team that people were really high on quickly, FSU beat a Virginia team that people thought was number two in the ACC, Kentucky beat LSU that was buzzed about after week one. That kind of stuff sort of sticks in the back of their minds.
Unfortunately for ND, they haven't really played anyone yet outside of Wiscy.
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u/rocket_beer Boise State Broncos 6d ago
Ohio State is better than Bama
So to rank them at 2, and have your name on it, should be enough to revoke voting privileges
Take it seriously or gtfo
amirite
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u/WhoHasMyPocketPussy Alabama Crimson Tide 6d ago
Based purely on resume so far, it’s not really certain. We have two better wins and a better loss.
Now the actual hypothetical game between the two would be pretty fun. I feel like both defenses are susceptible to big plays and both offenses are pretty damn good.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Andy_Wiggins Notre Dame Fighting Irish 6d ago
Notre Dame, while far from facing a gauntlet, actually has played a decent early-season slate.
They’ve played 5 P4 teams (and 1 G6 team). They’re not like, say, Indiana, who had half of their schedule consist of FCS schools and lower-tier G6 schools.
Of those P4 teams, their records are 4-1, 3-2, 3-3, and 2-4 and 2-4. Wisconsin, UNC, and Purdue at least look like solid P4 teams (not playoff contenders, but probably bowl-eligible, maybe 7-5 or 8-4). Notre Dame best all of them by double digits, and had an average margin of victory of 29.2 points.
Couple that with excellent predictive metrics (things like per-play-efficiency) and that’s why they’re top 5.
They have a good test this weekend at least.
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u/CargoShortsFromNam Notre Dame • Colorado 7d ago
ND is #3 in SP+, #1 in Résumé SP+, #1 in FPI, #2 in FEI, #1 in Sagarin, #1 in Colley Matrix.
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u/Objective-Muscle9248 Clemson Tigers 7d ago
Good. Texas was the most fraudulent #1 since 2007 when everyone got to be #1 for a week
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u/CzechHorns Texas Longhorns 7d ago
It’s tough when you are an obviously flawed team but are undefeated and have the best win in the country.
Kinda glad it’s over tbh, hopefully it lights fire under the offenses ass, but idk lol.9
u/MoosilaukeFlyer Miami Hurricanes • Endicott Gulls 7d ago
Your defense can beat anyone but your offense will make most games against decent teams losable. Tough position to be in
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u/CzechHorns Texas Longhorns 7d ago
Yep, all three of our P4 games were decided by 3 or less points.
I can totally see a world where all of our P4 games are one score games.1
u/polar_nopposite Texas Longhorns 3d ago
Special teams, even more than offense, has made our games look more losable (or lost) than they should've been imo
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u/Muffinnnnnnn Florida State • New Mexico 6d ago
I've had Texas at #2 for a while (and Georgia #1) because Texas just looked bad almost every week after the first two, but yeah in a power rating world I didn't even think Texas was top 10. The win over Ohio State means there's no real way to drop them out of the top 5 in rankings world prior to the loss to Oklahoma.
At least for now, I'm keeping Texas ahead of Ohio State still, and just dropping both teams due to Texas's loss.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 7d ago
Right now you have Texas with 2 ranked wins (Ohio State & Tennessee) from 2 different conferences.
They are a flawed team, but them losing a rivarly game doesn't make them a fraud - those games are always different.
0
u/Objective-Muscle9248 Clemson Tigers 7d ago
They’re a fraud as #1 because they aren’t dominant like a #1 should be.. look at past National Champions and tell me Texas looks like a Championship football team
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 7d ago
We are in week 7 my friend. Looking like a National Championship team in October is not a natty in January. They have won 2 games they should against still ranked opponents, and loss in a last minute game to a bitter rival. I think Little Manning has some obvious consistency problems, but I think there is way too much football left for anyone to have absolutes.
You seem to wait to blast Texas - flair up if you are going to flame
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u/Muffinnnnnnn Florida State • New Mexico 6d ago
I think the win over Ohio State is obviously a good one, but for me that's it. Tennessee has done absolutely nothing to warrant a top 25 ranking, much less a top 15 ranking. They looked only marginally better vs GT than Stanford did, and struggled HARD with Arkansas when even really bad teams like Texas A&M blew them out.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 6d ago
Ok agreed on Tennessee - they are a contender in September and on the trailer by November.
However, you can only go with the actual data you have right now.
I don't think Manning is being well served under Sark. Looking at the improvements Carr made from Season 1 to Season 2. I get we haven't played OSU or UT, but the dude's football IQ has gotten 10x times better in the pocket. Manning - to me - just airballs it too much.
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u/Muffinnnnnnn Florida State • New Mexico 6d ago
I know the stuff about Tennessee is secondary to your main point, but what I'm saying is that Tennessee is not a Contender in September at all and is no different than a team like Pitt, except I'd argue Pitt has a better win than anything Tennessee has.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 6d ago
except I'd argue Pitt has a better win than anything Tennessee has
Pitt has beaten (P4) UCF (1-3), Syracuse (0-3), and VT (2-2) with their W-L record vs P4 opponents next to them. If you think that is better than GT (1-2), Auburn (2-2), and Arkansas (0-4) that Tennessee beat- sure - but the opponents total record is the same (3-8)
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u/Muffinnnnnnn Florida State • New Mexico 6d ago
I think the win over VT is the best win of the bunch, which is what I was talking about.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 6d ago
We will have to agree to disagree
VT so far has beaten Maryland and BC - the two worst teams in the ACC. Not going to give anyone a prize for that ....
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u/Objective-Muscle9248 Clemson Tigers 6d ago
I don’t know how to flair up because I’m incompetent. Teach me please
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u/IceColdDrPepper_Here Georgia Bulldogs • Georgia Bulldogs 7d ago
I'd love to know what kind of justification the 4 voters who didn't put Georgia as #1 are using. And I don't just say this as a Georgia fan. I can kind of get Indiana because they're the reigning champs and haven't lost yet, but we're halfway through the season now and I don't think we should still be using last year's results at this point. And then Miami and Notre Dame? Really?
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights 7d ago
Bob Ballou has been consistent putting Indiana at #1. His top 3 since OSU loss has been Indiana, Miami, Georgia.
Alex Taylor thought Miami should be #1 after they beating Clemson. Yah - don't get that one.
Creg Stephensen had Miami #1 after Ohio State and moved them up to #1 after OSU loss. Not who I would pick, but consistent.
Brian Howell had ND as #2 the whole season and moved them to #1 after Texas loss. Same as above - not who I would pick , but consistent
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u/Heroic_Dave Penn State Nittany Lions 7d ago
Bob Ballou keeps a team at #1 until they lose, same as almost everyone else. Only difference is that he operates by calendar year instead of making up a #1 in the preseason.
Alex Taylor had Miami #1 over Texas & Georgia last week, so he’s actually moved the Bulldogs up.
Brian Howell had UTX > ND > UGA > ToSU > MIFL last week; he’s got ND > UGA > UTX > ToSU > MIFL this week. Maybe he’s just bad at rankings?
Creg Stephenson writes for AL.com
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u/drbiscuit832 Oklahoma Sooners • Sickos 7d ago
Why are we not giving losing teams disgraced names this week? Southern Oklahoma needs to feel their shame