Notes, facts and musings on the Week 2 Associated Press poll, released at noon on Tuesday, and its 60 voters…
•Biggest leap: Ohio State, from 18th to 14th, after beating Miami of Ohio. Biggest drop: Michigan, from 8th to 19th after being rolled by No. 2 Alabama. Cynical lesson: don’t play meaningful OOC games.
•Dropped: Boise State after a four-quarter battle at Michigan State. Entered: Notre Dame, at No. 22, after a convincing 50-10 victory in Dublin against Navy. Lesson: If you’re going to fly east for a game, fly really, really far.
•The SEC has five teams in the top nine.
•Biggest disparity in votes among teams currently in the Top 10: Florida State, which two voters put at No. 3 and another voter, Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman, voted No. 23.
•Four voters put Alabama as far down as No. 3: Brandon Marcello of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Glenn Guilbeau of Gannett, based in Baton Rouge, and Robert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station Eagle had it LSU, USC, Bama, while Ira Schoffel of the Tallahassee Democrat had it USC, Oregon and the Tide. Schoffel has LSU at No. 7.
•Bob Asmussen of the Champaign News-Gazette, who drew lots of attention when he put Michigan atop his preseason ballot, dropped the Wolverines to No. 13.
•Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, who always compiles a provocative ballot, has Michigan 10th, Kansas State 11th and Louisville 12th, the highest that anyone voted any of those three teams. Wilner has Oklahoma at 17th and did not even include Oklahoma State, which pulverized FCS school Savannah State 84-0, on his ballot. One may deduce that Wilner 1) actually watched these games 2) has empathy for teams that play tough OOC games and conversely 3) no love for those who play bodybag games.
•Ray Ratto of Comcast Sports Bay Area, who on Tuesday morning tweeted, “Nobody who lives outside San Marcos, TX, will have any idea why I am allowed to vote”, may have had the most extreme (highest or lowest a team appears) votes of anyone. Ratto’s highests include Florida State (3), Michigan State (5), Nebraska (10), Notre Dame (15) and Texas State (!) (15) (Go Bobcats!). Ratto placed West Virginia at 24th, but then the Mountaineers did allow 545 yards and 34 points at home to Marshall. Ratto also left the Wolverines off his ballot.
•Nineteen voters, nearly one-third of the electorate, left preseason unranked Notre Dame off their ballots after a 50-10 win against Navy on a neutral field. Twenty-four voters, or 40 percent, left Stanford off their ballots after the previously ranked Cardinal only beat San Jose State at home by a field goal.
•Boise State led the team that is currently 11th in the AP poll, Michigan State, 13-10, entering the fourth quarter in East Lansing. They lost, 17-13. And yet 36 voters, or 60 percent, did not place the Broncos on their ballots. Again, why play meaningful OOC games, especially away from home, when AP voters are going to smote you for doing so?
•On a hopeful note, only seven voters put North Carolina on their ballots after the Tar Heels’ 62-0 bunny smackdown of Elon.
