While fans across the country were on edge watching upset after upset unfold Saturday, Houston Chronicle sports columnist Kirk Bohls and other members of The Associated Press college football poll voting panel were thinking ahead to how they would sort out and arrange the teams they would put on their ballots Sunday.
“In my 46 years of voting in the poll, this was probably the most difficult by far,” Bohls, the longest-tenured voter, wrote in an email. “It was so hard to determine how much to ‘penalize’ the Top 25 teams that lost, especially to unranked teams, but also tough to figure out how much to ‘reward’ those teams who pulled off the upset.”
In the aftermath of six Top 25 teams losing to unranked teams over the weekend, Texas was the overwhelming choice to return to No. 1 after a week’s absence.
The biggest questions for voters: how far to drop Alabama, last week’s top-ranked team, for losing to three-touchdown-underdog Vanderbilt, and should the Crimson Tide still be ahead of a Georgia team they beat a week earlier?
Alabama landed at No. 7, the biggest demotion in 14 years for a team voted off the top perch, and Georgia remained No. 5.
Voters had Alabama as high as No. 3 and as low as No. 13 and Georgia anywhere from Nos. 3 to 10.
Georgia was ahead of Alabama on 39 ballots. On the 22 where Alabama was ranked ahead of the Bulldogs, all had the Crimson Tide only one spot higher.
“It’s usually pretty simple for me: the team that wins the head-to-head matchup will be higher ranked as long as their overall records are similar,” said Bob Asmussen of the Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) News-Gazette, who had Alabama sixth and Georgia seventh. “Yes, Georgia beat Clemson, but it also barely beat Kentucky. Alabama has not had a close call besides its loss to Vanderbilt.”
Emily Leiker of Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard in New York said she made about five revisions to her ballot as she watched Miami’s comeback against California in the wee hours Sunday. This was after she had spent the day watching games on the plane while traveling home from Syracuse’s overtime win at then-No. 25 UNLV on Friday.
“So I let myself sleep on what I’d put together and then made a handful of smaller adjustments, mostly in the midsection, this morning,” she said. “Certainly the craziest week I’ve had to rank, though I’ve only been doing this for a little over a year.”
She ended up ranking Georgia ahead of Alabama. “Halfway through the season, a lot more comes into play than just the weekly head-to-head results,” she said.
Bohls showed Vanderbilt and Arkansas some love, and he wasn’t alone. The Commodores appeared on eight ballots and the Razorbacks on six. Neither cracked the Top 25.
“My ballots always remain fluid and not wedded to the previous poll,” Bohls said. “Consequently, I do not mind making drastic changes from week to week. But weeks like this, I don’t relish sorting out the winners and losers.”
Checking in on five of the Top 25:
No. 1 Texas
It’s Red River Rivalry week, and the Longhorns and No. 18 Oklahoma are coming off open dates. The Longhorns are entering the teeth of their schedule. After the Sooners in Dallas, they host Georgia and travel to giant-slayer Vanderbilt. Quinn Ewers is back from an abdominal injury and took snaps with the No. 1 offense at practice last week.
No. 4 Penn State
The Nittany Lions will play their first regular-season game on the West Coast since 1991 when they face Southern California in their Big Ten road opener. These two teams played a classic the last time they met, the 52-49 USC win on a field goal as time ran out in the 2017 Rose Bowl. Penn State was without leading rusher Nick Singleton because of injury against UCLA.
No. 9 Mississippi
Jaxson Dart had his worst game of the season in a 27-3 win at South Carolina. Of course, it was fun watching Lane Kiffin harken William “Refrigerator” Perry by having 325-pound nose tackle JJ Pegues run for a couple 1-yard touchdowns. But the Rebels’ schedule ratchets up now, and they could use their offense to do the same.
No. 14 BYU
Somehow, some way the Cougars have opened with five straight wins, and now the team picked 13th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 preseason poll are poised to become serious contenders in the conference. The defense has 10 takeaways, allows just under 16 points per game and is the team’s identity. The Cougars could be favored in their next three games — home against Arizona and Oklahoma State and on the road against UCF.
No. 25 SMU
The ACC newcomer has won three straight and followed up its surprisingly, at the time, easy win over Florida State with a 34-27 victory at previously ranked Louisville. Miami transfer RB Brashard Smith and WR RJ Maryland are great complements to QB Kevin Jennings, who is growing by the week and coming off his best game (394 yards of total offense).
Extra points
Alabama’s loss at Vanderbilt marked only the fifth time a No. 1-ranked team lost on the road to an unranked opponent since at least 1985. … No. 6 Miami has its highest ranking since it was No. 2 on Nov. 19, 2017. … No. 11 Iowa State is 5-0 for the first time since 1980, and a win at West Virginia this week would make the Cyclones 6-0 for the first time since 1938.
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