All data in this article is borrowed from collegepolltracker.com
To many people, the AP Poll is the definitive answer to who the best teams in college sports are. They also see the small little number next to the teams with their ranking and don’t think anything of it other than knowing that some people decided that rank. The way the AP poll works is on a point scale, 1 point for a vote at 25, 2 for 24, 3 for 23, and so on. This is compiled together into total points and then the teams are ranked based on these points. Sounds simple, right?
But who are these people that are voting? That is often the part that is off everybody’s radar. There are 64 sportswriters across the country who are sending in their polls each week. 61 of these writers are associated with a local publication, and 3 of them are national voters (ESPN, SI, NPR). And luckily, the power of technology lets us look into how each individual voter ranked the teams and see who had the best/worst/craziest votes.
Most Accurate Poll of the Week: Sheldon Mickles, Baton Rouge Advocate
Mickles only has one pick that is considered “extreme” (at least 5 spots different from their actual poll position) and that is the Cincinnati Bearcats at #13 (actual: 18). The move (or lack of) is understandable, as the Bearcats dropped 7 spots in the actual poll despite only their first loss in 2 months which came in an away game against a ranked SMU team. Otherwise, his biggest difference is ranking Virginia at #17 (actual: 14) coming off a win against Louisville but a loss to Syracuse.
Least Accurate Poll of the Week: Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal
Congrats to Graham Couch on being back-to-back picks for Least Accurate Poll of the Week! He has 6 picks that are considered “extreme” but there are two that really stand out. The first one is ranking Northwestern at #17 (actual: NR). I get it, the Wildcats picked up a HUGE win at the Kohl Center against Wisconsin. However, they also lost to a not-so-great Illinois team at home. Ranking them #17 is a little bit extreme for such an up and down week. The other questionable decisions was having Virginia at #5 (actual: 14), and West Virginia at #15 (actual: 9).
Student Union Award for Best Pick: None
This pick is based on who I think had a vote that makes a lot of sense but may seem like an outlier.
To be honest, I looked and looked and looked but could not find any outlier that seemed to be a good one. Last week, I had an underrated Florida team as my best pick at #11 (actual last week: 17). I just could not find the same kind of “wow, that makes sense” vote. A couple I thought about including was: Duke at #9 (actual: #12, as much as I hate it I think Duke is back), Cincinnati at #15 (actual: #18, I think they dropped a little far for a road top 25 loss), Wichita State at #24 (actual: NR, they’ve been on a tear lately), and I like to see that two hot teams in Vermont and Monmouth got a little love in the polls.
Student Union Award for Worst Pick: Doug Doughty, The Roanoke Times (Louisville at #24)
This was by far the easiest pick I’ve ever made for anything in my life. It was that bad. Mr. Doughty had the Louisville Cardinals ranked #24 in his AP ballot (actual: 8). So just off the top, he has them ranked 16 spots lower than they actually are. Looking deeper, he is the only person to even rank them lower than #12. The majority of their votes come in between #5 and #8. Lucky for Doug, his vote didn’t change the ranking of the Cardinals, though it was just a couple points off of moving them down a whole spot. I can bash this pick all I want, but I have literally no clue what he was thinking and don’t even know where to start. He had them ranked #6 last week. Yes, Louisville lost to Virginia, but it was at Virginia and they were ranked #12. You don’t drop someone 16 spots for an away, top 15 loss.