. – When I hear the debate over a team’s place in the poll, it turns my head a bit. Too low? Too high? What are the voters thinking?
There was some of this after Indiana did not move up in the latest poll released Monday – though the Hoosiers did receive quite a few more poll points (952 from 830) from the previous week.
I have never voted in the AP football poll, but I was an AP voter in the men’s basketball poll from 2022-24. I still would be if I hadn’t switched jobs to a non-AP member outlet.
I’ve sat in that voter’s seat, so I can provide perspective on how this works. The process isn’t difficult, but it’s often misunderstood.
One thing to remember is that every fanbase in the country has the same mindset – We are the sun and everything orbits around us. That’s fine. Fans are fans. When I put on my fan hat, I’m the same way.
When you’re a poll voter, you put that aside. There is no “sun” to orbit around. Every team is its own entity to be judged on its own merits. The AP specifically tells voters not to give their own teams any favoritism in the voting. You’re instructed to avoid bias of any kind.
If you’re a journalist who has any sense of objectivity, this is not hard to do. Voters take these standards seriously when they vote.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t flaws in the way the system works. Every voter applies a subjective standard via their own process, what they prioritize in a resume and what they don’t. That’s why the AP has a large pool of voters representing every region of the country.
An often-cited problem with the weekly polls is that teams that start the season ranked a certain way get a head start over teams that emerge like Indiana. There’s truth in that.
In some cases, it takes a long time for the voting pool to readjust. Michigan State men’s basketball, for example, was getting votes in the 2024 poll long after it was clear the Spartans didn’t really deserve it. You could make a case Ole Miss football is in that boat …
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