AP Top 25: One Ballot Unlike the Rest

The first AP college football Top 25 poll is out, and the rankings are more or less what everyone expected, with Florida a near-unanimous No. 1. But one voter, Doug Lesmerises of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, has a different take on the first weekend of the college football season.

Lesmerises put Florida fourth on his ballot, the lowest ranking the Gators received from any of the 60 AP voters. (Florida got 56 first-place votes, two second-place votes and one third-place vote.) He ranked the Gators behind Alabama, BYU and Oklahoma State, and his explanation of that decision in Tuesday's Plain Dealer has me wishing all AP voters were as conscientious as he is:

When I submitted my top 25 ballot to the Associated Press late Monday night, I tried harder than ever to abide the first direction we're given by the AP:

Base your vote on performance, not reputation or preseason speculation.

So I didn't look at my preseason ballot until I'd finished my second or third draft of this ballot. That was new. Then I tried to think about each team as if I didn't even know the name of the school, much less the reputation. I just considered what happened....

So what were the three biggest wins of the weekend? Alabama's neutral site win over No. 7 Virginia Tech, BYU's neutral site win over No. 3 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State's home win over No. 13 Georgia.So they are my top three teams.

Obviously, Lesmerises is still considering teams' reputations to some extent. After all, he only views Alabama's win as the most impressive of the weekend because he views Virginia Tech as one of the top teams in the country. And he ranks the Gators fourth even though all they did is beat a I-AA opponent because of what the Gators did last year.

But for the most part, Lesmerises' ballot is an accurate reflection of the top teams in college football, based on how they've performed so far in the 2009 season. That's what all Top 25 ballots should be.

What do you think of ranking Florida No. 4? Tell me on Twitter @MichaelDavSmith.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-08-2009 @ 4:52PM

Butch said...

Ok, this guy doesn`t make sense Florida 4th ???

Where is USC ? Where does he have Ohio State, if in the top ten, then he just contradicted himself.

BYU , might be really good, but we`ll have to see about that.

9-08-2009 @ 5:05PM

tom said...

I was hoping someone would do this. Its the right way to fill out a ballot. The important one is at the end of the year and if Florida does what they should they have nothing to worry about. Just looking at the performances DURING THIS SEASON (which is what it should be graded on) those 3 are the most impressive.

Jim said...

I like his vote on one level, but not on another. Yes, we want teams to be rewarded for beating the better schedule of opponents (thus, Auburn's 2004 undefeated team was left out of the NC game as the third best of three undefeated teams, as they should have been), but we also want all teams to know that ahead of when making up their schedules.

And, to some extent, what he has done (by extension) is to validate Utah's exclusion from the NC game last year. The substance of their wins prior to beating Alabama was not the same as that of Oklahoma or Florida (or Texas or USC or a number of other teams). Utah's rebuttal of "we beat everyone on our schedule" is refuted by Lesmerises' approach.

Not a perfect scenario, but better than just rubber-stamping the big schools based on expectation.

9-08-2009 @ 6:06PM

Greg said...

All BYU "proved" is that they could win a game, early in the season, against an inexperienced team that had the Heisman Trophy winner.

The inexperienced OU O-line cost them the game: They allowed the pressure that knocked Bradford out and they had NUMEROUS other penalties that cost OU potential opportunities during drives while he was still playing. (OU showed that they ARE NOT the #3 team in the Country).

If OU was a legit Top-3 team, that O-line would have "pulled-together" and let Murray and Co. run the ball up and down the field against a samller, slower and less athletic team. Period!

(Maybe it was "Big-game Bob's" fault for losing? He didn't use what should have been a HUGE advantage!)

IMHO, if OU was really a Top-3 team, they would have had an answer for losing that ONE PLAYER and would have won the game like they should have as a NC team.

9-09-2009 @ 11:40AM

Clay said...

I love it! Florida may very well turn out to be the best team in the land, but until they beat a quality opponent why should they be ranked 1st? I think in the long run it will all shake out the way it should, but until the top teams start beating quality opponents why should they get the votes to be in the top spots? It sounds like he followed the instructions he was given properly, and I wish more voters would do the same. After all, why should an undefeated team get rewarded if they don't play any quality opponents?

9-11-2009 @ 5:34PM

marissa said...

the gators have beat everyone they needed to, you cannot say someone is better until they can get the votes to be there in the end and beat them

9-09-2009 @ 6:01PM

DCheezumatJohns said...

Mr. Lesmerises comments are a fairy tale approach to voting the Top 25. After all, until the first game is played, you can only go by what you suspect may happen on the playing field, when the only thing you can assess is the history of the school and what they return to the party with. Would anyone have voted Oklahoma #3 in the pre-season poll if Bradford were injured in pre-season training? Probably not, but they are still a formidable team. And noone knows if the other players would have stepped up and covered their loss. I think the Gators would have fared a ton better with their back-up (Brantley) than Oklahoma (obviouisly)did with theirs. Who knows? All I can say, based on returning starters, strength of schedule, and how they worked in the off-season, the Gators were # 1 going into the season, and for valid reasons. As for their performance against a very feisty CSU, then Florida did exactly what they set out to do; play 3rd and 4th team people (in the 2nd half)against a weak opponent to season their product, and gain valuable real-game experience where otherwise, you would have your starters in from start to finish. The Gators (yes, I am a fan)are # 1 until they either lose, or they're out-performed. That hasn't happened yet. Maybe to satisfy Mr. "L", they need a new poll established, ranking the best games played on any given Saturday, #1 thru #25. In that case, the best game I saw this week was Miami vs. FSU! Now how would the rest of the Top 25 GAMES have fared...let's see some feedback!

9-10-2009 @ 2:00PM

Ed Fielding said...

I'll know more after USC with it's freshman QB coes against a mediocre Ohio State team (based on its performance against Navy), but if my gut feelings are correct, I would bet a lot of money that USC beats Florida in a head to head match. I think Texas is better than Florida, as well. The problem is that USC always seems to take a game off against a lesser opponent and doesn't get a shot at the big game. Could happen this year, too.

9-11-2009 @ 5:38PM

yes undefeated teams should get recognition but even if u played UCLA or Ohio state and won dont make you worthy of a national championship