Our weekly college football feature is back, where we take a look at each of the Associated Press ballots. Our mission is to hold these "experts" accountable, in hopes of improving the AP Poll in some small way. We'll be calling out all those writers who show far too much homerism to the team they cover. We'll point out those we don't think watched a single game, and those ballots that simply don't make any sense. And, occasionally we might even give someone a pat on the back when credit is due.Week 3 of the AP Top 25 college football poll is out and it's full of the usual unexplainable ballots. Two things I was eager to look at were first, how far East Carolina catapulted up the rankings, and secondly, how far Ohio State would drop after their struggles against Ohio University. The Buckeyes dropped down to fifth which is appropriate. What's inappropriate is that John Silver kept the Buckeyes at No. 1. With that in mind, let's get on with the ballot breakdown...
Worst Ballot: Maurice Patton The Tennessean, Nashville, TN
He made the list last week for voting the Tennessee Vols 20th while leaving UCLA completely off his ballot. This week he upped his idiocy enough to earn him the top spot. Not only did Mr. Patton leave the Vols at 20 and the Bruins off his Top 25, but he ranked West Virginia 16th and.... drum roll please... East Carolina 23rd.
Moron.
East Carolina beat West Virginia 24-3. The game wasn't decided by a freak play or poor officiating, it was decided by a good team running over another. Can we please remove idiots like this from the AP Poll? Please.
Is He Even Watching? Bob Hammond Laramie Boomerang (WY)
Patton wasn't alone in ranking West Virginia ahead of East Carolina, Hammond put the two at 19th and 23rd, respectively.
East Carolina Bandwagon: Jon Wilner and Kirk Bohls
I'm all for rewarding big wins, but these two got a little carried away with the Pirates. Wilner, a regular in this space each week, ranked ECU 3rd in his ballot just ahead of Florida, USC and Oklahoma. Each of those would beat down East Carolina by a couple touchdowns.
Not to be outdone, Mr. Bohls ranked the Pirates 2nd (!) ahead of Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia. So in case you were wondering why there was such a large difference between the AP and Coaches poll, look no further than Jon Wilner and Kirk Bohls drinking the kool-aid and more.
Seriously, What's Up With Utah? Ray Ratto San Franisco Chronicle (CA)
I like Ray, he does good work, but he's making me concerned for his health with his continued ranking of the Utes in the top 15. We've seen that Michigan isn't exactly the usual Wolverines, and Utah's win over UNLV this weekend was hardly worthy of applause.
Maybe he's got something for the Mountain West conference as he slid TCU in at 22nd after a win over D-1AA Stephen F. Cupcake.
Picking On The Pollsters Effect: Mike Ceide WREG TV, Memphis (TN)
Thumbs up to Mike who last week ranked Clemson ahead of Alabama, fixed his ballot and placed Alabama at 18 and Clemson down at 21. Baby steps.
2007 or 2008? Molly Yanity Seattle Post-Intelligencer
I pick on Molly often and this is why. She still has Kentucky up at 20th, Utah at 19th, Kansas at 5th and LSU on top of her ballot. None of those are terrible, but we'll just agree to disagree that my opinion is drastically different on each of those.
Curious 25th Slip-Ins Eric Hansen, Tom Hart and Randy Harrison
One of the great trends each week when looking over the ballots are when pollsters slide in some random team at the end of their rankings just for kicks.
Eric Hansen of South Bend continues to rank North Carolina (4-8 last year) who beat McNeese State by just 8 points in week one. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the Fighting Irish paying a visit to the Tar Heels this season.
Tom Hart slipped in the Rice Owls at 25th after a last second interception pick six put them over the Memphis Tigers. An Owls team that gave up 523 yards total offense to the Tigers.
Lastly, Randy Harrison has been so impressed with Tulsa's victories over UAB and North Texas that he placed the Golden Hurricanes 24th. Good fun.
Homer Herbstreit? We'll give Herby a small amount of credit for dropping the Buckeyes down to 6th from 4th after a shaky win against Ohio U.
Tell the pollsters what's up with your own Top 25 ranking below.
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