The Associated Press released its final poll this morning, and like the BCS, crowned Auburn its champion. However, a couple anomalies stand out.
Oregon, who qualified for the BCS Championship game over TCU, dropped to #3, despite losing only on a last second field goal on a neutral field to Auburn. Undefeated TCU beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, and some voters are harboring a grudge (not without merit) that they were shut out of a chance at the National Championship.
Despite that--I feel that if you are in the championship game, you're either first or second place. No exceptions. Lose 63-0, you're still #2. (Incidentally, one college coach voted for TCU in the BCS voting--which is contractually against the rules for coaches.)
I took a look at the fabulous website Pollspeak.com for some of this....check it out if you ever are interested in how specific AP voters voted.
Ohio State finished 5th in the poll...which is two spots above Wisconsin. I think most Buckeye fans would feel that Ohio State would beat Wisconsin on a neutral field, but at this point, the head to head results on the field must show through. I'd have voted Wisconsin over Ohio State by one spot. Just like Doug Lesmirises did. And Kirk Herbstreit,who incidentally ranked Ohio State #9, which was the lowest that anyone ranked the Buckeyes.
The only other voter to rank Ohio State that low was Chris Fowler. Who somehow ranked Boise State above Ohio State, despite their loss to Nevada, and Ohio State's only loss being on the road to Big Ten Champion Wisconsin, and their BCS victory over Arkansas. (Very curiously, no voter voted Boise State higher, nor Nevada lower.)
Wonder what it was that made two GameDay announcers vote Ohio State so low? Was it the vendetta Herbstreit has against Terrelle Pryor?
Complete AP poll after the jump.
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| 13 |
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| 8 |
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| 16 |
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| 7 |
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| 21 |
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| 12 |
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| 23 |
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| 14 |
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| 18 |
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| 17 |
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| NR |
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| 19 |
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| NR |
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| NR |
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