The AP Top 25 poll has come under increasing scrutiny in recent seasons, as college football fans and personalities look deeper into individual voting habits.
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fans → come → habits
Many of which often make little to no sense.
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Many → make → sense
Thankfully, the importance of the AP Poll has diminished with the creation of the College Football Playoff selection committee and their top-25, but there's little doubt that the AP rankings are still used in those deliberations and in other debates.
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rankings → diminish → debates
While the committee technically is supposed to evaluate teams based on their own terms, it's highly unlikely that they don't use the AP Poll in some capacity, at least in their first set of rankings.
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they → suppose → rankings
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page → contain → partners
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News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.
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that → create → newsroom
"Ranked wins" has become a common talking point, particularly among fans, coaches, and administrators of a certain conference.
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wins → rank → conference
And this week's poll makes it easy to see why.
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it → make → ?
The Bulldogs entered the week ranked No. 16, moving up eight spots after beating a very questionably ranked Missouri Tigers team.
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Bulldogs → enter → team
They hosted Alabama in Starkville, an opportunity to show they deserve to be a top-10 team and legitimate College Football Playoff contender.
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they → host → Starkville
Instead, the Tide rolled.
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Tide → roll → ?
The final score at 56-23 somehow doesn't do justice to how thoroughly Alabama dismantled Mississippi State.
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Alabama → do → State
The Bulldogs had a whopping 70 plays, only gaining 302 total yards for a dismal 4.3 yards per play.
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Bulldogs → have → play
Meanwhile, Alabama racked up 483 yards on just 61 plays, for nearly eight yards per play.
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Alabama → rack → play
The Tide moved the ball into the MSU red zone seven times, scoring touchdowns on all seven tries.
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Tide → move → tries
They had 12.7 yards per passing attempt, four rushing touchdowns, had eight sacks or tackles for loss, and two deflections.
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They → have → loss
Even with two fumbles lost, they won the turnover battle thanks to forcing four from an overwhelmed Bulldogs offense.
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they → lose → offense
It'd be reasonable to assume, then, that Mississippi State would drop in the AP Top 25 poll.
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State → assume → poll
Teams don't get humiliated at home and stay put, right?
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Teams → humiliate → home
Sure enough, the Bulldogs did drop in the AP Top 25 poll...by one spot.
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Bulldogs → drop → spot
After being thoroughly dismantled at their own stadium, Mississippi State plummeted from No. 16 all the way down to No. 17.
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State → dismantle → .
No other conference would be given that kind of preferential treatment, and we have the perfect example of that from this week's poll.
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we → give → poll
Iowa hosted the Buckeyes in Iowa City, entering the week at No. 14 after pulling off a dramatic, walk-off win over Michigan the week prior.
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Iowa → host → Michigan
Ohio State came in at No. 5, two spots ahead of No. 7 Alabama.
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State → come → Alabama
While the Buckeyes mostly dominated and the outcome was never really in doubt, the Hawkeyes at least put up a fight.
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Hawkeyes → dominate → fight
OSU averaged 6.5 yards per play to Iowa's 4.5, stifled Iowa's running attack, and forced two turnovers.
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OSU → average → turnovers
So Iowa entered the week at No. 14, lost at home to a top-5 team by 17 points.
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Iowa → enter → points
MSU entered the week at No. 16, and got run out of their own stadium 56-23 by the No. 7 team.
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MSU → enter → team
Which one do you think dropped more spots?
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you → think → spots
To give you a hint, it wasn't the one with the correct conference patch sewed onto their jersey.
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it → give → jersey
Iowa dropped a whopping six spots, falling all the way to No. 20.
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Iowa → drop → .
Mississippi State dropped one.
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State → drop → one
If you want to know what "protect the SEC" looks like in practice, that's it.
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that → want → practice
And for the record, ESPN's own SP+, a computer-driven analytics-based ranking system, has the Bulldogs as the 27th best team in the country.
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SP+ → drive → country
Ole Miss, whose blowout loss to Florida now looks much worse after the Gators were dominated by a mediocre Missouri team, didn't budge on their bye week, sitting at No. 9.
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Gators → look → .
Missouri jumped up 11 spots after beating Florida, despite their loss to Mississippi State now looking significantly worse.
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loss → jump → State
Meanwhile, 5-0 Nebraska, which has dominated against an admittedly easy schedule, is unranked.
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which → dominate → schedule
As a Big Ten account on X noted, "Since 2019, 3 Big Ten teams have started their season 5-0 and were unranked: 2019 Minnesota, 2023 Maryland, and now 2026 Nebraska.
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teams → note → season
The last time an SEC team started their season 5-0 and was unranked was Vanderbilt in 1943."
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team → start → 1943
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
