Oklahoma At #7 In Initial AP Poll - Who Gave The Sooners A First Place Vote?

As far as polls go, I have so much more respect for the AP Poll than I do the buddy system Coaches Poll. There are a few reasons that attribute to this and here are a couple of them. First, they had the audacity to no longer be associated with the BCS. Second, their votes are published so when you want to figure out who it was that actually gave the Sooners a first place vote then all it takes is just a bit of research.

AP Top 25

1.Alabama (54)
2.Ohio St. (3)
3.Boise St. (1)
4.Florida
5.Texas (1)
6.TCU
7.Oklahoma (1)
8.Nebraska
9.Iowa
10.Virginia Tech
11.Oregon
12.Wisconsin
13.Miami (FL)
14.USC
15.Pittsburgh
16.Georgia Tech
17.Arkansas
18.North Carolina
19.Penn St.
20.Florida St.
21.LSU
22.Auburn
23.Georgia
24.Oregon St.
25.West Virginia

So who was it that gave Oklahoma that #1 vote. My first thought was to look at the ballot of John Shinn from  The Norman Transcript. Nope! wasn't him. He has Oklahoma at #6. At least he won't be called a homer! How about a name with Big 12 ties that people will recognize, Craig James of ABC spo rts . Not him either. James puts the Sooners at #9 on his ballot and interestingly has Texas Tech at #24. Hmmmmmmm...I wonder why?

Well, the search continues. I fell out of my chair when I saw Wade Dennison's ballot from the Logan (Utah) Herald Journal. Here's a guy who really did his homework. He's got Oklahoma State at #23 and Oklahoma at #25. Does this guy even watch college football? Surely it wasn't Kirk Bohls from the Austin American-Statesman. If you said, "No way!"...you were right. His ballot featured Oklahoma at #5 and Texas at #8.The other voting Kirk (Herbstreit) won't be steering the ESPN hype machine towards Norman any time soon. He voted Oklahoma #13.

OK, where does that leave us. This guy voted Boise State #1 but Oklahoma #9 which means we need to look elsewhere. Las Vegas has been a bit of a pipeline for the Sooners over the last five or six years and one of Sin City's favorite sons, DeMarco Murray, is getting some good pre-season pub. Perhaps it was Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Oh no! Say it ain't so! He has Oklahoma at #19 on his ballot. Oh well, maybe he's a Justin Chaisson fan with an axe to grind.

My search was growing tedious and almost came to an end out of frustration. Then I found Randy Rosetta's ballot from the Baton Rouge Advocate, deep in the heart of SEC country. Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner! This is the ballot that features the Oklahoma Sooners at  #1. A few other things that you might find interesting about his ballot is that he has Ohio State at #2 and then Bama at #3. The hometown LSU Tigers check in at #19 on his ballot.