The Oklahoma Sooners own countless records in the world of college football, but few are more impressive or display their dominance than the one they established with today's release of the AP Poll. OU became the first team in the history of the AP poll (est. 1936) to be named #1 for the 100th respective time. No small accomplishment and a true testament to all the players, coaches, trainers, fans, and everyone associated with the program and university. So congrats to all those who played even the smallest role in it, we can all celebrate it as Sooner Nation.
So moving on. We're in week three, so you don't need me to explain to you what this is any longer. Pollspeak is our source and they rock. You can check out the full poll here. So we'll just jump right in. In this week's edition OU received 32 first place votes, LSU had 17, Alabama had 9, and Boise State had 2. So nothing has changed in terms of who is getting first place votes or who makes up the top five. However, there was a change in the order of those top five teams but we'll get to that in a minute.
Not much changed with OU, so the review of them will probably be brief. Just like last week, OU was ranked as high as #1 (duh) and no lower than #5 (two voters). Those two voters were John Niyo (Detroit News) and Ray Ratto (Sports Bay Area) and each had one surprise in their top five ahead of the Sooners. Niyo had a top four, in order, of LSU, Bama, Boise, and Wisconsin. Ratto had a top four, in order, of LSU, Bama, Florida State, and Boise. I can understand Wisconsin kind of, but I think that has a lot to do with two big wins early over very average teams (at best). Ratto with FSU is much more surprising when you consider that the Seminoles have essentially played two scrimmages to open the season, so I'm not exactly sure what he's seen from those two glorified practices to warrant a #3 ranking.
As for the rest of the poll, we eluded to it earlier that the order of the top five had changed and it probably won't be the last time this happens assuming both teams keep winning. After LSU jumps Alabama for the #2 spot with a win over a ranked team last week, Bama returns the favor this week and takes back that #2 spot behind OU. Bama won and won convincingly on the road at Penn State and while I don't believe that is a better win that LSU's over Oregon, is was apparently enough to make them #2 at least for this week. Of the usual suspects who we've seen in the top five so far; Bama was ranked as high as #1 and no lower than #5, LSU was ranked as high as #1 and no lower than #6, Boise State was ranked as high as #1 and no lower than #10, and FSU was ranked as high as #2 and no lower than #13.
* Arizona State, after an overtime win over Missouri, enters the poll for the first time this year at #22. However they drew rankings as high as #11 and as low as unranked (five votes). Their most common ranking (nine times) was #19.
* Easily the luckiest team in the country right now, the Auburn Tigers squeaked out another one and check in at #21 this week. They drew rankings as high as #14 and as low as unranked (three votes). Their most common ranking (eight times) was #19/20.
* Despite being off this week like much of the Big 12 (how much did that suck by the way?), Baylor was actually able to move up one spot to #19 this week. However the most interesting thing related to Baylor this week was that Mike Hlas (Cedar Rapids Gazette) apparently believes their lone win on the season over TCU makes them the #8 team in the country! That's right, he has Baylor ahead of teams like Wisconsin, FSU, Stanford, Va Tech, and A&M. Of course, this is the same idiot who has South Florida at #5! I kid you not. This is why we do this, to call out moronic voters like this who should have their right to vote taken away. Mr. Hlas, you sir are an idiot.
* OU's opponent this week, the Florida State Seminoles hold steady at #5 setting up the season's second top five matchup in just the third week. As we mentioned above, FSU was as high as #2 on one ballot (Randy Rosetta) but that is no change from last week. Two voters had them #13 which is pretty low for the Noles in my opinion. FSU's most common ranking (21 times) was predictably #5.
* Michigan's dramatic last second win against Notre Dame Saturday night was only enough for them to earn the #1 ranking of the prestigious "others receiving votes" category, otherwise known as ranking #26.
* Coming on the previously mentioned loss at ASU, Missouri fell out of the Top 25 this week. However Mike DiRocco (Florida Times Union) somehow still saw fit to put them at #15 on his ballot. Only nine voters included Mizzou in their ballot, thus making their most common ranking (51 times) of unranked make perfect sense.
* Nebraska, coming off a less than impressive victory at home against Fresno State, was able to hold on to their Top 10 spot (at #10). They drew votes for as high as #5 and as low as #21 with a most common ranking (11 times) of #10.
* Oklahoma State moves up one spot to #8 in the poll, but is apparently a top four team according to Bob Condotta (Seattle Times). OSU was ranked as low as #17 (Scott Wolf) with a most common ranking (12 times) of #7.
* Texas A&M didn't play this week and suffered for it apparently, falling two spots to #9. A&M was voted as high as #5 and as low as #16 with a most common ranking (13 times) of #7.
* And finally, our good friends the Longhorns. Coming off a BIG win against an "undefeated" BYU team, Texas was able to hold down their #24 spot for the second consecutive week. Jon Wilner (Mercury News) evidently knows nothing about CFB evidenced in his #14 vote for the Longhorns in his ballot this week. So let me get this straight, the #14 team in the country plays as many QBs as they have points at halftime Saturday night? Really?