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My final college football AP ballot

by on Jan. 10, 2012, under Sports

Didn't you see this coming in the preseason? Photo by Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

I got something right last year, as Alabama topped my preseason AP ballot.

The Crimson Tide wasn’t a unanimous No. 1 in the final AP poll — receiving 55 of 60 first-place votes — but I didn’t have much to think about after its deconstruction of LSU in the national championship game.

Sorting out the top of the Pac-12 was more arduous, with three two-loss teams who went 1-1 against the others. Oregon gets the “tiebreaker” edge with its Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin. Stanford, which beat USC in the regular season, is next on my ballot.

The Ducks and Trojans will be near the top in everyone’s early Top 25 for 2012. Look for Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma to be right back up there, too.

Here is my final AP ballot:

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma State
4. Oregon
5. Stanford
6. USC
7. Arkansas
8. South Carolina
9. Boise State
10. Wisconsin
11. Michigan State
12. Baylor
13. Michigan
14. TCU
15. Oklahoma
16. Kansas State
17. West Virginia
18. Southern Miss
19. Houston
20. Georgia
21. Nebraska
22. Clemson
23. Auburn
24. Virginia Tech
25. Florida State

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 8:39 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Mark_B_Evans

    For purposes of comparison, here’s AG’s preseason ballot with the team’s final ranking in parentheses:
    1. Alabama (1)

    2. Oklahoma (16)

    3. Oregon (4)

    4. LSU (2)

    5. Boise State (8)

    6. Florida State (23)

    7. Oklahoma State (3)

    8. Stanford (7)

    9. Wisconsin (10)

    10. Texas A&M (unranked)

    11. Virginia Tech (21)

    12. Nebraska (24)

    13. South Carolina (9)

    14. TCU (14)

    15. Notre Dame (unranked)

    16. Arkansas (5)

    17. Michigan State (11)

    18. West Virginia (17)

    19. Ohio State (unranked)

    20. Mississippi State

    21. Georgia (19)

    22. Missouri (unranked)

    23. Auburn (unranked)

    24. USC (6)

    25. Texas

    Teams that were ranked that AG didn’t have on his preseason ballot and their ranking:
    Michigan (12), Baylor (13), Kansas State (15), Houston (18), Southern Miss (20),  Clemson (22), Cincinnati (25).
    Every year there are teams that disappoint and teams that surprise, but the consistency of these picks shows AG knows college football.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jeannie.feld Jeannie Feld

    Today’s language lesson: Deconstruction refers to the practice of thoroughly and carefully evaluating a piece of writing as a means of proving that the text has contradictory meanings. Although, through misuse, it has begun to be though of as a synonym for destroy or dismantle, those are not synonyms.

    You meant destruction. The simple word is almost always the best choice.

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