As was the case in the coaches’ poll, Auburn is nipping at the heels of Ohio State in a poll that has no bearing on the BCS rankings.
The Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday afternoon shows the Buckeyes at No. 2 and Auburn at No. 3. The Buckeyes lead, though, is a scant 31 points.
Interestingly, the Tigers received a pair of first-place votes, while the Buckeyes received none. Even more surprisingly, those first-place votes came from writers on a non-SEC beat: the Los Angeles Daily News’ Scott Wolf (ballot HERE) and the Raleigh News & Observer‘s Joe Giglio (ballot HERE, explanation HERE). Auburn was ranked anywhere from first to fourth on the media ballots, while Ohio State was ranked anywhere from second to... eighth?
That’s right, one voter -- Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press -- placed the unbeaten Buckeyes No. 8 on his ballot, behind two-loss teams South Carolina and Stanford.
For a look into Sharp’s reasoning for such a head-scratching placement, one of his tweets from last night might crystallize his stance:
Still waiting to hear from those B1G suck ups who whined to me about why I kept Tattoo U lower in my AP top 25.
— Drew Sharp (@drewsharp) November 30, 2013
Such an objective, cogent argument, Mr. Sharp. Your paper and the AP should be proud.
On that note, below is the remainder of a poll that once again is not part of the BCS rankings.
