Earlier today, the Associated Press released their preseason Top 25 rankings, and Florida was a near-unanimous selection as the top team in the country.
In fact, their garnering of 58 of the 60 first-place votes was the highest percentage in the history of the poll.
However, that meant two people had the “audacity” to put another team ahead of the defending national champs. Common sense would say that, since Texas received the other two first-place nods, it would likely be someone in-state or from the Big 12 conference who placed the Longhorns ahead of the Mighty Gators.
At least in this case, common sense would be wrong.
So, just who were the “offending parties”? Without further ado, we present to you Joe Giglio of the Raleigh News & Observer and Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. (And I’ll go ahead and apologize to the two gentlemen for any emails from Florida ISP’s which may or may not flood their inbox.)
Both writers had Florida No. 2 on their ballots and, while Giglio’s ballot was pretty much standard poll fare throughout, Gorman’s was... how should I say it... most definitely against the grain and a unique piece of work.
Not only was Gorman one of two to not place Florida atop his list, but he also had Tennessee at No. 16 and Northwestern at No. 21. Northwestern had five points in the “others receiving votes” category, meaning Gorman was the only person in America to vote for the Wildcats based on the “1 point for 25th, 2 points for 24th, etc.” method used by the AP.
Additionally, the Gazette writer didn’t even have Georgia, the No. 13 team according to both the AP and USA Today, in his Top 25 teams in the country.
Then again, and so as not to just pick on Gorman, Adam Van Brimmer of the Savannah Morning News had Utah at No. 2 -- yes, in this year’s poll -- TCU at No. 8 and Texas Tech at No. 9. And Cal not rated in his Top 25.
Of course, none of this really matters in the grand scheme of things. All it really does is highlight the farce that preseason polls are and will always be.