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SALT LAKE CITY — It's everyone's favorite time of the year, where "meaningless" polls are released about the college football season and we get to debate why one team is better than the other before any games have actually been played.
The following ballot was submitted by me to the Associated Press earlier this month as one of 63 writers around the country tasked to rank college football teams. As I've done for the last three years, I will submit a weekly ballot that is counted toward the consensus poll that is released by the AP each Sunday.
I don't get paid by the AP to vote in this poll, but I do my best to watch as many games as possible and review each team on a weekly basis. While I often try not to judge one game too harshly, it may happen. I like to look at the week-to-week results and other statistical measures when compiling my ballot.
As you can see from my ballot track record, I try to judge teams equally — sorry UTSA.
As a reminder, votes are tallied such that the No. 1 team on a ballot receives 25 points, the No. 2 team receives 24 points, and it continues down until the No. 25 team receives 1 point. The points are then totaled from all the AP voters and a consensus poll is created based on those results.
So while my ballot matters in the collective sense, it doesn't have far-reaching influence to impact a team in a significant way. Yes, if the consensus poll has your favorite team at No. 10 and I had them at No. 11, there's little that could be done on my part to move them up one more spot — even if I ranked them No. 1.
The consensus preseason AP Top 25 ballot will be released Monday at 10 a.m. MDT.
Once the season kicks off, I'll publicly release my ballot each week and explain my rationale behind it. If you have any questions about my picks, reach out to me via Twitter or email.
If you can't see my ballot below, click here.
