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Highlights from the ballot …
- — Alabama and Georgia held down the top-two spots, in that order, but there was movement directly below.
- — Iowa was not included on my preseason ballot, but in an attempt to respond to results, I moved the Hawkeyes to No. 9 last week following an impressive opening victory over Indiana.
They produced an even better win this weekend with a road victory at Iowa State (No. 6 my ballot/No. 9 AP poll).
That stands as one of the best wins of the early season. Combine the two results, and Iowa is No. 3 on the ballot this week.
Yep, from unranked to No. 3 in two weeks. It's a huge move, but big ballot moves are the only way to eliminate preseason bias.
Per the AP voting guidelines issued prior to the season: "Don't hesitate to make significant changes in your ballot from week to week. There's no rule against jumping a 16th-ranked team over the eighth-ranked team if No. 16 is coming off a big victory and No. 8 squeaked by an unranked team."
- The same strategy applied to Oregon, which was No. 14 on my ballot last week after the narrow victory over Fresno State.
The performance in Columbus speaks for itself, and the Ducks are now No. 4 on the ballot.
Whether either team could beat No. 5 Oklahoma is irrelevant. Both have better results than the Sooners at this point.
- Two Pac-12 teams were removed from the ballot:
USC, which turned in a miserable showing against Stanford, and Utah, which lost decisively to BYU.
UCLA and Arizona State remained unchanged, with the former in the No. 10 spot and the latter in the 15th position.
The ballot …
Removed this week: USC, Utah and Texas
Added this week: Michigan, Auburn and BYU
1: Alabama
2: Georgia
3: Iowa
4: Oregon
5: Oklahoma
6: Penn State
7: Ohio State
8: Iowa State
9: Clemson
10: UCLA
11: Texas A&M
12: Notre Dame
13: Wisconsin
14: Cincinnati
15: Arizona State
16: Miami
17: Virginia Tech
18: Florida
19: North Carolina
20: BYU
21: Auburn
22: Oklahoma State
23: Michigan
24: Texas Tech
25: Mississippi
Jon Wilner's Pac-12 Hotline is brought to KSL.com through a partnership with the Bay Area News Group.
Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP Top 25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree. You can follow him on Twitter @WilnerHotline or send an email at jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Pac-12 Hotline: Subscribe to the Pac-12 Hotline Newsletter. Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.
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Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP Top 25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree. You can follow him on Twitter @WilnerHotline or send an email at jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Pac-12 Hotline: Subscribe to the Pac-12 Hotline Newsletter. Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.
