Reaction to Associated Press’ Top 25 Poll

Amid Tyrann Mathieu’s departure, the LSU Tigers dropped down the charts, leaving room for the USC Trojans to take the top spot. Oregon grabs another spot at fifth in the rankings, and the top half remains fairly unchanged from the coaches’ poll released a few weeks ago.

Outside of LSU and USC switching spots, the top 15 teams of the AP poll and coaches poll are the exactly the same. Perhaps there was some influence from that coaches poll to rank the teams. Teams of the teams like Michigan State and Texas have been widely debated of being ranked that high.

Stanford is at 21st, three spots below their 18th ranking on the coaches’ poll. Once again, they are the third and last Pac-12 team on the chart. The team that received the biggest change was Virginia Tech, boosting from 20th to 16th.

Teams that are on the AP poll that are not on the other poll are Ohio State (18th) and Louisville (25th). The Buckeyes are not on the coaches poll due to their postseason ban this season. The Cardinals become the Big East’s first team ranked in a preseason poll.

Auburn and Notre Dame was left off the poll.

Again, Oregon is represented well as the fifth-best team. Oklahoma should rebound strongly with Sam Bradford being the best quarterback in the Big 12 and ranks right up there with Matt Barkley. Florida State has an argument of being ranked higher with likely the best defense in the nation.

Brian Spaen is the lead editor for Autzen Zoo, follow the site on Facebook and Twitter. Read his other work on the Iowa State blog, Clones Confidential, and Lacrosse the Web.