A lot of movement for Badgers in AP top 25 despite not playing

Published Oct. 2, 2018 2:31 p.m. ET

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Dave Heller

Wisconsin might have had a bye week, but that doesn't mean the Badgers' place in the Associated Press top-25 poll remained the same.

The Badgers dropped one spot in the poll, losing 20 votes in the process (it should be noted that one voter did not cast a ballot this week).

Of the 61 voters, 22 left Wisconsin in the same spot on their Week 6 ballot as they had UW on their Week 5 ballot. Of the remaining 39 voters, 20 moved Wisconsin down on their ballot while 19 moved the Badgers up.

And we reiterate: Wisconsin did not play this weekend. Of the top-25 teams which lost, the majority were ranked lower than the Badgers (No. 20 BYU, No. 22 Duke, No. 23 Mississippi State, No. 24 California and No. 25 Texas Tech) and the others lost to a highly ranked team (No. 7 Stanford to No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 9 Penn State to No. 4 Ohio State).

Most voters didn't slide or jump Wisconsin too much -- one or two spots, mainly -- although there was, as usual, an exception.

Jim Alexander moved the Badgers down five slots (from 16 to 21) on his ballot. Here's the top-21 teams on Alexander's ballot: Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson, LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Auburn, Miami, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, Oregon, Kentucky, Colorado, Central Florida, Florida, Texas, North Carolina State, Wisconsin.

Here’s the complete rankings from this week with a comparison to the voting from Weeks 4 & 5:

Dave Heller is the author of Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow (a Larry Ritter Book Award nominee), Facing Ted Williams - Players From the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns

 

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