An interesting thing happened to the Wisconsin Badgers this past week in the Associated Press top-25 poll. Wisconsin gained votes -- from 935 to 980 -- but actually went down in the poll, from No. 10 to No. 11.
This was due to the fact that unbeaten West Virginia got a major boost in the polls, going from 744 votes to 997.
Wisconsin, at 5-2, is ahead of a number of undefeated teams on a lot of ballots, including West Virginia and Boise State as well as some with the Badgers ahead of Baylor.
And, oh yeah, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers, Wisconsin's opponent this week at Camp Randall Stadium, are ranked No. 7 in the nation. However, 13 AP voters have the Badgers ranked higher on their ballot. Jon Wilner has Wisconsin seven spots higher than Nebraska. So I guess we can surmise while most people are buying into a two-loss Badgers team (just see the vote tally below), not everyone is convinced about Nebraska.
One other interesting nugget from this week's ballots: four votes have Wisconsin ranked higher than Ohio State, a team which just beat the Badgers on the road in overtime last week.
In the case of three voters -- Bob Asmussen, Johnny Miller and Mitch Vingle -- the difference is just once spot.
But then there's Josh Kendall. He has Wisconsin ranked No. 5 in the country. Yes, fifth. Kendall has Ohio State at 11 and Nebraska at 8. He is really buying into the Badgers.
Here's the complete list of ballots from Week 9 as well as a comparison to the previous two weeks:
Voter | Week 9 | Week 8 | Week 7 |
Josh Kendall, The State | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News | 6 | 7 | 8 |
Andy Greder, St. Paul Pioneer Press | 7 | 8 | 8 |
Eric Hansen, South Bend Tribune | 7 | 8 | 8 |
Joey Knight, Tampa Bay Times | 7 | 11 | 8 |
John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Jonny Miller, WBZ News Radio | 7 | 14 | 10 |
Patrick Brown, Chattanooga Times Free Press | 7 | 8 | 8 |
Bill Landis, Cleveland Plain Dealer | 8 | 8 | 9 |
Bob Asmussen, Champaign News-Gazette | 8 | 10 | 8 |
David Briggs, Toledo Blade | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Jason Galloway, Wisconsin State Journal | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Joe Walljasper, Columbia Tribune | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Scott Wolf, Los Angeles Daily News | 8 | 8 | 10 |
Brett McMurphy, ESPN | 9 | 10 | 8 |
Ed Daigneault, Republican-American | 9 | 11 | 8 |
Ferd Lewis, Honolulu Star-Advertiser | 9 | 10 | 8 |
Graham Watson, Yahoo Sports | 9 | 8 | 9 |
Matt Porter, Palm Beach Post | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Michael Bonner, Jackson Clarion-Ledger | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Mitch Vingle, Charleston Gazette-Mail | 9 | 10 | 8 |
Pete DiPrimio, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel | 9 | 10 | 8 |
Steve Batterson, Quad City Times | 9 | 12 | 12 |
Adam Jude, Seattle Times | 10 | 10 | 11 |
Chris Murray, Reno Gazette-Journal | 10 | 10 | 11 |
Dana Sulonen, Opelika-Auburn News | 10 | 10 | 8 |
Dave Southern, Idaho Statesman | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Ed Johnson, Albuquerque Journal | 10 | 8 | 10 |
Gary Horowitz, Statesman Journal | 10 | 10 | 8 |
Jeff Miller, Orange County Register | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Joe Dubin, WSMV-TV | 10 | 9 | 10 |
Keith Sargeant, NJ.com | 10 | 11 | 8 |
Mandy Mitchell, WRAL-TV | 10 | 10 | 11 |
Matt Charboneau, The Detroit News | 10 | 12 | 10 |
Matt McCoy, WTVN-AM Columbus | 10 | 10 | 8 |
Michael Lev, Arizona Daily Star | 10 | 10 | 8 |
Pat Caputo, Oakland Press | 10 | 10 | 9 |
Robert Cessna, Bryan-College Station Eagle | 10 | 9 | 10 |
Sam McKewon, Omaha World-Herald | 10 | 10 | 9 |
Scott Hamilton, Winston-Salem Journal | 10 | 13 | 10 |
Steve Wiseman, Durham Herald-Sun | 10 | 9 | 9 |
Adam Zucker, CBS Sports Network | 11 | 8 | 14 |
Chuck Carlton, Dallas Morning News | 11 | 10 | 8 |
Garland Gillen, WVUE-TV New Orleans | 11 | 12 | 10 |
Jerry DiPaola, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | 11 | 15 | 9 |
John Shinn, The Norman (Okla.) Transcript | 11 | 10 | 8 |
Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald | 11 | 11 | 9 |
Marq Burnett, SEC Country | 11 | 16 | 13 |
Nathan Deen, Savannah Morning News | 11 | 10 | 8 |
Ross Dellenger, The Advocate, Baton Rouge | 11 | 13 | 10 |
Brent Axe, Syracuse Post-Standard | 12 | 13 | 9 |
Brian Howell, Daily Camera | 12 | 11 | 10 |
Garry Smits, Florida Times-Union | 12 | 16 | 11 |
Jimmy Burch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram | 12 | 13 | 9 |
Matt Galloway, Topkea Capital-Journal | 12 | 11 | 10 |
Mike Barber, Richmond Times-Dispatch | 12 | 11 | 9 |
Robert Gagliardi, Wyoming Tribune Eagle | 12 | 17 | 10 |
Tom Murphy, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | 12 | 17 | 11 |
Tony Parks, KZNS | 14 | 15 | 12 |
Rob Long, WJFK-FM Washington, D.C. | 17 | 17 | 10 |
Kirk Bohls, Austin American-Statesman | 18 | 19 | 16 |
Dave Heller is the author of the upcoming book Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow as well as 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