How college football’s Week 7 AP Top 25 was plagued with bias

Only in college football would you see a team who lost to an unranked opponent stay above two teams who lost to top-10 opponents, a school unnecessarily fall below that of a team that they have already beaten, and so much more.

But unfortunately, decisions such as these not only happen, they happen all the time in the world of college football. To summarize an explanation for such ungodly verdicts, fans and pundits have filed it all under one word: bias.

Looking at the latest installment of the AP Top 25 poll, we see Alabama sitting at No. 5 after losing to a previously-unranked Texas A&M team. In the process, they are sitting above No. 6 Penn State and No. 7 Ohio State, who each have a loss to fellow top-10 powers (No. 2 Iowa and No. 9 Oregon, respectively).

So the question has to be asked: why is Alabama still ranked above PSU and OSU?

Now, upon confronting an adequate Associated Press representative with such a concern, they would probably say something along the lines of A&M being a solid opponent, and Bama still being a team to beat in the eventual playoff craze.

However, while both of those statements may be true, doesn’t ranking opponents that way defeat the purpose of releasing a poll every week? Yes, it does. So why would you rank the teams that way? Because it helps the Crimson Tide; they are allowed to sit above multiple challengers and subsequently be helped out despite losing to someone who had no business even scaring them. That’s how the bias works.

And the Alabama fiasco is not the only part of the poll that the AP dropped the ball on, either. They also, as previously mentioned, knocked a team so low that they are now beneath someone that they have already beaten.

BYU was ranked No. 10 in the country, showcasing an unbeaten record. However, following an upset loss to unranked Boise State, the AP Top 25 now has them dwelling all the way down at No. 19.

This is not the end of the world, except the Cougars are now one spot below the Arizona State Sun Devils (who BYU beat by 10 earlier this season). If there is only a one-spot difference between the two schools, why couldn’t you reverse them? That way, BYU still drops heavily, ASU still rises, yet the Cougars are not having their best win completely invalidated like they are now.

The most likely reason for the placing that the AP decided on stems from the fact that one name is Power Five while the other one is not; they see the program sizes over what actually happened, and Brigham Young has been ripped off as a result.

And since we are still on the topic of mistakes, Wake Forest climbed three spots after escaping a mediocre-at-best Syracuse, while Texas A&M now sits right behind Florida. Let’s talk about that second part for a minute.

Florida and A&M both have records of 4-2. The Gators have beaten no one of merit, along with losing to Alabama. The Aggies, on the other hand, just beat Alabama. So in other words, A&M has just as good of a record and a primo win over someone who downed the Gators, yet they are 21st and Florida is 20th? Make it make sense.

Fanatics will always find at least something wrong with the AP Top 25 every single week, but there were just too many flaws in this latest one to ignore. Hopefully the Associated Press composes it better this next time around.