The release of the first AP Poll for college basketball produces a lot of data to analyze. Two trends in particular may be telling.
AP College Basketball Poll: Nine Teams Appear On Every AP Voter’s Ballot
First, there are just nine teams that appear on every AP voter’s ballot: Butler, Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Kansas State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse. That’s more or less a who’s who of this year in college basketball, and includes seven of the top ten teams. Of those teams, the lowest-ranked squad is the one that lost in the NCAA Tournament final on a failed buzzer-beater: Butler comes in 17th.
Then there are the teams that the voters aren’t so sure about. Baylor, Kansas, North Carolina, Purdue and Villanova all received at least one third-place vote and were left off at least one ballot.
There are also a couple of oddities in the poll. Wofford receives a single 25th-place vote. Also, West Virginia receives votes on just nine ballots, but shows up at fourth on Elton Alexander’s ballot, which appears to have used last year’s NCAA Tournament as a framework.
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