How they voted: Badgers in 2016 AP football poll (Week 9)
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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.
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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.
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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