Analyzing the 10/21/12 AP Poll

Here is week 8 of analyzing the AP poll.  Thanks as always to the AP publishing their voting.

All 8 charts are displayed below to make it easy to see the changes.

And there is more consensus this week with the top 4 teams all receiving votes in the top-5.  After that, there is a little more variance but not that bad until getting to Ohio State who is voted everywhere from 6 to 21.  Mississippi State also has a bit of a range, from 9 to 23.

But it is interesting to look at the specific totals and how they changed from last week:

• Alabama lost a first place vote and their total went from a perfect 1500 to 1499.
• Oregon beat perhaps their toughest opponent of the year 43-21 and lost 12 votes from 1436 to 1424.
• Florida had a convincing win over South Carolina and gained 19 votes from 1361 to 1380.
• Kansas State thumped West Virginia and gained 37 votes from 1296 to 1333.
• Notre Dame eked by BYU and lost 42 votes from 1283 to 1241, but stays #5.
• LSU beat a good Texas A&M and gained 19 votes from 1153 to 1172.
• Oregon State had a good win and moved up to #7 gaining 56 points from 1050 to 1106.
• Oklahoma had a convincing win and moved up 2 spots to #8 and gained 71 points from 994 to 1065.
• Ohio State won in OT and dropped 2 spots losing 43 votes from 1071 to 1028.

So, winning convincingly over good opponents helped everyone but Oregon who did so but lost some votes.  Winning close did not impress the voters and Notre Dame and Ohio State lost votes.