Alabama’s Place in the Final AP College Football Poll

There used to be a time not so long ago when college football’s National Champions were crowned by a bunch of reporters from across the country. Since 1936, the Associated Press has kept a poll and named the champion. In many instances throughout the years, there was rampant favoritism for and prejudices against certain schools. However, the AP started to lose their grip with the creation of the Bowl Coalition in 1992. The Bowl Alliance and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) would follow leading to the College Football Playoff we have today. The AP still hands out a trophy but it doesn’t quite have the cachet it once did.

The final AP poll for the 2022 season was released late last night. While nobody is going to argue the top spot as much, the positions that follow prove how important it was to take the human factor out of the decision making.

Year in and year out, most of these zombies have stayed in lockstep and rank the CFP runner-up as the number two regardless of the final outcome of the final game. Of the 62 voters, 46 of them put TCU No. 2 even though they are clearly NOT the second best team in the nation this year.

Rick Wright of the Albuquerque Journal ranked TCU at No. 7 and placed Alabama No. 2. His final seven: 1-Georgia, 2-Alabama, 3-Michigan, 4-Ohio State, 5-Penn State, 6-Tennessee, 7-TCU.

ESPN’s Rece Davis tucked the Horned Frogs down at No. 6. His picks: 1-Georgia, 2-Michigan, 3-Ohio State, 4-Tennessee, 5-Alabama, 6-TCU, 7-Penn State

Others who did not have TCU No. 2:

3. Andy Greder, Darren Haynes, Don Williams, Garland Gillen, Jon Wilner, Josh Furlong, Kayla Anderson, Leah Vann, Robbie Faulk, Ron Counts, Stephen Hargis
4. Mike Vorel
5. Jack Ebling, Mike Berardino

You probably don’t know a lot of these names but it is good that some voters gave it some thought and did not just auto-fill their final rankings.

In a related manner, the majority of the voters (again 46 of 62) named Michigan the third best team. The assumption is that they figured TCU was second best and that is the only game the Wolverines lost. It’s almost as if they filled out the ballot ahead of the final game... Lazy.

ALABAMA

The Crimson Tide finished fifth overall in the AP Poll, despite the fact that most of the top sports handicappers had Bama favored in hypothetical match-ups against TCU, Michigan, or Ohio State.

Alabama had four voters rank them second, one third, and three fourth. But the most often occurring position was sixth. Four pollsters unbelievably stuck Bama down at No. 7. They include San Jose writer Jon Wilner who had Tennessee second, Texas A&M beat writer Robert Cessna, New Jersey reporter Brian Fonseca, and Columbia, South Carolina’s Ben Portnoy.

Although the mode number was six, the Tide landed higher due to the point system that held Tennessee and Penn State behind them.

Below are the final votes of all members of the AP, broken down in two jpgs for easier viewing. Thank goodness they are no longer in charge.