The most interesting AP Poll of the year might be the one released after the first week of the season.
By this point, the initial rankings have been ingrained in fans’ minds for weeks. It’s the first opportunity to reevaluate college football’s pecking order based on data from the current season rather than last season, and the outsized importance of first impressions to voters can lead to giant rises and falls in the polls.
Brett McMurphy, a veteran college football reporter for the Action Network, was subject to one such first impression. In response to No. 8 Florida State’s dominant 45–24 win over No. 5 LSU in Orlando Sunday evening, McMurphy anointed the Seminoles the No. 1 team in the country.
