Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 8

So as the whole wide world knows by now, the ballot that appeared in this spot last week wasn’t the one that ended up getting submitted to the Associated Press. Due to a miscommunication on my part, AP used my previous week’s ballot instead of the one I published. (The people who criticized the one AP posted on its site .... weren’t wrong!) But because it was Christmas Day no one noticed until it was too late.

Fortunately the voting pool is robust enough to absorb mix-ups like this. It’s unfortunate and it really sucks if you screw up. But it does happen over the course of a season, even when it’s not Christmas, although the odds are much higher on a holiday for obvious reasons. (And three people didn’t even submit their ballots at all.)

It was an honest error for which I apologize. The other side of it is this: AP voters aren’t compensated. They do it as a public service to college basketball. The only reward for their time and hard work is frequent and often coordinated harassment. (Even when things don’t go haywire because here’s a huge surprise: no one’s ever happy with how their team is ranked!) The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

This season’s ballots

Preseason | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

Luke DeCock’s Week 8 AP Top 25 basketball ballot

1. Houston (Last week: 1)

2. Purdue (2)

3. Kansas (3)

4. Connecticut (5)

5. Arizona (4)

6. Marquette (7)

7. Tennessee (8)

8. BYU (9)

9. Clemson (10)

10. Colorado State (11)

11. Wisconsin (12)

12. North Carolina (13)

13. Oklahoma (14)

14. San Diego State (15)

15. Kentucky (17)

16. Texas A&M (18)

17. Memphis (19)

18. Duke (20)

19. Illinois (21)

20. Utah (NR)

21. Florida Atlantic (6)

22. James Madison (22)

23. Baylor (23)

24. Auburn (24)

25. Alabama (NR)

OUT Gonzaga (16), Creighton (25)

Under consideration Colorado, Dayton, Grand Canyon, Iowa State, Michigan State, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Princeton, Providence, South Carolina, Villanova

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