College football poll voter removed

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -A voter for The Associated Press college football poll was removed from the poll board Wednesday because he mistakenly thought Oklahoma had lost to Texas Tech and voted the Sooners lower in this week's rankings.

Jim Kleinpeter of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans said he tried to find the score of the Oklahoma game, but was unable to do so.

He said he was in the press box at the Alabama-LSU game "and I was asking about different teams, thinking about the poll the next day. ... I thought somebody told me that Oklahoma was losing to Texas Tech at some point. And I asked after the LSU game was over, `Did Oklahoma win?' Somebody said Oklahoma lost," Kleinpeter said.

The Sooners rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Texas Tech 34-24.

Because he believed the Sooners (8-2, 5-1) had lost, Kleinpeter said he dropped Oklahoma from 15th to 24th on his ballot.

The Sooners actually moved up one spot, from No. 17 to No. 16, in the current poll.

"It was my fault. I probably had other avenues I could have gone to get the score, but I usually rely on the morning paper here in Baton Rouge. And for some reason, they didn't have the score. I looked all through it," he said.

"It's as simple as that. It was a mistake," he said. "I usually never have a problem with accuracy. It's the most important thing for me."

AP sports editor Terry Taylor said: "We understand mistakes can happen, but we thought this one could have been prevented. The heart of the matter here is the credibility of the poll."