Poll Attacks: How one AP voter is treating Auburn and LSU makes no sense whatsoever

No matter how you evaluate teams, LSU's season has gone far better than Auburn's to date

The site I use to check AP Top 25 ballots each Monday is CollegePollTracker.com. It's an invaluable resource for this #PollAttacks column for many reasons -- among them because of the way it sorts ballots and highlights anything extreme. It even highlights the "most extreme ballot" each week. And, incredibly, that honor has gone to the Kansas City Star's Jesse Newell 12 straight weeks.

Twelve! Straight! Weeks!

Jesse Newell is to the "most extreme ballot" section of CollegePollTracker.com what Kansas is to Big 12 regular-season titles. It's his crown. He seems to wear it proudly. And yet Newell has mostly avoided the #PollAttacks column this season because, I don't know, I guess because I just always find something more inexplicable on somebody else's ballot. But his "extreme ballot" this week features two things that really jump off the screen -- specifically the way he's ranking Auburn and LSU.

Newell has Auburn No. 14 on this week's ballot -- which is seven spots higher than any other AP voter has Auburn ranked. And he has LSU No. 18 on this week's ballot -- which is two spots lower than any other AP voter has LSU ranked. In other words, Newell is going super extreme this week. And there's just no way to rationalize having Auburn that high, LSU that low, or Auburn ahead of LSU when considering, you know, the results of the games that have been played so far this season.

And this should not be interpreted as a shot at Auburn.

Because I like Auburn.

It's why I made the Tigers No. 26 in my Top 25 And 1 daily rankings after they beat Mississippi State on Saturday. But, again, there's just no way to look at what LSU has done, and what Auburn has done, and conclude that Auburn should be ranked ahead of LSU right now. It's why literally none of the other 63 AP voters have Auburn ranked ahead of LSU right now.

Let's look at the resumes.

Auburn is 20-9 overall, 9-7 in the SEC. LSU is 24-5 overall, 14-2 in the SEC. Auburn is 2-7 in Quadrant 1 opportunities. LSU is 9-2 in Quadrant 1 opportunities. Auburn is 11-9 in Quadrant 1/Quadrant 2 opportunities. LSU is 16-5 in Quadrant 1/Quadrant 2 opportunities. Auburn has zero wins over teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. LSU has two wins over teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 poll -- specifically wins over No. 5 Tennessee and No. 6 Kentucky. Auburn has lost five times to schools currently unranked. LSU has lost just three times to schools currently unranked. Auburn has three wins over top-50 KenPom teams. LSU has six wins over top-50 KenPom teams. Auburn has 11 wins over top-100 KenPom teams. LSU has 16 wins over top-100 KenPom teams. And, last but not least, LSU is 1-0 vs. Auburn this season thanks to last month's 83-78 win over Bruce Pearl's Tigers in Baton Rouge.

Do I need to keep going?

There's just no way to rationalize having Auburn ahead of LSU on an AP ballot this week -- unless, of course, you're simply going to scream that Auburn is two spots ahead of LSU at KenPom, which is true by the way. But as Ken Pomeroy himself explained 13 years ago, his system isn't designed to rank teams based on how well their seasons have gone or are going. It's purely predictive. And the AP Top 25 poll, basically everybody agrees, should largely be a reflection of how well teams' seasons have gone or are going.

So a "KenPom" argument doesn't work here.

I guess I'd bottom-line it this way: there's a reason Jerry Palm currently projects LSU as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Auburn as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the reason is because LSU's season has gone, and is going, significantly better than Auburn's. It's not even debatable. Sixty-three of the 64 AP ballots submitted this week reflect that. Why one does not is impossible to intelligently defend.

Like I write each week: it's not the biggest deal in the world.

But it's precisely why these #PollAttacks exist.