AP Top 25 voter explains why he moved Mississippi State up to No. 10 after blowout loss to Alabama
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AP Top 25 voter Greg Luca had some explaining to do in the aftermath of his whole Mississippi State ranking, so he took the time to do just that in an article that ran on Sunday in the San Antonio Express-News.
For those Alabama fans or SEC fans in general wondering how Luca could actually move the Bulldogs up 6 spots from No. 16 to No. 10 despite falling at home to the Crimson Tide by a whopping 33 points, hold on a second.
Luca wants you to hear him out.
He wants you to hear why he had them at No. 10 in Sunday’s new AP Poll, a full 8 spots higher than he had Mississippi State last week and a full 7 spots higher than where the Bulldogs ended up on Sunday in reality, which was No. 17.
So, while Mississippi State ended up barely being penalized for losing its first game of the season, 56-23, to a still-unbeaten Bama team that is now ranked 6th in the new poll, Luca actually gave them more credit than could ever be imagined. But there was a method to Luca’s madness, and he shared that with confused fans (or even angry fans).
Luca wrote in Sunday’s article while also explaining himself:
So, how did I possibly rank them at No. 10, eight spots higher than last week and seven spots higher than the AP consensus? Well, selecting the 25 best teams is an inexact science, and the AP gives voters wide latitude to select which criteria carry the most weight. The one exception? ‘Pay attention to head-to-head results.’
This is where it gets a little confusing but also where Luca’s rather unique ranking for Mississippi State comes in. Luca uses a clean-slate approach from week to week, and he decided this week to rank those 1-loss SEC teams, like the Bulldogs are, by their head-to-head outcomes.
Naturally, Luca is getting massive heat on social media for where he placed Mississippi State, all the way in the top 10, but it’s one man’s vote and, well, in reality the Bulldogs are 17th, so fans can take a breath and realize that, no, Mississippi State isn’t really in the top 10 of the new AP Poll.
No matter where Mississippi State is ranked in the AP Poll, the Bulldogs have a job to do and that’s win games in 2026. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the potential victory total this season for Mississippi State:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
