AP voter jumps Mississippi State to No. 10 after 33-point loss, citing head-to-head results

AP Top 25 voter Greg Luca moved Mississippi State up six spots from No. 16 to No. 10 in Sunday’s new poll, despite the Bulldogs losing 56-23 at home to Alabama, according to www.saturdaydownsouth.com.

The Crimson Tide remain unbeaten and sit at No. 6. Mississippi State, meanwhile, ended up No. 17 in the actual AP Poll — seven spots lower than Luca’s ballot.

Luca explained his reasoning in an article that ran Sunday in the San Antonio Express-News. In it, he acknowledged the obvious tension: how could any voter reward a team that just lost by 33 points?

His answer starts with the AP’s own guidance. Luca wrote that selecting the 25 best teams is an "inexact science" and that voters have wide latitude to decide which criteria carry the most weight. The one exception, he noted: "Pay attention to head-to-head results."

That’s where his clean-slate method comes in. Luca ranks from scratch each week, and this week he chose to order the one-loss SEC teams by their head-to-head outcomes — a logic that vaulted the Bulldogs into his top 10.

No other voters’ individual ballots are mentioned in the source, so it remains unclear how many others shared Luca’s view. His alone was enough to spark the debate.

THE CLEAN-SLATE METHOD

Luca wrote that selecting the 25 best teams is an "inexact science" and that the AP gives voters wide latitude to choose which criteria carry the most weight. The one exception, he noted: "Pay attention to head-to-head results."

That single line anchors his entire approach. Luca uses a clean-slate method from week to week, according to his Sunday article in the San Antonio Express-News. Instead of carrying over previous rankings and adjusting slightly, he rebuilds his ballot from scratch each Sunday.

This week, he decided to rank the one-loss SEC teams — a group that includes Mississippi State — by their head-to-head outcomes. That logic vaulted the Bulldogs from No. 16 to No. 10 on his ballot, an eight-spot climb despite their 56-23 loss to Alabama.

The specific head-to-head results among those one-loss SEC teams are not detailed in the source, so exactly which matchups drove his ordering has not been confirmed. What is clear is that Luca treated the Bulldogs' head-to-head record as the deciding factor over their most recent blowout defeat.

THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE MADNESS