AP Poll Watch: It’s a Good Thing it Doesn’t Matter

We didn’t feel all that bad when the Irish were 1-2. OK, we felt pretty bad, but Notre Dame’s two losses were close games against highly ranked and highly regarded foes. It was like playing in the SEC, where everyone is ranked and no loss is a bad loss. The only problem with that theory is that, well, Notre Dame picked up a bad loss. And also, the other teams the Irish lost to haven’t been doing so hot.

Michigan State took a beating at the hands of Wisconsin and dropped out of the top 10, finding themselves at number seven in the latest AP poll. MSU still gets the SEC benefit of the doubt here; Wisconsin knocked off LSU when LSU was highly ranked and earned a top-10 ranking as a result.

Texas was off after the loss to Cal, and as such only dropped one spot to 22. Miami was also off after blowing out Appalachian State two weeks ago, but the Hurricanes were the beneficiaries of MSU’s fall, jumping up a spot to 14. Stanford remains in the top ten, sitting at number seven for another week. Stanford fended off UCLA, 22-13, Saturday night.