Ohio State’s unprecedented dominance of the No. 1 votes in the Associated Press poll didn’t last. Two AP voters decided to put the Buckeyes’ top competition in the Big Ten—the Michigan State Spartans—on top of their respective ballots in the Week 3 poll, which was released Sunday. One of those voters may come as a surprise to some college football fans. Doug Lesmerises of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, who covers the Buckeyes, put Michigan State at No. 1 and Ohio State at No. 2 in his ballot. Ohio State got 121 of 124 1st-place votes in AP, coaches polls. One of Michigan State’s 1st-place votes came from me http://t.co/IsANmhqhV7 — Doug Lesmerises (@DougLesmerises) September 13, 2015 But for those who have read Lesmerises in the past and know his basis for ranking teams, the Spartans aren’t too much of a shock after their 31-28 home victory over defending Pac-12 champion Oregon on Saturday night. “As always, I vote on results,” Lesmerises wrote Sunday. “And the Spartans’ win over Oregon, though at home and against a team without a quarterback quite like last year’s Heisman winner, Marcus Mariota, was the best win in the country so far.” And as someone who has watched Ohio State closely in the first two weeks of the season, Lesmerises isn’t overly impressed with how the Buckeyes looked in their road win over Virginia Tech and their shutout over Hawaii in Week 2. “Ohio State’s schedule didn’t allow the Buckeyes a win like that in the first two weeks, and the Buckeyes didn’t play eight dominant quarters in their two wins,” Lesmerises wrote. “They did pull away in a tough environment at Virginia Tech in week one after trailing at halftime and the outcome was never in doubt against Hawaii in week two.” Lesmerises results-over-everything style led to a few more shakeups in his AP ballot for Week 3, including: UCLA at No. …
Continue Reading: Meet the AP Poll Voters Who Ranked Michigan State No. 1 over Ohio State
