Sports

AP Poll Voter With Egregious Florida Football Take Admits Rankings Don’t Matter. Here’s Why She’s Right

#College Football
by Last Updated
Alex Golesh, South Florida

iStockphoto / © Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images


The latest AP College Football Poll is out following Week 2 of the 2025 season. A number of voters are under fire for their most recent rankings given how the latest weekend played out.

One voter has responded publicly to the criticism. She proved that rankings don’t actually matter, at least not at this point in the season.

Much has happened across two short weeks of football. Four preseason Top 10 teams were downed in their season debuts, headlined by Alabama’s two-touchdown loss to Florida State.

Week 2 provided more drama with another major upset in the Sunshine State, though you wouldn’t know it based on voter input.

AP voter under fire for new poll.

The ballots for AP voters were made public this week. There are head-scratchers across the board.

This will never be a perfect science. Voters see each team through a different lens. Some reward production. Others are hesitant to move teams back and forth drastically based on one result. It’s also impossible to see every single game live.

Still, some movement should be relatively straightforward with a simple glance at the box scores.

One voter, Haley Sawyer, has become the target of condemnation amongst football viewers ahead of Week 3. Here’s why:

Sawyer moved South Carolina up four spots into the Top 10 following a lackluster win over South Carolina State but punished Clemson with an 18-spot slide after a sloppy win over Troy.

The Gamecocks’ next opponent, Vanderbilt, remains unranked in Sawyer’s standings despite boasting a more convincing win against a common opponent in Virginia Tech.

She moved Baylor into the Top 25 while disregarding the Auburn team that beat the Bears in Week 1. Meanwhile, Arizona State stayed in her poll while Mississippi State was left out despite a head-to-head win.

None of those listed, however, was the most egregious oversight. That honor would go to her analysis of Florida.

The Gators lost to South Florida in Gainesville. They paid the Bulls $500,000 to beat them in The Swamp.

Not only did Sawyer leave Florida in her Top 20, but she actually moved the Gators up two spots while leaving USF on the outside looking in.

She responded to the backlash in a recent interview.

Who is Haley Sawyer?

Sawyer follows the USC Trojans for SoCal News Group. She’s more in tune with what’s happening on the West Coast than anywhere else.

She was asked about her decision making in the Week 3 AP Poll. Her response only further angered college football viewers.

“I don’t want to go too much into my process or logic, but I will say I appreciate everybody’s interaction on social media and all of your feedback,” she said.

“There’s tons of people that vote on the AP Poll. It’s not a perfect system, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who you pick because it does even out… It’s really fun for discussion, but it doesn’t probably matter in the end.”

Sawyer is not the only AP voter with a questionable Top 25. She’s just the only one to respond to the criticism publicly. That, alone, is worth something.

She’s also correct in her assessment. The AP Poll holds no weight in terms of determining a national champion. The introduction of the College Football Playoff has made the standings somewhat irrelevant outside of a conversation point.

The CFP does not take the AP Poll into consideration when selecting the playoff field.

Now, from a perception perspective, it’s not meaningless. Ranked teams get more eyeballs. Coaches use the standings for recruiting and donor support. They might just start using a different poll to market their programs.

Sawyer’s answer certainly created poor optics. Many would love the opportunity to weigh in on the college football discussion. They pride themselves on their knowledge of the sport.

Sawyer has the ability to do so each and every week. While some might not believe she’s taking that honor seriously, she further proved what we should’ve already known. College football rankings don’t matter!