📡 AP Top 25 voter convinced Alabama is nation's third-best team

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AP Top 25 voter convinced Alabama is nation's third-best team 247Sports

Nick Saban has searched long and far this season for bulletin board material during the Crimson Tide's red-hot start and maybe he has found some just outside of Kansas City from an AP Top 25 voter who isn't convinced Alabama is college football's No. 1 team.

Or even second-best.

Soren Petro, host of The Program on Sportsradio 810 in Missouri, has ranked Alabama behind Clemson and Georgia since the season began and is not changing his mind this week following the Crimson Tide's convincing win over then 22nd-ranked Texas A&M.

Alabama received 60 of 61 first-place votes in Sunday's new poll, Petro's ballot the only one keeping the Crimson Tide away from being the nation's unanimous No. 1.

I have to ask — what is keeping Alabama from passing the eye test in Petro's analysis? The defending national champions have the SEC's top-scoring offense and look vastly improved on that side of the ball since Tua Tagovailoa took over at halftime of January's title game vs. Georgia.

If Petro wanted to put Alabama at No. 3 in the preseason rankings due to personnel losses defensively, fine, but the Crimson Tide have answered that bell with flying colors through the first four games in September. Alabama is tied for second nationally with 16 sacks, leads the SEC with seven interceptions and has given up only six touchdowns.

Saban's team is a seven-touchdown favorite this weekend against Louisiana-Lafayette, currently the largest spread nationally in Week 5. Heisman frontrunner Tua Tagovailoa, who has yet to take a snap in the fourth quarter of any game, leads the SEC in completion percentage (72.5) and touchdown passes (12) and has yet to turn it over in his first season as Alabama's starting quarterback.

Need more evidence this is college football's best team? The first four games have been so lopsided, Saban is begging for local media members to find faults in this year's team and stop pumping them as the nation's runaway favorite.

Alabama is so loaded, the Crimson Tide are projected to be double-digit favorites against all fourteams making up the rest of the current Top 5 should they advance to the College Football Playoff with others.

As BamaOnline analyst Kirk McNair points out, Alabama fans are well aware of Petro's perceived bias agains the Crimson Tide.

"Crimson Tide fans jumped on his Week 4 ballot in the AP poll as he was the only voter to put Alabama — which received 58 of 61 first place votes last week — as the third-ranked team, behind Clemson and Georgia," McNair writes, "and, thereby, Petro became a target of derision among a few Crimson Tide supporters, and probably among some Auburn fans, too, since he had Washington ranked ninth and Auburn, which defeated the Huskies on opening weekend, ranked 12th."

Alabama (4-0) has potentially-challenging games remaining against Missouri, Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn, but should be a double-digit favorite in all of those matchups.

 

[TerryP]

@252BAMA I know you know who it was that voted Bama at #3. Still, got a question.

When you saw that one vote at #3 did you think of Wilner? Bohls? Asmussen? When I saw it wasn't Wilner I actually held a positive thought about his vote...UNTIL I saw he has LSU at #2. The guy is consistently inconsistent. Just last year it was all about "my votes are what I think the final poll will be." No way that fits his voting style this season.

 

[sean]

what gets me is when people do this, they talk about the other teams we've played. and they usually say that those teams aren't good teams since we beat them so handily or so easily.

or maybe it's because Alabama is just that good and beating other teams looks easy when we do it because we're that good. but i guess no one ever thinks about that. it's always the other team that's either not good or has a bad game...it's never that Bama's that good. and i'd be willing to bet that's what this person's mind-set is when he votes.

 

[TerryP]

@sk33tr, He was on Finebaum Tuesday (I believe) explaining his ballot. I've not listened to that segment.

I have issues with people who refer to themselves in the third person.



His reasoning was replacing people on defense and only one half of football to judge the QB situation.

When I saw his name it rang a bell but who he was didn't dawn on me until about an hour ago. I recalled reading a story about him trying to pick a fight with another one of Kansas City's media personalities. I remember reading about it on a Mizzou forum just after they joined the SEC--so figure, it was '12 or '13.

Sean, he strikes me as this type of a guy:

You don't know me? Let me take an hour to tell you who I am and you damn well better listen or we're going outside.

 

[TUSKtimes]

I have issues with people who refer to themselves in the third person.

Not something you would ever hear TUSK doing.

I caught the Finebaum grilling. His logic was inconsistent. He's not convinced about Tua body of work just yet but voiced no concerns about Clemson's QB situation. My guess, he's going hard for his 15 minutes of fame. Sounding like Dennis Rodman when you get there seems like a wasted trip. But to each their own.

 

[TerryP]

@TUSKtimes, Jeff Sagarin's rankings aren't worth that much in the first few weeks of the season but as it progresses you get a pretty good picture of the schedule a team has faced. He talks of Bama not accomplishing anything and Clemson and UGA not doing anything to deserve getting bumped.

Based on Sagarin, Bama has played the 10th toughest schedule to date. Clemson comes in at 63, UGA at 68. They are taking care of business like they should be but Bama still hasn't done anything.

I sit here and wonder how a school like 'Cuse could put out this product (Soren) when it's also put out the likes of Dick Stockton, Mike Tirico, and a few other solid media personalities.

(At least UA's journalism school makes a little sense to me. After all, Phillip Marshall had a hell of a time passing basic courses and look what that's brought us today...say, versus the likes of Rece, Mel, and others.)

 

[TUSKtimes]

I sit here and wonder how a school like 'Cuse could put out this product (Soren) when it's also put out the likes of Dick Stockton, Mike Tirico, and a few other solid media personalities.

They have their hits and misses from the orange. Sean McDonough, who likes to remind the audience he's from the Harvard of the north struggles with his witticism/sarcasm at times. Especially during blowouts. To get on my nerves takes a little but the popcorn and spit routine that went on far too long during the ole miss game would be a really good example.

 

[#80]

I listened to his interview on F'baum. What a moron.

 

[252BAMA]

AP Top 25 voter convinced Alabama is nation's third-best team 247Sports

Nick Saban has searched long and far this season for bulletin board material during the Crimson Tide's red-hot start and maybe he has found some just outside of Kansas City from an AP Top 25 voter who isn't convinced Alabama is college football's No. 1 team.

Or even second-best.

Soren Petro, host of The Program on Sportsradio 810 in Missouri, has ranked Alabama behind Clemson and Georgia since the season began and is not changing his mind this week following the Crimson Tide's convincing win over then 22nd-ranked Texas A&M.

Alabama received 60 of 61 first-place votes in Sunday's new poll, Petro's ballot the only one keeping the Crimson Tide away from being the nation's unanimous No. 1.

I have to ask — what is keeping Alabama from passing the eye test in Petro's analysis? The defending national champions have the SEC's top-scoring offense and look vastly improved on that side of the ball since Tua Tagovailoa took over at halftime of January's title game vs. Georgia.

If Petro wanted to put Alabama at No. 3 in the preseason rankings due to personnel losses defensively, fine, but the Crimson Tide have answered that bell with flying colors through the first four games in September. Alabama is tied for second nationally with 16 sacks, leads the SEC with seven interceptions and has given up only six touchdowns.

Saban's team is a seven-touchdown favorite this weekend against Louisiana-Lafayette, currently the largest spread nationally in Week 5. Heisman frontrunner Tua Tagovailoa, who has yet to take a snap in the fourth quarter of any game, leads the SEC in completion percentage (72.5) and touchdown passes (12) and has yet to turn it over in his first season as Alabama's starting quarterback.

Need more evidence this is college football's best team? The first four games have been so lopsided, Saban is begging for local media members to find faults in this year's team and stop pumping them as the nation's runaway favorite.

Alabama is so loaded, the Crimson Tide are projected to be double-digit favorites against all fourteams making up the rest of the current Top 5 should they advance to the College Football Playoff with others.

As BamaOnline analyst Kirk McNair points out, Alabama fans are well aware of Petro's perceived bias agains the Crimson Tide.

"Crimson Tide fans jumped on his Week 4 ballot in the AP poll as he was the only voter to put Alabama — which received 58 of 61 first place votes last week — as the third-ranked team, behind Clemson and Georgia," McNair writes, "and, thereby, Petro became a target of derision among a few Crimson Tide supporters, and probably among some Auburn fans, too, since he had Washington ranked ninth and Auburn, which defeated the Huskies on opening weekend, ranked 12th."

Alabama (4-0) has potentially-challenging games remaining against Missouri, Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn, but should be a double-digit favorite in all of those matchups.

I didn't know anything about it until he was on Fine bum. Perfect fit.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Rule #1 ...I don't consider anything a sportswriter from Missouri has to say.

Oh and Mike Slive shet the bed when he added Mizzou to the SEC. They had Nothing,Nada,Zip,Zero to the conference. JMO of course.

 

[TerryP]

@JoseyWalesTheOutlaw, I didn't mind too terribly to see them win the east a few times. Enjoyed seeing them in ATL to face the Tide.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

They won because the East totally sucked. Swap Mizzou for TCU.

 

[252BAMA]

Voted Clemson #1 again this week. :eyeroll:

Soren Petro at College Poll Tracker

 

[planomateo]

 

[bama alum]

Hey, Mr. Petro...

 

[bamatommy]

@sk33tr, He was on Finebaum Tuesday (I believe) explaining his ballot. I've not listened to that segment.

I have issues with people who refer to themselves in the third person.



His reasoning was replacing people on defense and only one half of football to judge the QB situation.

When I saw his name it rang a bell but who he was didn't dawn on me until about an hour ago. I recalled reading a story about him trying to pick a fight with another one of Kansas City's media personalities. I remember reading about it on a Mizzou forum just after they joined the SEC--so figure, it was '12 or '13.

Sean, he strikes me as this type of a guy:

You don't know me? Let me take an hour to tell you who I am and you damn well better listen or we're going outside.

I watched that segment live on Finebaum last week. The guy is just being a jerk.

 

[bamatommy]

Voted Clemson #1 again this week. :eyeroll:

Soren Petro at College Poll Tracker

Reminds me of how some voters have swooned over Notre Dammitall and leapfrogged them over Bama repeatedly, most notably in 1966.