ALTOONA, Pa. -- A lot of college football fans will argue that polls don't matter, but as soon as something strange pops up in the polls, it sure does catch a lot of attention.
Such was the case with a bizarre vote in this week's Associated Press poll, which was released Tuesday afternoon. One voter, Ben Portnoy from The State newspaper in South Carolina, had a highly suspect vote when it came to Penn State and Wisconsin.
The Nittany Lions were No. 19 last week while Wisconsin was No. 12, and Penn State beat the Badgers on the road, 16-10. Yet somehow, Portnoy moved Wisconsin up to No. 10 in this week's poll, while placing Penn State at No. 18.
Huh?
Penn State actually landed at No. 11 this week in the AP poll, while Wisconsin dropped to 18. All of that seems about right.
But what about Portnoy's strange vote, which drew him some grief on social media from Penn State fans?
We decided to reach out to Portnoy today to give him a chance to explain his vote. And rather than try to justify it with some crazy reasoning, he actually explained that he had, in fact, made a mistake.
Portnoy returned a message with an off-the-record response explaining what had happened. We asked him to go on the record just to clear the air, and he decided to go ahead and do so himself by issuing the following tweet:
So I gather Penn State fans aren’t thrilled about my AP Poll this week.
— Ben Portnoy (@bportnoy15) September 8, 2021
Mea culpa as looking back I had Wisconsin pegged for 18 and Penn State for 10 (Flipped them on my ballot). Anyways, next week should reflect that depending what happens this weekend.https://t.co/0cP0fBFNRb
As you can see, Portnoy meant to vote Penn State No. 10 and Wisconsin No. 18, but he just accidentally flipped them and didn't realize it until it was too late.
So, there you go, Penn State fans. No conspiracy theory here, just an honest mistake. And give Portnoy credit for owning up to it when asked, which is not something that all voters would necessarily do.