The AP Poll in Division I college basketball is not an exact science, as it is left up purely to the voters of the poll to decide who is and who isn’t included in the Top 25 rankings. But one vote in particular in the latest AP Men’s Basketball Poll left college basketball fans puzzled.
A total of 62 voters vote on the AP Poll each week, which can naturally make for widely differing opinions on who deserves a spot in the rankings.
Bret Bloomquist of the El Paso Times found himself on an island with an extremely questionable inclusion of the Arizona State Sun Devils, a team with a 14-14 record, in his Week 17 rankings released on Monday.
Not only were they listed in the Top 25 for Bloomquist, but they were actually listed as his No. 9 ranked team. This was over the likes of college basketball bluebloods like Kansas and Duke.
The Sun Devils did notably upset No. 21 Washington State on Saturday, an impressive win over a near-lock for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Regardless, it is still an extremely bold call to place them where Bloomquist did. And college basketball fans clearly took notice of this, criticizing Bloomquist on social media.
Genuinely curious what was going through this guy's mind when he ranked 14-loss Arizona State as the #9 team in the nation. He has Arizona at #6, so you can't even chalk it up to an inexcusable U of A/ASU mixup. pic.twitter.com/BhZZKxquII
— David Blattman (@davidblattman) February 26, 2024
Somebody go check in on Bret. He thinks Arizona State is the 9th best men’s basketball team in the nation. pic.twitter.com/2s0EOvE7mX
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) February 26, 2024
Bret Bloomquist has Arizona State at #9.
I pretty much never say that someone should have their vote revoked, but my god. That’s totally inexcusable.
— Matt Grossenbach (@MattGrossenbach) February 26, 2024
Some even questioned whether Bloomquist had a typo and meant for Arizona to be ranked at No. 9 instead of Arizona State, which wouldn’t make sense considering Arizona is also included at No. 6 in his rankings.
Did he mean Arizona? Surely not because of our win over Wazzu?
— Angry Spice Danielle (@KittyKatDeee) February 26, 2024
Surely this had to be some kind of mistake as there is seemingly no reasonable explanation for ranking Arizona State so highly. If somehow this wasn’t some sort of a mistake from Bloomquist that was overlooked by the AP Poll, then there should be a serious discussion about his credentials as an AP Poll voter.
At this point, there has been no kind of response from Bloomquist about the last poll. On top of his role as an AP Poll voter, Bloomquist serves as a staff writer for the El Paso Times, where he has covered UTEP athletics since 2006.
