Gary Parrish

Wisconsin belongs between Purdue and Indiana.

If you voted differently this week you voted wrong this week.

And I'll explain why in the Poll Attacks ... right after I destroy the credentials of Kent State and Cornell

AP poll: Kent State and Cornell got votes this week. That's proof that voters are either dumb or being different for the sake of being different (or dumb) because Kent State and Cornell -- scrappy as they might be -- belong nowhere near anybody's Top 25 ballot. A team shouldn't be capable of getting votes if it still doesn't have any good wins in the middle of February unless it also doesn't have any bad losses. In fact, I'm going to add that to the official Gary Parrish Rules of Voting Memo I plan to send to all AP voters next October so I can stop spending every Monday exposing flaws.

Frankly, I get bored doing this every week.

It's not even fun anymore.

Anyway, back to Kent State and Cornell.

Kent State is 21-5 overall, and I understand why that might look nice at first glance. But 15 of those 21 victories have come against teams ranked outside the Top 100 at CollegeRPI.com while 10 have come against teams ranked outside the Top 200. Put another way, that's a 21-5 record against a schedule ranked 153rd nationally, and it features no Top 50 wins and two losses to opponents ranked 195th or worse (No. 197 Toledo and No. 286 Detroit). The Golden Flashes have only played two Top 50 opponents. They lost to North Carolina by 29 points and to Xavier by 13 points. And that's why Kent State shouldn't be getting the three points it got in this week's AP poll from the Idaho Statesman's Nick Jezierny.

(If that name sounds familiar it's because Nick is the same voter I Poll Attacked last week. I'm sure Nick is a swell guy. But he might be the worst voter in America. Not only does he have Kent State at No. 23, but he has Butler two spots ahead of North Carolina and three spots ahead of UCLA. I love Butler, but that's ridiculous. And Nick, if you're reading this, you're on your way to induction into the Poll Attack Hall of Fame.)

Cornell's body of work is similarly unimpressive.

Cornell is 16-5 overall, and I understand why that might look nice at first glance. But 15 of those 16 victories have come against teams ranked outside the Top 100 at CollegeRPI.com while 10 have come against teams ranked outside the Top 200. Put another way, that's a 16-5 record against a schedule ranked 237th nationally, and it features no Top 50 wins and two losses to opponents ranked 195th or worse (No. 198 Colgate and No. 208 Bucknell). The Big Red have only played two Top 50 opponents. They lost to Duke by 14 points and to Syracuse by 16 points. And that's why Cornell shouldn't be getting the one point it got in this week's AP poll from The Washington Post's John Feinstein.

(If that name sounds familiar it's because John is ... ah, you know who John is. He's a brilliant author, a living Legend and a gift from God for the Poll Attacks.)

Coaches poll: No team in the Top 25 of this silly poll has a losing record against the Top 100 at CollegeRPI.com except Wisconsin (3-4 against the Top 100). Yet somehow the Badgers are 10th in the coaches poll -- ahead of such schools as Xavier (10-4 against the Top 100), Connecticut (9-5 against the Top 100) and Stanford (9-4 against the Top 100).

Also ranked below the Badgers: Purdue.

And that's the one that really doesn't make sense.

The Boilermakers are 5-3 against the Top 100, the winners of 11 consecutive games and occupiers of the top spot in the Big Ten standings. If that's not enough, voters should also know that Purdue has beaten Wisconsin -- not once but twice.

1/26/08 (at Purdue): Boilermakers 60, Badgers 56.

2/9/08 (at Wisconsin): Boilermakers 72, Badgers 67.

To be clear, I don't mind Wisconsin being ranked; I like the team a lot, particularly how it owns two wins over Indiana. But it's difficult to make sense of the Badgers being 10th in the coaches poll when the only smart thing to do is to have them somewhere between Purdue and Indiana -- which is why I had Wisconsin at No. 15 in my Top 25 (and one) -- four spots below No. 11 Purdue and one spot ahead of No. 16 Indiana.