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Watching the Polls: Baylor Matches Highest AP Rank Ever at 3, #4 in Coaches

The weekly AP and Coaches Polls are out, and Baylor matches its highest ranking ever in the AP Poll, stays at #4 in the Coaches.

"We were this close to being #3 in both polls" - Seth Russell, probably not
"We were this close to being #3 in both polls" - Seth Russell, probably not
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

After a dominant win over Texas Tech yesterday, the Baylor Bears are rising in the AP poll, if holding pat in the Coaches Poll at this point. In the Coaches Poll, TCU leapfrogged Michigan State after a dominant performance by the Frogs over Texas. Michigan State struggled, and ended up third in the poll, just one point ahead of Baylor. Again.

That said, the Bears match their best-ever ranking in the AP poll at 3rd. Michigan State drops to fifth. The Bears are a mere 7 points behind TCU, who occupies the #2 spot. Here are the full polls, including the Massey and the S&P+ rankings, courtesy of The Mothership.

AP Coaches Massey S&P+
1 Ohio State (38) Ohio State (50) Oklahoma Alabama
2 TCU (5) TCU (4) Ohio State Oklahoma
3 Baylor (10) Michigan State (1) Alabama Michigan
4 Michigan State Baylor (5) Utah Clemson
5 Utah (7) LSU (1) LSU Florida
6 Clemson Clemson Texas A&M USC
7 LSU Utah (1) TCU West Virginia
8 Alabama Florida State Baylor Florida State
9 Texas A&M (1) Oklahoma Clemson LSU
10 Oklahoma Alabama Northwestern Stanford
11 Florida Texas A&M Stanford Duke
12 Florida State Florida Florida Notre Dame
13 Northwestern Ole Miss Florida State Louisville
14 Ole Miss Northwestern Michigan Ole Miss
15 Notre Dame Notre Dame Ole Miss Toledo
16 Stanford Georgia USC Wisconsin
17 USC USC Michigan State Arkansas
18 Michigan Stanford Notre Dame Boston College
19 Georgia Oklahoma State UCLA Utah
20 UCLA UCLA Georgia Penn State
21 Oklahoma State Michigan Iowa Navy
22 Iowa Cal Oklahoma State Texas A&M
23 Cal Iowa West Virginia Iowa
24 Toledo Boise State Toledo Minnesota
25 Boise State Memphis Navy Ohio State

Don't ask me what's going on with S&P+, because I don't know. I'm assuming that Bill Connelly has removed all of the preseason projections this week, which only comprised 10% of this past week's rankings. I'm not sure that 10% of the projections would drop us from 18 to 39. Bill's said he's going to write about it this week, so we may see an explanation.

Going back to the rankings that don't matter that we "really" care about for the purposes of this post, interesting to me that Baylor, at #3 in the AP and #4 in the Coaches, received the second most first-place votes in both polls. They received 10 votes in the AP and 5 in the Coaches poll. People are starting to take notice of the Bears and how they're playing.

Also from the Big 12, Oklahoma moves into the Top Ten in both polls after a solid defeat of a West Virginia team whose hype train was just gearing up to leave the station.  Oklahoma State survived some serious Bill Snyder sorcery (he had his fifth string QB, a wide receiver, playing for more than a half) and remain in the high teens/low 20s in both polls.

Thoughts about the Bears' rankings in these polls? Let's talk about it!