[crackpot]

While voters did not punish us for our close OT win against Gonzaga at home, they did reward the Bulldogs and they became ranked at #23. As the ESPN article pointed out, it's rare for a team to move up after a loss, but apparently either the voters were impressed by Gonzaga or they think very highly of us that a very competitive loss was reason enough to push the Zags into the Top 25

This sort of circular reasoning happens in SEC football all the time.  Also, Wilner applies this methodology to his rankings.

BC

Pretty sure in 2002 after a loss at Tennessee, Stanford jumped up in the poll, too, due to looking better than expected.

[crackpot]

While voters did not punish us for our close OT win against Gonzaga at home, they did reward the Bulldogs and they became ranked at #23. As the ESPN article pointed out, it's rare for a team to move up after a loss, but apparently either the voters were impressed by Gonzaga or they think very highly of us that a very competitive loss was reason enough to push the Zags into the Top 25

This sort of circular reasoning happens in SEC football all the time.  Also, Wilner applies this methodology to his rankings.

BC

Pretty sure in 2002 after a loss at Tennessee, Stanford jumped up in the poll, too, due to looking better than expected.