AP Voter Admits He Forgot To Rank BYU Basketball In Top 25

PROVO, Utah – With BYU Basketball up to No. 17 in the latest AP Top 25 college basketball poll, a majority of the voters placed the Cougars in their polls. But there were two voters who didn’t have BYU ranked at all.

One of them admitted to having a “mind-block” and forgetting to rank BYU altogether.

John Feinstein, an author of 27 books (Season On The Brink) and columnist for The Washington Post was one of the two AP voters that didn’t rank BYU in his weekly Top 25 college basketball ballot. Twitter users, one can only assume they were BYU basketball fans, tweeted at Feinstein asking why he didn’t rank the Cougars.

Screw those rankings. Here's the answer: I screwed up. Mind-block. I'm old. And YES, I watch games.

— John Feinstein (@JFeinsteinBooks) February 24, 2020

“Screw those rankings. Here’s the answer: I screwed up. Mind-block. I’m old. And YES, I watch games,” Feinstein said in a reply to a user on his personal Twitter account.

After attempting to reply to other tweets asking why he didn’t rank the Cougars, he just made it clear to everyone that it was an honest mistake.

So, I don't have to respond 100 times: I blew it this morning leaving BYU out of my poll. Had a mind block. AP laid off the guy who caught stuff like this last week. He wasn't there to rescue me.

— John Feinstein (@JFeinsteinBooks) February 24, 2020

“So, I don’t have to respond 100 times: I blew it this morning leaving BYU out of my poll. Had a mind block. AP laid off the guy who caught stuff like this last week. He wasn’t there to rescue me.”

Feinstein had Stephen F. Austin, New Mexico State, and Liberty in the 23rd, 24th, and 25th spots of his poll respectively.

The other AP voter that didn’t have BYU ranked this week was Brian Holland a TV anchor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Unlike Feinstein, he hasn’t replied to a few of the tweets from BYU fans asking why he didn’t rank the Cougars.

Where Pollsters ranked BYU

Here’s where some of the national college basketball reporters/analysts have BYU ranked in their Top 25 ballots.

• Jon Rothstein (CBS Sports): 14
• Dick Vitale (ESPN): 16
• Rob Dauster (NBC Sports): 18
• Seth Davis (CBS): 18
• Jeff Call (BYU beat writer, Deseret News): 15

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.