re: LSU ranked No. 6 in preseason AP

The AP announced a few weeks ago that the preseason poll would include ALL teams.

However, once the season begins and games are played any teams that aren’t playing will be removed from the polls.

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The AP has asked its voters to consider all Division I teams when filling out their ballots, so the preseason poll is expected to include teams from conferences that have decided not to play this fall. After games begin, voters will rank only teams that are scheduled to play. "The preseason poll has always been a speculative ranking of teams based on last year's results and knowledge about the new makeup of teams," said Michael Giarrusso, AP's global sports editor. "This year, we think it is crucial to give all the teams and all their fans a snapshot look at what the Top 25 would have been to open the season." The pandemic has already gutted a significant portion of the season. Two major conferences, the Big Ten and Pac-12, have called off fall sports. For now, 67 out of 130 Bowl Subdivision teams, including those from the ACC, Big 12 and SEC, are still planning a fall football season. The AP panel of 62 sports writers and broadcasters will vote accordingly. The AP provides guidelines to voters that are both broad and brief, understanding the task is more art than science, especially early in a season. The first sentence of those guidelines: "Base your vote on performance, not reputation." "The AP will collect and distribute the votes of our media panel as we always have," Giarrusso said. "Once games kick off, it does not make sense to rank teams that are not participating. There is no solution that will satisfy every fan or every team. But ranking teams that play is the one that makes the most sense."

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