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By Morgan Reeder
Welcome to our series analyzing the women’s college basketball AP Top 25 poll. Every week, we look at the voters’ individual ballots and break down each team’s vote distribution.
After last weekend’s string of upsets, AP voters had some difficult decisions to make.
It’s no surprise, then, that this week’s poll had the highest average spread (number of places between a team’s highest vote and lowest vote) of any poll since November. As our chart shows, that variance is largest in the bottom two-thirds of the poll led by Arizona State’s spread of 19 places. The Sun Devils jumped from three points last week to 200 points this week, the largest point increase this season and enough to enter the poll at No. 18.
Voters generally agreed that South Carolina and Baylor are the top two teams in the nation with 20 votes for first and second place, respectively. Baylor’s 724 points were the most of any No. 2 team this season.
The next six teams - No. 3 Stanford to No. 8 Oregon State - form a clear second tier. The difference between them (78 points) is less than the difference between the Beavers and No. 9 NC State (126 points).
Four Different No. 1s
For only the fifth time ever and for the first time since 2004-05, the AP Top 25 Poll has a fourth different No. 1 team in a single season. At week 11, this is the earliest that the fourth team has taken the top spot. With South Carolina facing ranked teams in six of its remaining 13 games and plenty of teams at the Gamecocks’ heels, it is certainly possible that we’ll see a record fifth team named No. 1 this season.
Read more on the unprecedented parity this season, including a look at AP poll No. 1s.
Fun Fact
For the first time this season, the rankings would change if we remove outliers by discarding the highest and lowest votes for a team. With this method, No. 6 Oregon would move up a spot above Louisville and No. 23 Arkansas would pass Iowa.
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