Joel Klatt blasts AP Top 25 voters over Tennessee, USC and Miami's rankings

It is still too early to know anything, but Joel Klatt is absolutely furious at the Associated Press for seemingly mailing it in when it comes to the latest AP Top 25 Poll for Week 3. The good news is this poll will only be our guiding light in college football for several more weeks. November will be here soon enough. That is when the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will tell us what is up.

Even though Klatt played quarterback in the Big 12 for a former Pac-12 team that is now back in the Big 12, he lives to carry water for the Big Ten, even though he doesn't need to, and nobody asked for it. He and broadcast partner Gus Johnson dominate the first window of TV viewing every Saturday. The only problem is they usually end up calling a hellacious stinker where someone looks like death.

For those who need a visual, here is what the Associated Press decided were the 25 best teams.

1. Georgia Bulldogs: (1,566 points, 54 first-place votes)
2. Texas Longhorns (1,492 points, 4 first-place votes)
3. Ohio State Buckeyes (1,476 points, 5 first-place votes)
4. Alabama Crimson Tide (1,331 points)
5. Ole Miss Rebels (1,323 points)
6. Missouri Tigers (1,125 points)
7. Tennessee Volunteers (1,107 points)
8. Penn State Nittany Lions (1,090 points)
9. Oregon Ducks (1,077 points)
10. Miami Hurricanes (1,073 points)
11. USC Trojans (1,022 points)
12. Utah Utes (1,010 points)
13. Oklahoma State Cowboys (734 points)
14. Kansas State Wildcats (702 points)
15. Oklahoma Sooners (672 points)
16. LSU Tigers (521 points)
17. Michigan Wolverines (503 points)
18. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (427 points)
19. Louisville Cardinals (383 points)
20. Arizona Wildcats (381 points)
21. Iowa State Cyclones (309 points)
22. Clemson Tigers (292 points)
23. Nebraska Cornhuskers (142 points)
24. Boston College Eagles (116 points)
25. Northern Illinois Huskies (114 points)

And here are the 10 best teams in college football, according to Klatt, plus a few others he likes, too.

The only thing I would attach "almost" to Michigan is it almost being a football team worth watching...

“Now you’re staring at a USC team that looks like they are for real. I put them in my top 10, and they deserve to be in the top 10.

While there are some things with this top 10 I love, there are others that I cannot get behind right now.

“The AP voters are terrible. They just move them up and down. I’m sorry if you have an AP vote and you’re listening to this, I love you, I love your passion for the sport, [but] give me a break with what you gave us in the AP Poll. That was terrible.”

Yes, the AP may be lazy for having Alabama at No. 4 and Oregon at No. 9, but I can live with the rest.

"Like Tennessee and USC are clearly two of the best top-10 teams in the country, and so that’s where they should be. And you don’t have them there. And I think that that’s garbage. Miami as well. Miami as well.”

Yes, Tennessee should be comfortably inside the top 10, while USC and Miami should be right there.

Here is the latest episode of The Joel Klatt Show where he harpooned the AP voters like a whale.

I don't hate what he is saying, but having Michigan as an "almost" destroys his entirely credibility here.

Joel Klatt unleashes hell on earth on poor AP Top 25 voters on his show

If I was a member of the Associated Press, here is what my top 10 probably would have looked like:

1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Texas Longhorns
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Tennessee Volunteers
5. Ole Miss Rebels
6. USC Trojans
7. Missouri Tigers
8. Penn State Nittany Lions
9. Miami Hurricanes
10. Alabama Crimson Tide

Right now, those would be 10 of my 12 College Football Playoff teams with Utah winning the Big 12 and Boise State winning the Mountain West and Group of Five. Oregon and Utah were two teams I was incredibly high on this season that have underwhelmed at times. I like Alabama's upside, but it is still so hard to forecast what the Crimson Tide are going to be under new head coach Kalen DeBoer.

So instead of six of the top seven teams in the country being from the SEC, I would have had five with USC essentially taking Alabama's overinflated spot at No. 4 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. While I think people are still trying to figure out how they feel about Missouri, you can't have a ballot without Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Ole Miss outside of the top seven, plus with Ohio State in the top five.

Overall, if you really have a bone to pick with the AP voters, take a look further down the poll at those who are ranked but outside the top 25. I don't trust Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Oklahoma at No. 10-13 after No. 12 Utah, not do I really trust No. 16-18 with LSU, Michigan and Notre Dame either. Then we arrive at the Louisvilles and the Arizonas of the world who might be good, but we don't know.

If you really want to have a conniption fit, do you honestly feel Northern Illinois is the 25th best team?