Why are the Wisconsin Badgers still ranked in AP top 25?

You probably don’t need a reminder, but the Wisconsin Badgers are now 2-2 after a humbling 14-6 loss to Indiana this past Saturday.

Even with a .500 record, the Badgers remained – barely – in the latest Associated Press top 25, coming in at No. 25.

Some might ask: Why? How?

Perhaps it’s a dearth of quality teams. Or the fact that both losses came to ranked teams (and, hey, a third one is on the horizon this weekend).

But we’re here to look at the voters’ ballots to determine what’s going on.

Twenty-eight AP voters put Wisconsin on their ballot this past week, good for 115 points (you get 1 point for being ranked No. 25 on a ballot, 2 points for 24 and so on) – which is 17 points more than the next team, North Carolina State. Marshall, which was ranked No. 15 and lost to drop to 7-1, and 5-0 San Jose State are next at 66 points.

The highest vote the Badgers received was 16 by Don Williams of Lubbock Avalanche-Journal – who had Wisconsin at 16 last week, too. He wasn’t the only voter to keep UW in the same spot as two voters – Mlive Media Group’s Aaron McCann and the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Andy Greder had the Badgers at 18 in consecutive weeks.

The Oklahoman’s Ryan Aber moved Wisconsin up two spots, from 20 to 18. The teams Aber has on his ballot below the Badgers are: 5-2 Iowa, 4-0 Buffalo, 7-3 North Carolina, 9-1 Liberty, 6-3 Texas, 8-3 North Carolina State and 4-0 Colorado. Interestingly, he also had Indiana at No. 13 – the Hoosiers came in at No. 8 in this week’s top 25.

Here’s all the votes from Week 14 with Week 13 included for comparison’s sake: