Meet the AP Poll Voters Who Ranked Michigan State No. 1 over Ohio State

Ohio State's unprecedented dominance of the No. 1 votes in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll didn't last long.

Two AP voters decided to put the Buckeyes' top competition in the Big Ten—the Michigan State Spartans—on top of their respective ballots in the Week 3 poll, which was released Sunday.

One of those voters may come as a surprise to some college football fans. 

Doug Lesmerises of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, who covers the Buckeyes, put Michigan State at No. 1 and Ohio State at No. 2 in his ballot.

But for those who have read Lesmerises in the past and know his basis for ranking teams, the Spartans aren't too much of a shock after their 31-28 home victory over defending Pac-12 champion Oregon on Saturday night.

"As always, I vote on results," Lesmerises wrote Sunday. "And the Spartans' win over Oregon, though at home and against a team without a quarterback quite like last year's Heisman winner, Marcus Mariota, was the best win in the country so far."

And as someone who has watched Ohio State closely in the first two weeks of the season, Lesmerises isn't overly impressed with how the Buckeyes looked in their road win over Virginia Tech and their shutout over Hawaii in Week 2.

"Ohio State's schedule didn't allow the Buckeyes a win like that in the first two weeks, and the Buckeyes didn't play eight dominant quarters in their two wins," Lesmerises wrote. "They did pull away in a tough environment at Virginia Tech in week one after trailing at halftime and the outcome was never in doubt against Hawaii in week two."

Lesmerises results-over-everything style led to a few more shakeups in his AP ballot for Week 3, including:

• UCLA at No. 5
• LSU at No. 7
• Baylor at No. 10 
• Northwestern at No. 14
• Temple at No. 21
• Toledo at No. 24
• Houston at No. 25

The second AP voter to put the Spartans above the Buckeyes this weekend was Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News—another voter who has raised some eyebrows in the past with his methods.

Like Lesmerises, Wilner weighted his ballot toward results, and he had Michigan State recording the best win of the young season against Oregon.

After all, he made a similar move this time last year, as he noted in a post Sunday.

"This very week last year, I moved Oregon to No. 1—ahead of the undefeated, top-ranked, defending champions (Florida State)—after the Ducks beat … you know where this is going … Michigan State," Wilner wrote. "Oregon over MSU was the best win to that point. MSU over Oregon is the best win thus far."

But Wilner's biggest surprise might have been what he did with the team Michigan State beat Saturday night.

In his ballot, Wilner moved Oregon several spots up to No. 4—and he even thought about moving the Ducks higher.

"Thought about slotting them right behind Michigan State, given how close the game was," Wilner said. "But I ultimately decided Ohio State’s win over VaTech [sic] (road) and Alabama’s win over Wisconsin (neutral) deserved an ever-so-slight slight edge over Oregon’s loss in East Lansing."

While Lesmerises and Wilner will receive some criticism from fans for not putting Ohio State at No. 1, it's refreshing to see two pollsters who approach the task from a different angle. Instead of just sticking with the baseline Top 25 and adjusting from there, they're bringing their own reasoning to the table.

Hopefully some of their AP colleagues will follow suit.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.