Alabama can’t say it wasn’t warned about this Saturday’s opponent. Georgia Southern may be from the Football Championship Subdivision, but it received one vote in today’s Associated Press poll.

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That ballot belonged to Ray Ratto of Comcast Sports Bay Area.

Week 12: Nov. 13, 2011
Poll: AP Ballots CFB ‘11
Ray Ratto
Comcast Sports Bay Area (Online)
San Francisco, California

Rank Team
1 LSU
2 Oklahoma State
3 Alabama
4 Oregon
5 Arkansas
6 Oklahoma
7 Stanford
8 Boise State
9 Houston
10 Clemson
11 Virginia Tech
12 Nebraska
13 South Carolina
14 USC
15 Michigan State
16 Kansas State
17 Wisconsin
18 TCU
19 Georgia
20 Southern Miss
21 Michigan
22 Penn State
23 Baylor
24 West Virginia
25 Georgia Southern

The former San Francisco Chronicle columnist offered the following explanation for his vote by email Sunday afternoon:

“Frankly, I got tired of trying parse all the three-loss teams with good losses and no good wins and was leaning toward North Dakota State before it lost Saturday. Ga. Southern is next up on the FCS list to me.”

The Eagles (9-1) clinched the Southern Conference championship Saturday.

Update: Georgia Southern is only the third FCS team to receive a vote in the AP poll since it was first allowed in 2007. The move came after Appalachian State stunned Michigan to open the ’07 season and voters had no way of recognizing the Mountaineers accomplishment.

By By Michael Casagrande, The Daily Bama Blog
http://dailybamablog.com/2011/11/13/ap-voter-explains-why-he-voted-for-georgia-southern/