The AP Top 25 gets reshuffled every week, but one ballot has college football fans asking a much bigger question: who is checking the math? Greg Luca’s latest ballot left the unbeaten ACC team Pittsburgh Panthers completely off his Top 25 while moving Mississippi State up to No. 10 despite the Bulldogs suffering a 33-point loss to Alabama. The unusual choices have fans questioning how the ballot was put together, with some even calling for Luca to lose his voting rights.

Pittsburgh is 5-0 after a 35-33 win at Virginia Tech, where the Panthers erased a 14-0 deficit. Whereas Mississippi State is 4-1 and lost 56-23 to Alabama. Greg Luca of the San Antonio Express-News, who serves as a Heisman and AP Top 25 voter for college football, ranked the Bulldogs 10th and left Pitt out entirely.

“AP voter Greg Luca had Miss State #18 and Pitt #23 last week,” CFB Kings posted on X. “Miss State lost by 33 points to Alabama. Pitt beat 4-0 Virginia Tech on the road. You want to know where he has those two ranked in his ballot today? He moved 4-1 Miss State up to #10. He dropped 5-0 Pitt to unranked.

“Yes, he moved Miss State UP 8 SPOTS FOR LOSING BY 33 POINTS, and dropped Pitt OUT OF THE RANKINGS FOR BEATING AN UNDEFEATED TEAM ON THE ROAD.”

Luca’s ballot entering Week 5 last week had Mississippi State at No. 18 and Pitt at No. 23. And after Week 5, Luca moved Mississippi State up to No. 10 and dropped Pittsburgh out of his Top 25.

In the full AP poll, however, the Bulldogs dropped a place to No. 17 while Pitt came up seven places to No. 25.

In an article in the San Antonio Express-News, Luca explained his reasoning. His logic was based on a head-to-head chain in the ranking: the Bulldogs beat Missouri, Missouri beat Florida, and Florida beat Ole Miss.

“Why wouldn’t they be ranked in that order, then?” was Luca’s question.

On comparing the last few games, Virginia Tech outgained Pitt 499-295. But the Panthers forced four turnovers, scored 14 points off them, and won without quarterback Mason Heintschel, who tore his ACL. Meanwhile, Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor threw two interceptions while playing through an injury, and the Bulldogs ran for 18 net yards, while Alabama had 179 net yards and 483 total.

The Panthers are currently 5-0 and 2-0 in the ACC. After the win against Virginia Tech, coach Pat Narduzzi has made his pitch to the AP voters with a blunt message.

“We’ve got a hell of a football team,” Narduzzi said. “Now, any of those voters out there, if they wake their a– up, they might figure that out.”

And fans seemed to land on a similar sentiment after coming across Luca’s ballot.

CFB fans want AP to hold voters “accountable”

Fans were frustrated by Luca’s uneven rankings, arguing that they seemed less focused on overall performance, strength of schedule, quality of opponents, and what teams actually performed better on the field.

“How does this person have a vote? This is insane…,” ESPN analyst Eric Mac Lain commented on X.

Plenty of Pitt fans agreed, as Luca’s ranking sits far outside the general consensus.

“How do we hold these voters accountable? If they can’t give real votes, they should be revoked and replaced!” another fan commented.

AP releases each voter’s ballot, so fans can spot the odd one out within hours, and the same happened with Luca’s ranking being criticized.

“Dropping an unbeaten road winner while promoting a team that just lost by 33 is exactly why the AP ballot gets screenshotted every Sunday,” one fan commented.

Luca himself pointed to the AP’s guidance, which encourages voters to consider head-to-head results. That made his decision to leave Pitt out of his Week 5 Top 25 more difficult for fans to understand after the Panthers had just beaten Virginia Tech, who entered 4-0 in Week 5.

“People like this should get audited and cycled out when things don’t make sense,” another X user posted.

Another fan criticized the system as a whole.

“If only there were a way to compete without rankings, like almost every other sport,” they commented.

“Look it’s not great but this stuff really doesn’t matter,” echoed another. “The AP poll is meaningless. The only ranking that matters is the CFP ranking.”

Ten of Luca’s 25 teams are from the SEC, while two are from the ACC. His article did not mention the Panthers at all, though Luca provided a long explanation of his ballot.

But outside chatter aside, the Panthers might start with quarterback Holden Geriner when North Carolina visits on Oct. 10, before they face Boston College on Oct. 17.