Reported Analysis · 2026 Week 5
Javon Edmonds Leaves No. 12 Utah Off His AP Ballot
Every other voter ranked the Utes between eighth and 15th. Edmonds had them 17th last week, before leaving them out during their bye.
All numbered votes: No. 8–15
Sole omission: Javon Edmonds
Javon Edmonds of the Syracuse Post-Standard left Utah off his October 4 AP ballot, making him the only one of 70 voters to omit the 12th-ranked Utes. Every other voter put Utah in the top 15.
The omission came during Utah’s bye week. The Utes remained 4–0 after their September 26 win at Iowa State, with Kansas next on October 10, according to Utah Athletics’ schedule. Utah gained 93 poll points and moved up one spot while Edmonds removed a team he had ranked in four consecutive editions.
Four Weeks of Support End With an Omission
Edmonds ranked Utah 17th in Week 1, 16th in Weeks 2 and 3, and 17th again in Week 4. His preseason ballot also omitted Utah, so this is a return to an earlier exclusion rather than his first Utah omission of the season.
| Edition | Edmonds’s Utah Vote |
|---|---|
| Preseason, August 17 | Not Ranked |
| Week 1, September 8 | No. 17 |
| Week 2, September 13 | No. 16 |
| Week 3, September 20 | No. 16 |
| Week 4, September 27 | No. 17 |
| Week 5, October 4 | Not Ranked |
He was already less enthusiastic about Utah than the rest of the panel. His No. 17 placement was the lowest Utah vote last week, when all 70 voters included the Utes. That disagreement matters when assessing the omission: his earlier ballots show consistent inclusion, but they also show support below the eventual AP ranking.
The Other 69 Voters Have Utah in a Narrow Range
This week’s numbered Utah votes run from No. 8 to No. 15. Thirty voters put the Utes 11th or higher, 21 put them 12th, and the remaining 18 ranked them 13th through 15th. Nobody submitted a Utah vote from 16th through 25th.
Edmonds submitted a full 25-team ballot. Its final five are Boise State, Northwestern, Arizona, James Madison and North Dakota State. The full ballot lets readers examine those choices alongside the rest of his rankings.
Utah’s overall gain also masks two different changes. Last week, Edmonds’s No. 17 vote supplied nine of the Utes’ 903 points. The other 69 voters supplied 894. Those same 69 supplied all 996 points this week, an increase of 102 that outweighed the loss of his nine points and left Utah with a net gain of 93.
Where the Other 69 Voters Put Utah
One Vote Would Not Close the Gap to No. 11
Utah trails Texas Tech by 66 points, 1,062 to 996. AP scoring gives a team 25 points for a first-place vote, declining to one for 25th; an omitted team receives none.
Utah996AP No. 12
Texas Tech1,062AP No. 11
Even an illustrative addition of the maximum 25 points would leave Utah at 1,021, still 41 behind Texas Tech with Texas Tech’s total held fixed. His previous No. 17 placement was worth nine points.
The omission is worth examining because it breaks four consecutive weeks of inclusion while the rest of the electorate clusters Utah inside the top 15. Edmonds’s lower placement last week also shows that his disagreement predates Sunday. An oversight is plausible, but a deliberate reassessment remains possible; Poll Behavior has not verified his explanation.
Sources & Methodology
The October 4 Week 5 AP capture contains all 70 complete ballots. Comparisons use the identical 70 voters in the September 27 Week 4 edition; Edmonds’s history covers the six available 2026 editions. Points were recomputed from numbered ranks, with omissions recorded separately. Utah’s record and schedule come from Utah Athletics. The point illustration keeps other team totals fixed.
