Anti-USC bias in AP top 25 college football poll?

When the 2011 week 13 AP college football top 25 poll came out, I had a mild shock that Oregon remained higher than USC.  I figured there would be some voters who felt that Oregon should be ranked slightly better than USC, even though the Trojans had just beaten the Ducks in Autzen.  Still, it was gnawing at me to figure out who these voters were that had voted Oregon above USC.

After pulling and laying out the data, it was quickly obvious that something real was going on.  Normally you'd expect most voters to place USC one or two spots above Oregon -- which is what the first chart shows (Oregon rank - USC rank = differential on each ballot).  But then you'll notice that there are quite a few outlier voters who place Oregon much higher than USC in their ballots.

Now, I know that a lot of people think Oregon is still better, but wow...three people voted Oregon nine spots or higher than USC.  What in the world is up with that,Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times (FL), Joe Medley of the Anniston Star (AL) and Mitch Vingle of the Charleston Gazette (WV)?

For comparison, here's a chart of how voters feel about Michigan State and Michigan, both 9-2 but Michigan State won its head-to-head match-up with Michigan. Notice how unequivocal their decision.  In fact, not a single ballot shows Michigan on top of Michigan State.

Now, to illustrate the bias against USC, here's a chart of the net sum of voters (total USC votes for specific slot in the poll minus the total Oregon votes for that specific slot).  It's a bit schizophrenic, but basically voters tended to up-vote Oregon while continue to down-vote USC, with a few odd outliers, but the results were mixed, to be sure.

Now this is what it looks like, when you compare Michigan State and Michigan. Notice how clear the difference is, even though they're both 9-2...presumably because Michigan State won head-to-head, right? But Michigan just blew away Nebraska, while MSU lost to Nebraska.

In other words, USC should be somewhat similar to MSU, but voters don't see it that way.

The parallel seems perfect, in that USC lost to Stanford, but beat Oregon, who beat Stanford, while MSU lost to Nebraska but beat Michigan, who beat Nebraska.  Get my point?  Voters are presented with parallel situations of possible confusion, but are clearly seeing Michigan State - Michigan differently from USC- Oregon.  Not to confuse the situation any more, but at home ND lost badly to USC while whipping MSU...but USC is only one poll spot above MSU.

So why is that?  Well, for starters, USC had dropped out of the top 25 a couple times, with low expectations set up from last year's 8-5 finish and a mediocre start.  Further, as a result of the Paul Dee hypocritical bowl ban, USC fell out of the minds of many voters, with the expectation that USC would not be very good for the next several seasons.

But a funny thing happened...Lane Kiffin is actually a good coach and he's got some good recruiters too!

So AP voters...come on folks...think about your votes, eh?

And incidentally, Barkley for Heisman!