My AP Top 25 vote this week:

1. Kansas
2. Texas
3. Purdue
4. Kentucky
5. West Virginia
6. Syracuse
7. Villanova
8. Duke
9. Georgetown
10. North Carolina
11. Connecticut
12. Ohio State
13. Michigan State
14. Kansas State
15. Washington
16. Tennessee
17. Clemson
18. New Mexico
19. Temple
20. Texas Tech
21. BYU
22. UAB
23. Miami
24. Mississippi
25. Florida State

Pretty uniform with the poll that came out today, which can be found here.

Northwestern was actually my last team out. I hadn’t had Ole Miss ranked, and that was probably a mistake, and I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far from BYU and Miami. The Hurricanes’ lone loss was a one-point defeat at Boston College in the ACC opener. Still no Gonzaga. Sorry.

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A couple of football notes:

* Ran across this item in the Des Moines Register today. The interesting part for Liberty fans is that Iowa State backup tailback Jeremiah Schwartz is considering transferring to an FCS school, and he’s already visited Liberty.

Schwartz’s bio can be found here.

Schwartz, a 232-pound redshirt freshman, rushed for 264 yards on 71 carries for the Cyclones this season.

* The magic day for Liberty fans to watch is Jan. 18, which is the first day of classes for the spring semester. Any transfer news is pretty fluid until a player actually enrolls in and attends a class at Liberty. We’ve seen players who were supposedly “done deals” in the past not actually show up to campus. I meet with coach Danny Rocco on the first day of classes every year, so look for a story on the official transfer list the next day.

* My thoughts on the schedule that was released last week. I thought Rocco’s assessment was pretty spot on: It’s not like Liberty is playing the NFC East, but at least it’s an all-Division I schedule. And that’s huge. I can nearly guarantee that unless Liberty goes 10-1 with the only loss coming in Big South play, the Flames—nor any other Big South team—will earn an at-large bid to the playoffs. I just can’t see the Big South or the Northeast being two-bid leagues unless something drastic happens.

The schedule isn’t a whole lot different from what Liberty played this season.

There’s a good FCS road game—at James Madison (this year it was Lafayette)

There’s an FBS guarantee game—at Ball State, which is much more of a winnable game than the West Virginia one was this year.

There’s an easy opponent for the home opener—St. Francis (last year, North Carolina Central)

There’s a breather just before conference play starts—Savannah State (last year, it was Division II West Virginia Wesleyan)

Robert Morris was kind of the odd game that materialized late, and it come forth because both teams had a need to fill the schedule. It’s not as good of a game as Lafayette was last year, so in that regard, this schedule is a notch below last year’s, but not too far below. I’m not sure if the RMU game is the start of a home-and-home series or not. I suspect it is. I’ll ask the next time I talk to athletics department people.

The good thing is that the Flames—and the rest of the league—have the playoff carrot to chase this time around, and you can believe Rocco’s entire focus will be on those six Big South games. The toughest games will be at home (Stony Brook, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb), and the toughest road game appears to be late in the year at Coastal Carolina.

That’s it for now. Look for more Saturday in Lexington as the Flames return to Big South basketball play at VMI.