As a voter, here’s the skinny on the AP men’s basketball Top 25: It just doesn’t matter

College basketball rankings are kind of bogus.

That opinion comes with the current experience of being a voter in the Associated Press men’s basketball rankings this season.

I was asked to be Iowa’s representative in the 63-voter AP poll this season and foolishly agreed. It requires trying to pay attention to the entirety of college hoops, with the knowledge you can only see so much.

There are umpteen games a night. A person has to make time for meditation and walking the dog. Which I don’t do. But a boy can dream.

Also, it is a task without a financial reward. Like I said, I foolishly agreed.

I try to do the best I can with the vote each week, yes I do. I also know the poll isn’t a tablet of stone. It has no bearing on who is selected for the NCAA tournament.

Two years ago, the final poll before the NCAA tourney began had Alabama, Houston, Purdue and Kansas ranked first through fourth. The Final Four featured Connecticut (ranked 10th), Miami (16th), San Diego State (18th) and Florida Atlantic (unranked, as it was all season).

Last year, unranked North Carolina State was a national semifinalist.

Nonetheless, there are people who take this stuff very seriously. I’m looking at you, the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Like just two other voters, I didn’t have Kentucky in my Top 25 this week. AP releases how its voters vote. After it did so Monday, insults about me started flying Monday on the always-civil social media website once known as Twitter.

“I couldn’t imagine my job being as simple as ordering the best college basketball teams and consistently being this bad it,” tweeted Matt Sak, a co-host of the “Rupp to No Good” podcast. Once I got his statement translated, I was hurt and ashamed. Until I realized ranking teams isn’t actually my job.

Admittedly, just like when I vote for dogcatcher, I’m biased. I put more emphasis on what I’ve seen, and I think the Wildcats had lost every time I’ve watched them. I saw their 89-79 home defeat to unranked Arkansas last week. Eww.

I was quickly reminded by the Kentuckians that the seven-loss Wildcats had beaten a bunch of good teams, more than anyone else. Their team then backed it up Tuesday by knocking off No. 5 Tennessee. So next week I’ll move Kentucky well up my ballot and face someone else’s wrath instead.

By the way, Kentucky would have been ranked 15th even had I voted the Wildcats No. 1. It’s like casting a vote in a real election. It rarely changes the results.

As Ricky Nelson sang so well, you can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself. A couple weeks ago, it was Marquette fans who were not pleased with me.

I got emails from them, irked I voted them lower than they believed was justified after the Eagles fell at home to UConn. Marquette then lost its next two games. Sometimes it’s best to leave me alone.

My inclination often is to give the last spots to mid-majors who usually get neglected. On Sunday I put the 22-2 Drake Bulldogs at No. 25.

I’d have done so were they located in Vermont or Idaho rather than Iowa. If you’re 22-2 anywhere, you deserve a vote. This was written before Drake played at Illinois State Wednesday night. Win or lose, the Bulldogs are a great story. Ten other people voted for them, by the way, and a West Virginia voter had them 21st.

Early in the season, I spent a No. 25 vote on Hofstra. The Pride had won their first four games, knocking off Seton Hall of the Big East and Massachusetts of the Atlantic-10. Who was it hurting to give them a vote? Someone has to stand up for the little guy.

The Long Island school immediately swooned over me. The Hofstra men’s basketball formerly-Twitter account posted this:

“We hereby think that @Hlas should change his name to Mike Hlastra (see what we did there).”

I confess I then may have had visions of Hofstra winning 30 games and rewarding my early recognition of its greatness by making me an assistant professor of something.

Alas, the Pride now is 12-13 and tied for 11th place in the Coastal Athletic Association. Ah well. As my new amigos in Kentucky and Marquette know, the real treasure is the friends we made along the way.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com