AP college football voter sparks outrage after humiliating gaffe in her latest rankings

College football fans are calling for one Orange County Register reporter to lose voting privileges over a controversial submission for this week's Associated Press Top-25 poll.

Haley Sawyer, who covers the Southern California (USC) Trojans, ranked the University of Florida at No. 14 in her weekly submission to the AP. The problem, as thousands of critics have since pointed out online, is that she ranked the Gators at No. 16 a week earlier before they were upset at home by unranked South Florida on Saturday.

So by losing, Florida somehow ascended two spots in Sawyer's eyes.

Meanwhile, South Florida did not even make Sawyer's Top-25 rankings despite beating the Gators, 18-16, on a last-second field goal by Nico Gramatica, the son of former NFL kicker Martin.

Sawyer has since addressed the issue in an online interview, but stopped short of giving a full explanation, saying she doesn't 'want to go too much into my process' before dismissing her poll entirely: 'It's really fun but it doesn't probably matter in the end.'

Launched in 1936 as a way to compare teams from across the college football landscape, the AP poll relies on sportswriters to determine the best 25 college football teams on a weekly basis during the season. There is a similar coaches' poll that has been in existence since 1950, but neither is used to determine the field for the decade-old College Football Playoff (CFP), so many see the rankings as irrelevant.

Just don't tell that college football fans, who are now coming for her vote – and her job - after the 'senseless ballot.'

Several critics wrote on X that Sawyer should be 'fired immediately,' while many more focused their rage on the AP for giving her a vote.

'Let's strip her vote @AP,' he wrote. 'After all, 'it doesn't even matter in the end.'

Others resorted to name calling, like Outkick's Clay Travis, who wrote that Stewart is 'a moron' who 'wasn't willing to do the bare minimum of work to rank teams.'

Although her X account is switched to 'private,' Sawyer did respond to her critics on Instagram with a photo of her smiling face.

'Imagine hating me and I'm just at work like,' she captioned the post. 

Others were more diplomatic, such as ex-NFL and Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell.

'I don't want to put her on blast too much because I know college football fans can be ruthless, but this is a rough look for AP voter Haley Sawyer,' Kanell wrote. 'Don't single her out tho because she's not the only one with an embarrassingly bad ballot!!'

Another fan suggested Sawyer's poll is more consequential than she realizes because higher rankings can benefit teams in a number of ways.

'Little does she realize that her rankings actually have significant impact on recruiting, TV slots, NIL and just money a university can potentially earn,' the fan wrote. 'It's not just "fun" it's a privilege to have a saying on the college football landscape and should be taken seriously.'

The College Football Playoff rankings will be released in November and offer a much more substantial impact on the postseason.

Those rankings are determined by a 13-member selection committee using, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, conference championships, and common opponent results.

Ultimately the top-12 teams will be selected for the annual CFP.