Revealing Harvard's AP poll voter

Wondering how Harvard got listed in that prestigious "Others receiving votes" addendum to the AP Top 25 college basketball poll this week? Look no further than WBAL-TV 11, a television station in Baltimore, workplace of sports reporter and AP voter Pete Gilbert. Gilbert placed the Crimson 25th in his poll this week, marking the third year in a row in which Harvard has received a vote.

Other than WBAL's executive sports producer "screaming" at him for choosing Harvard over Michigan State (don't worry, they fight all the time), Gilbert hasn't received much feedback on his bold vote. The Spartans ended up getting the 25th spot in the official rankings, despite Gilbert's reasoning. "Instead of saying Michigan St. - which granted has played a much tougher schedule but has lost so many games and from watching them in person hasn’t competed that well - rather than just stay with the status quo, maybe someone else deserves some publicity there," he thought.

"Part of it was the back end of the poll this year has had so much turmoil," Gilbert said. "Two weeks ago I had six new teams in. It made me want to investigate a little bit deeper and looking through what Harvard has done with wins over Colorado, at Boston College and most recently at George Washington, who is a pretty good team, that definitely sparked my interest. And reading a little bit more, seeing that the team could win despite its leading scorer not playing well - Keith Wright getting basically shutout against GW - that’s pretty telling to me that this is a team of substance."

And for those curious about how media members even become AP voters, here's Gilbert's story: He's a friend of AP Sports Writer and football and basketball voter David Ginsburg. When Ginsburg wanted to lighten his load last year, he offered Gilbert - a self-proclaimed "basketball junkie" - his spot on the voting panel. "As a former high school basketball coach before I got into doing TV and radio, I’ve very much enjoyed it and it has allowed me to take a closer look at college basketball," Gilbert said.

(As a sidenote, his wife attended St. Joe's so he's very familiar with Penn and the tradition of the Big 5. "As a program, it’s one I’ve always appreciated," he said.)

Now, the Baltimore native has left a definite mark on the voting, and given Harvard Athletics something to brag about. "I didn’t know that it was the only vote," he said. "It doesn’t matter to me about doing that. [The AP] said to me, 'make sure to vote what you believe and what you think. Don’t vote what you think somebody wants you to vote.'"

Gilbert added that he could envision the Crimson picking up more votes with a strong run through the Ivy League. Still, voting is a "week-to-week" process and thus teams could easily vault past Harvard if they pull off something impressive.

My quick take? This makes me skeptical of the AP poll - 1. I don't think you should be able to get an AP vote just because you know somebody within the AP and 2. teams shouldn't get votes just because a reporter wanted to go out on a limb. At the same time, I think it's positive for the Ivies to get some much-deserved publicity. With media darling Cornell now much weaker than last year, fans should know that the Ancient Eight puts out formidable teams each year. Who knows - maybe in a couple weeks Penn will be able to boast about beating a team that got an AP vote, thanks to Pete Gilbert. The Quakers and Crimson meet Feb. 5 at the Palestra and March 4 at Lavietes Pavilion.