Rutgers coach Kyle Flood vs WSU

Rutgers coach Kyle Flood's team earned a No. 20 vote from one writer in the AP poll.

(William Perlman/The Star-Ledger)

Initially, when I saw that Rutgers had six points in the Associated Press top 25 poll, I assumed that the Scarlet Knights picked up votes from a handful of writers.

Points in the poll are awarded in an inverse order, with a No. 1 vote worth 25 points and a No. 25 vote worth one point. Teams are then ranked by their point totals in descending order.

Considering that system, it seemed likely that Rutgers received a few votes in the 24-25 range. But it turns out the Knights received all six of their points from a single No. 20 vote.

The ballot was cast by Doug Lesmerises, who covers Ohio State for Cleveland.com. Doug does a great job covering the Buckeyes and he'll be a must-follow when Rutgers visits Ohio State on Oct. 18.

I reached out to Doug to find out why Rutgers earned a spot in his poll. He joked that the vote was a shout-out to New Jersey because his sister worked on the campaign of former Gov. Jim McGreevey. Here's Doug's actual explanation:

Doug's strength-of-opponent reasoning is similar to mine, as I had Rutgers ranked sixth in my first edition of the NJ.com Big Ten Power Rankings.

Rutgers also received two points in the coaches' poll, but those ballots aren't made available to the public.

Dan Duggan may be reached at dduggan@nj.com. Follow him on Twitter @DDuggan21. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.