Last week CBS Sportsline's Gary Parrish noticed that one AP voter has left Syracuse off their ballot, realizing it was Jon Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News.  Especially confusing was the fact that Orange had just beaten Memphis...and the Tigers were still in his Top 25 while the Orange had dropped out despite going 2-1 that week. 

Surely this was a deliberate attempt by the San Jose literati to ruin Syracuse's chances of making it back to the NCAA Tournament by slowly but surely driving down their rank all season...

You guys were, um, vocal about it in the comment section over at Wilner's blog.  And he heard you.  Was this indeed West Coast bias at it's most criminal???  Nah, just a mistake:

Despite having the Orange on my ballot, I did not have them in the email I sent to the AP (which I then copy and paste onto the Hotline).

What happened? I must have skipped over the Orange at No. 17 and instead included the No. 26 team, which was Memphis. I somehow, idiotically, typed in Nos. 1-16 and 18-26.

Wilner had the Orange #17 in his original ballot (and Memphis #26) but somehow the wrong ballot went into the AP.  We'll allow it...this time.  But you can bet Cuse Nation will be keeping an eye on Wilner's ballot when it comes out Monday just to make sure.

It was simply a typo, and an embarrassing one, at that.

My bad, Orange fans. Next time I’m at Dinosaur, the ribs are on me

We're holding you to that.  Someone, set up a LiveCam at the Dinosaur BBQ now so we know when he's there...

H/T: VotePrime