Every year, Nielsen and E-Poll conducts a survey to determine the Most Disliked Athletes . . . and this year, the top two only became disliked a FEW WEEKS AGO. This just goes to show, America really HATES LIARS and FOOLS.

They are: LANCE ARMSTRONG, the former superstar cyclist who recently confessed to DOPING . . . and MANTI TE'O, the former college football star who just confessed to BEING A DOPE.

The poll only included "active" athletes who scored a 10% awareness level with the public, which probably explains why there's nobody from, say, hockey, soccer or the UFC on it. (Lance is still considered "active" because he "still competes as an athlete," even though he's banned from officially sanctioned events.

Here's the Top 10 . . . along with each player's "appeal rating."

1.) Lance Armstrong . . . 15%

2.) Manti Te'o . . . 15% (--Lance has the same overall percentage as Manti, but people were able to denote what DEGREE of dislike they felt for each athlete. For instance, they could say whether they disliked someone "a lot" or "somewhat.") (--Fewer people disliked Manti "a lot", so Lance gets the top spot all to himself. The same thing happens further down the list.)

3.) Tiger Woods . . . 19%

4.) Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler . . . 21%

5.) Metta World Peace (the NBA athlete formerly known as Ron Artest) . . . 21%

6.) New York Yankees steroid-user Alex Rodriguez . . . 22%

7.) Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and dog abuser Michael Vick . . . 23%

8.) NASCAR driver Kurt Busch . . . 27%

9.) Kobe Bryant . . . 27%

10.) Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo . . . 27%

(The athletes on last year's list that dropped out of the Top 10 this year are: Plaxico Burress, Ndamukong Suh, Kris Humphries, LeBron James and Terrell Owens. Michael Vick and Tiger Woods were #1 and #2 last year, respectively.)