AP Poll Pre

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1956

7/1/1956

Preseason Poll

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Oklahoma (111)	1,427	1
2	Michigan State (20)	1,000	2
3	Notre Dame (5)	882	9
4	Georgia Tech (3)	793	7
5	Ohio State	703	5
6	Maryland	664	3
7	TCU (2)	649	6
8	Michigan (2)	477	12
9	Texas A&M	276	17
10	Pittsburgh (2)	217	11
11	Army	143	20
12	Tennessee (2)	122	NR
13	Mississippi	101	10
14	Stanford	92	16
15	USC (2)	78	13
16	Duke	77	NR
17	UCLA	53	4
18	Miami	46	14
19	Yale	43	NR
20	Illinois	31	NR

Associated Press Poll
Started in 1936.

More Info

The Associated Press began running polls of sports writers to determine who is, by popular opinion, the best college football team in the country. The first AP Poll was run in 1934 but was not run continuously until 1936.

The AP Poll currently lists the top 25 teams in the nation. From 1936 to 1961 the poll only ranked the top 20 teams. From 1962 to 1967 it only ranked the top 10 teams. From 1968 to 1988 the AP Poll returned to ranking the top 20 teams. In 1989 they started ranking the top 25 teams.

The AP poll was used in the beginning of the BCS to calculate the team standings. Due to some controversies within the BCS, the AP Poll was pulled from these calculations which caused the BCS to create the new Harris Poll.