AP Poll Pre

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1971

7/1/1971

Preseason Poll

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Notre Dame (15)	885	2
2	Nebraska (26)	870	1
3	Texas (5)	662	3
4	Michigan (1)	593	9
5	USC (1)	525	15
6	Auburn (1)	434	10
7	Arkansas	332	11
8	Tennessee	323	4
9	LSU	302	7
10	Oklahoma	242	21
11	Ohio State	237	5
12	Penn State	190	18
13	Syracuse	165	NR
14	Arizona State	154	6
15	UCLA	122	NR
16	Alabama	88	NR
17	Georgia Tech	76	13
18	Georgia	71	NR
19	Stanford	62	8
20	Northwestern (1)	58	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.