AP Poll Pre

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1972

7/1/1972

Preseason Poll

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Nebraska (28)	920	1
2	Colorado (13)	746	3
3	Ohio State (4)	620	NR
4	Arkansas (2)	578	16
5	Penn State	550	5
6	Oklahoma (2)	538	2
7	Alabama	410	4
8	USC	299	20
9	Washington (1)	294	19
10	Michigan	266	6
11	LSU	257	11
12	Arizona State	221	8
13	Notre Dame	205	13
14	Texas	202	18
15	Tennessee	163	9
16	Mississippi	88	15
17	Georgia	79	7
18	Purdue	67	NR
19	Florida State	40	NR
20	Stanford	27	10

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.