AP Poll 9/11

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1972

9/11/1972

Week 1

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	USC (13)	779	8
2	Colorado (12)	769	2
3	Ohio State (5)	710	3
4	Oklahoma (12)	694	6
5	Alabama	528	7
6	Penn State (1)	473	5
7	Tennessee (1)	426	15
8	UCLA	415	NR
9	LSU	375	11
10	Nebraska (1)	344	1
11	Michigan	199	10
12	Washington (1)	186	9
13	Arizona State	174	12
14	Notre Dame	162	13
15	Texas	132	14
16	Georgia	81	17
17	Arkansas	79	4
18	Purdue	55	18
19	Mississippi	43	16
20	Florida State	40	19

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.