AP Poll 10/23

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1972

10/23/1972

Week 7

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	USC (44)	986	1
2	Alabama (2)	805	3
3	Nebraska (2)	718	5
4	Ohio State (1)	681	4
5	Michigan (1)	629	6
6	LSU	518	7
7	Colorado	506	9
8	Oklahoma	457	2
9	UCLA	340	11
10	Texas	288	15
11	Penn State	218	12
12	Auburn	175	14
13	Notre Dame	138	8
14	Tennessee	116	10
15	Iowa State	86	20
16	Arizona State	66	19
17	Florida State	24	NR
18	Arkansas	10	17
18	SMU	10	NR
18	West Virginia	10	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.