AP Poll 12/4

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1978

12/4/1978

Week 13

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Penn State (48)	1,159	1
2	Alabama (5)	1,091	2
3	USC (3)	1,058	3
4	Oklahoma (3)	1,027	4
5	Michigan	950	5
6	Nebraska	856	6
7	Clemson	775	7
8	Arkansas	733	8
9	Houston	682	9
10	Notre Dame	630	10
11	Georgia	615	11
12	Michigan State	516	12
13	Maryland	442	13
14	Texas	401	14
15	UCLA	355	15
16	Pittsburgh	271	16
17	Purdue	256	17
18	Missouri	173	18
19	Iowa State	86	19
20	Ohio State	60	20

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.