AP Poll 11/23

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1981

11/23/1981

Week 12

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Pittsburgh (60)	1,294	1
2	Clemson (5)	1,234	2
3	Georgia	1,157	3
4	Alabama	1,054	4
5	Nebraska	1,015	5
6	SMU	965	6
7	Texas	907	8
8	USC	797	10
9	Miami	708	11
10	North Carolina	656	12
11	Penn State	645	13
12	Washington	604	17
13	Iowa	491	19
14	BYU	377	18
15	Ohio State	330	NR
16	Michigan	292	7
17	Southern Miss	264	9
18	Arizona State	253	20
19	UCLA	199	15
20	Washington State	139	14

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.