AP Poll Final

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1981

1/5/1982

Week 14

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Clemson (47)	977	1
2	Texas	862	6
3	Penn State (1)	845	7
4	Pittsburgh	834	10
5	SMU (1)	774	5
6	Georgia	691	2
7	Alabama	638	3
8	Miami	594	9
9	North Carolina	590	11
10	Washington	587	12
11	Nebraska	535	4
12	Michigan	416	16
13	BYU	388	14
14	USC	325	8
15	Ohio State	310	15
16	Arizona State	245	17
17	West Virginia	111	NR
18	Iowa	103	13
19	Missouri	85	NR
20	Oklahoma	76	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.