AP Poll 8/26

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1996

8/26/1996

Week 1

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Nebraska (50)	1,646	1
2	Tennessee (8)	1,555	2
3	Florida State (5)	1,530	3
4	Florida	1,485	4
5	Colorado (3)	1,402	5
6	Notre Dame (1)	1,302	6
7	Penn State	1,247	11
8	Texas	1,099	8
9	Ohio State	1,059	9
10	Syracuse	1,050	10
11	Miami	881	12
12	Michigan	805	14
13	Alabama	669	15
14	Virginia Tech	610	16
15	Northwestern	583	18
16	Auburn	552	17
17	USC	549	7
18	LSU	519	19
19	BYU	497	NR
20	Arizona State	432	20
21	Kansas State	389	21
22	Iowa	388	22
23	Texas A&M	296	13
24	Virginia	257	23
25	Kansas	207	24

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.