AP Poll 8/25

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1997

8/25/1997

Week 1

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Penn State (22)	1,602	1
2	Florida (14)	1,563	2
3	Florida State (6)	1,503	3
4	Washington (9)	1,498	4
5	Tennessee (7)	1,480	5
6	Nebraska (4)	1,425	6
7	North Carolina (4)	1,343	7
8	Colorado (3)	1,318	8
9	Ohio State (1)	1,166	9
10	LSU	1,092	10
11	Notre Dame	1,037	11
12	Texas	978	12
13	Syracuse	869	17
14	Miami	800	13
15	Michigan	792	14
16	Alabama	664	15
17	Auburn	557	16
18	Stanford	505	18
19	BYU	365	19
20	Clemson	359	20
21	Iowa	348	21
22	Kansas State	220	23
23	USC	214	22
24	Northwestern	194	NR
25	Michigan State	166	25

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.