AP Poll 9/8

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1997

9/8/1997

Week 3

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Penn State (22)	1,620	1
2	Florida (15)	1,590	2
3	Washington (14)	1,580	4
4	Tennessee (6)	1,518	3
5	Florida State (4)	1,442	5
6	Nebraska (4)	1,433	6
7	North Carolina (2)	1,342	7
8	Colorado (3)	1,331	8
9	Ohio State	1,144	9
10	LSU	1,127	10
11	Texas	1,054	12
12	Notre Dame	911	11
13	Miami	904	13
14	Michigan	838	14
15	Alabama	812	15
16	Auburn	688	16
17	Stanford	587	17
18	Iowa	527	20
19	Clemson	402	NR
20	Kansas State	377	21
21	Michigan State	305	25
22	Virginia Tech	213	NR
23	USC	182	23
24	Arizona State	150	NR
25	Colorado State	127	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.