AP Poll 12/8

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1997

12/8/1997

Week 16

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Michigan (69)	1,749	1
2	Nebraska (1)	1,681	2
3	Tennessee	1,570	3
4	Florida State	1,536	4
5	UCLA	1,386	5
6	Florida	1,356	6
7	North Carolina	1,293	7
8	Washington State	1,292	8
9	Ohio State	1,246	9
10	Kansas State	1,194	10
11	Penn State	994	12
12	Georgia	966	13
13	Auburn	952	11
14	Syracuse	778	15
15	LSU	715	16
16	Arizona State	610	17
17	Purdue	578	18
18	Colorado State	510	20
19	Missouri	471	19
20	Texas A&M	460	14
21	Washington	304	21
22	Southern Miss	277	22
23	Air Force	216	23
24	Oklahoma State	184	24
25	Michigan State	140	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.