AP Poll Final

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1997

1/5/1998

Week 17

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Michigan (52)	1,732	1
2	Nebraska (19)	1,699	2
3	Florida State	1,599	4
4	Florida	1,455	6
5	UCLA	1,413	5
6	North Carolina	1,397	7
7	Tennessee	1,320	3
8	Kansas State	1,302	10
9	Washington State	1,259	8
10	Georgia	1,121	12
11	Auburn	1,025	13
12	Ohio State	975	9
13	LSU	856	15
14	Arizona State	773	16
15	Purdue	715	17
16	Penn State	706	11
17	Colorado State	673	18
18	Washington	617	21
19	Southern Miss	490	22
20	Texas A&M	421	20
21	Syracuse	331	14
22	Mississippi	255	NR
23	Missouri	175	19
24	Oklahoma State	72	24
25	Georgia Tech	64	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.