AP Poll 9/30

Associated Press Poll

Year: 1986

9/30/1986

Week 4

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	Prev
1	Miami (56)	1,156	2
2	Alabama (1)	1,058	3
3	Nebraska	1,020	4
4	Michigan	953	5
5	Penn State (1)	908	7
6	Oklahoma	891	1
7	Auburn	819	8
8	Arkansas	716	9
9	USC	707	12
10	Arizona	629	10
11	Iowa	510	15
12	Washington	455	6
13	Baylor	420	17
14	Texas A&M	381	14
15	UCLA	290	16
16	Arizona State	278	11
17	Michigan State	259	19
18	LSU	166	18
19	Fresno State	85	NR
20	NC State	62	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.