AP Poll The Associated Press ( AP ) College Poll provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports : football , men ' s basketball and women ' s basketball . The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation . Each voter provides his own ranking of the top 25 teams , and the individual rankings are then combined to produce the national ranking by giving a team 25 points for a first place vote , 24 for a second place vote , and so on down to 1 point for a twenty - fifth place vote . Ballots of the voting members in the AP Poll are made public . College football . History . The AP college football poll has a long history . The news media began running their own polls of sports writers to determine who was , by popular opinion , the best football team in the country at the end of the season . One of the earliest such polls was the AP College Football Poll , first run in 1934 ( compiled and organized by Charles Woodroof , former SEC Assistant Director of Media Relations ) and then continuously from 1936 . Due to the long - standing historical ties between individual college football conferences and high - paying bowl games like the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl , the NCAA has never held a tournament or championship game to determine the champion of what is now the highest division , NCAA Division I , Football Bowl Subdivision ( the Division I , Football Championship Subdivision and lower divisions do hold championship tournaments ) . As a result , the public and the media began to take the leading vote - getter in the final AP Poll as the national champion for that season . While the AP Poll currently lists the Top 25 teams in the nation , from 1936 to 1961 the wire service only ranked 20 teams . From 1962 to 1967 only 10 teams were recognized . From 1968 to 1988 , the AP again resumed its Top 20 before expanding to the current 25 teams in 1989 . At the end of the 1947 season the AP released an unofficial post - bowl poll which differed from the regular season final poll . Until the 1968 college football season , the final AP poll of the season was released following the end of the regular season , with the exception of the 1965 season . In 1964 , Alabama was named the national champion in the final AP Poll following the completion of the regular season , but lost in the Orange Bowl to Texas , leaving Arkansas as the only undefeated , untied team after the Razorbacks defeated Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl Classic . In 1965 , the AP ' s decision to wait to crown its champion paid handsomely , as top - ranked Michigan State lost to UCLA in the Rose Bowl , number two Arkansas lost to LSU in the Cotton Bowl Classic , and fourth - ranked Alabama defeated third - ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl , vaulting the Crimson Tide to the top of the AP ' s final poll ( Michigan State was named national champion in the final UPI Coaches Poll , which did not conduct a post - bowl poll ) . Beginning in the 1968 season , the post bowl game poll became permanent and the AP championship reflected the bowl game results . The UPI did not follow suit with the coaches ' poll until the 1974 season . No . 1 vs . No . 2 . As of January 7 , 2013 , the number one ranked team has faced the number two ranked team 48 times since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936 . The number one team is 27 - 19 - 2 against the number two team . AP Poll inclusion in the BCS . In 1997 , the Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) was developed to try to unify the poll results by picking two teams for a " real " national championship game . For the first several years the AP Poll factored in the determination of the BCS rankings , along with other factors including the Coaches Poll and computer - based polls . Because of a series of controversies surrounding the BCS , the AP demanded in December , 2004 , that its poll no longer be used in the BCS rankings , and so the 2004 - 2005 season was the last season that the AP Poll was used for this purpose . In the 2003 season the BCS system broke down when the final BCS standings ranked the University of Southern California ( USC ) at # 3 while the two human polls in the system had ranked USC at # 1 . As a result , USC did not play in the BCS ' designated national championship game . After defeating another highly ranked team , Michigan , in its final game , the AP Poll kept USC at # 1 while the Coaches Poll was contractually obligated to select the winner of the BCS game , Louisiana State University ( LSU ) , as the # 1 team . The resulting split national title was the very problem that the BCS was created to solve , and has been widely considered an embarrassment . In 2004 , a new controversy erupted at the end of the season when Auburn and Utah , who both finished the regular season 12 - 0 , were left out of the BCS title game in favor of Oklahoma who also was 12 - 0 and had won decisively over Colorado in the Big 12 Championship game . USC went on to a win easily over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl while Auburn and Utah both won their bowl games , leaving three undefeated teams at the end of the season . Also , in that same year , Texas made up late ground on California ( Cal ) in the BCS standings and as a result grabbed a high - payout , at - large spot in the Rose Bowl . Previous to that poll , Cal had been ranked ahead of Texas in both human polls and the BCS poll . Going into their final game , the Golden Bears were made aware that while margin of victory did not affect computer rankings , it did affect human polls and just eight voters changing their vote could affect the final standings . Both teams won their game that week , but the Texas coach , Mack Brown , had made a public effort to lobby for his team to be moved higher in the ranking . When the human polls were released , Texas remained behind Cal , but it had closed the gap enough so that the BCS poll ( which determines placement ) placed Texas above Cal , angering both Cal and its conference , the Pac - 10 . The final poll positions had been unchanged with Cal at # 4 AP , # 4 coaches , and # 6 computers polls and Texas at # 6 AP , # 5 coaches , and # 4 computer polls . The AP Poll voters were caught in the middle because their vote changes were automatically made public , while the votes of the Coaches poll were kept confidential . Although there had been a more substantial shift in the votes of the Coaches Poll , the only clear targets for the ire of fanatical fans were the voters in the AP Poll . While officials from both Cal and the Pac - 10 called for the coaches ' votes to be made public , the overtures were turned down and did little to solve the problem of AP voters . Cal went on to lose to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl . Texas defeated Michigan in the Rose Bowl . Many members of the press who voted in the AP Poll were upset by the fiasco and , at the behest of its members , the AP asked that its poll no longer be used in the BCS rankings . The 2004 season was the last season that the AP Poll was used in the BCS rankings , it was replaced in the BCS equation by the newly created Harris Interactive College Football Poll . Other media football polls . The AP Poll is not the only college football poll . The other major poll is the Coaches Poll , which has been sponsored by several organizations : the United Press ( 1950 – 1957 ) , the United Press International ( 1958 – 1990 ) , USA Today ( 1991 – present ) , CNN ( 1991 – 1996 ) , and ESPN ( 1997 – 2005 ) . Having two major polls has led to numerous " split " national titles , where the two polls disagreed on the # 1 team . This has occurred on eleven different occasions ( 1954 , 1957 , 1965 , 1970 , 1973 , 1974 , 1978 , 1990 , 1991 , 1997 , 2003 ) . College basketball . In Division I men ' s and women ' s college basketball , the AP Poll is largely just a tool to compare schools throughout the season and spark debate , as it has no bearing on postseason play . Generally , all top 25 teams in the poll are invited to the men ' s and women ' s NCAA basketball tournament , also known as March Madness . The poll is usually released every Monday and voters ' ballots are made public . Men ' s basketball . The AP began compiling a ranking of the top 20 college men ' s basketball teams during the 1948 - 1949 season . It has issued this poll continuously since the 1950 - 1951 season . Women ' s basketball . The women ' s basketball poll began during the 1976 - 1977 season , and was initially compiled by Mel Greenberg and published by " The Philadelphia Inquirer " . At first , it was a poll of coaches conducted via telephone , where coaches identified top teams and a list of the Top 20 team was produced . The initial list of coaches did not include Pat Summitt , who asked to join the group , not to improve her rankings , but because of the lack of media coverage , Summitt believed it would be a good way to stay on top of who the top teams were outside of her own schedule . The contributors continued to be coaches until 1994 , when the AP took over administration of the poll from Greenberg , and switched to a panel of writers . In 1994 , Tennessee started out as # 1 in the polls with Connecticut at # 4 . After a couple of losses , the two teams were ranked # 1 and # 2 , headed into a showdown , scheduled as a special event on Martin Luther King day , the only women ' s basketball game scheduled on that day . Because of the unusual circumstances , the decision was made to hold off the AP voting for one day , to ensure it would be after the game . Connecticut won the game , and moved into first place in the AP poll , published on Tuesday for the only time . ( Connecticut went on to complete an undefeated season ) . Over the history of the poll , over 255 coaches have had a team represented in polls . NFL football . Beginning in 2012 , AP will issue a weekly pro football ranking , the AP Pro32 rankings .