If you’ve ever lost your voice screaming at a TV on a Sunday afternoon, you probably know the feeling. You’re waiting for that 2:00 p.m. Eastern time slot. You want to see if the "experts" finally gave your team the respect they earned after that goal-line stand on Saturday night. That’s the associated press college football poll for you. It’s a weekly ritual, a source of endless arguments, and honestly, the oldest tradition of its kind that actually still carries weight in a world obsessed with computer models and committee rooms.
People love to hate it. They call it biased. They say sportswriters don't watch the games out West because they’re asleep by the fourth quarter. Maybe that’s true sometimes. But even in 2026, with a massive playoff bracket and a selection committee that holds all the "real" power, the AP Top 25 is the pulse of the sport. It’s the poll that captures the vibe of the season before the suits in a hotel room in Grapevine, Texas, even start their first meeting.
How the Associated Press College Football Poll Actually Works
The math is actually pretty simple, though the logic behind the votes is anything but.
Right now, there are 62 voters. These aren't just random people; they are sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the game every single day. They are spread out across the country to try and keep things fair, though fans in the Midwest will always swear the SEC gets too much love.
Each voter submits a list of their top 25 teams. The scoring goes like this:
- A #1 vote gets 25 points.
- A #2 vote gets 24 points.
- This continues all the way down to a #25 vote, which gets 1 point.
The AP then adds up every single point from every single ballot. The team with the most points is #1. It’s a transparent system. Unlike the playoff committee, the AP actually publishes every single voter's ballot. If a writer from Florida ranks a 3-loss team in the top ten, you can see it. You can call them out on it. That transparency is exactly why fans stay so engaged with it.
The History of the Numbers
It hasn't always been 25 teams. From 1936 to 1960, the AP only cared about the Top 20. Then, for a weird stretch in the 60s, they cut it down to just a Top 10. Can you imagine the chaos on Twitter—if it existed back then—if only ten teams were ranked? They finally settled on the Top 25 in 1989, and it’s stayed that way ever since.
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Why Do We Still Care?
You might wonder why we bother with a media poll when the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee decides who actually plays for the trophy. Honestly, it’s about the narrative. The associated press college football poll starts in the preseason—long before the committee even exists for the year.
It sets the "bar." If a team starts at #5 in the AP poll, they have a cushion. If they start unranked, they have to climb a mountain just to get noticed.
Also, the committee doesn't release their rankings until midway through the season. Between August and late October, the AP poll is the only thing we have. It’s the definitive record of who is "good" in the eyes of the people who are actually at the stadiums.
AP Poll vs. The CFP Committee
There’s often a huge disconnect here. Just look at the 2025 season. The AP voters had Georgia at #2 and Ohio State at #3 in early December. The CFP committee basically looked at the same data and did the exact opposite.
Why? Because sportswriters often value "who did you beat lately?" and "how did you look doing it?" while the committee is obsessed with "strength of schedule" and "game control" metrics. Sportswriters are suckers for a good story. A gutsy underdog winning on a Hail Mary will jump five spots in the AP poll. The committee might not move them at all if the "metrics" say the win was a fluke.
The Drama of the Sunday Release
There is nothing quite like the Sunday afternoon drop. Usually, it happens right at 2:00 p.m. ET. If a big game got delayed or finished late on Saturday, the AP might push it back a few hours, but they try to be consistent.
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Voters are told to follow a few rules:
- Base it on performance, not just what people expected in the preseason.
- Avoid regional bias (easier said than done).
- Pay attention to head-to-head. If Team A beat Team B, Team A should probably be higher, right? Not always. If Team A then loses to a bottom-feeder the next week, the logic gets messy.
This is where the "Others Receiving Votes" section becomes a gold mine for fans of "Group of Five" schools. If your school isn't in the Top 25 but shows up in that bottom list, it means you're on the radar. You’re one big upset away from the spotlight.
Common Misconceptions About the Poll
One of the biggest myths is that the AP poll is "official." It’s not. The NCAA doesn't officially crown a national champion in the top tier of college football (the FBS). They recognize the champions chosen by various polls.
For decades, the AP poll was the championship. If you finished #1 in the final AP poll after the bowls, you got the trophy. Even now, the AP still awards its own trophy. It’s entirely possible—though rare—to have a "split national championship" where the CFP winner is one team and the AP #1 is another. It hasn't happened in the playoff era yet, but the ghost of 2003 (LSU and USC) still haunts the sport.
Another thing people get wrong: they think the voters are all the same every year. They aren't. The AP rotates the panel to keep things fresh and ensure different regions are represented.
The Future of the Rankings
As the playoff expands to 12 teams (and eventually more), the associated press college football poll might feel less like a "gatekeeper" and more like a "momentum tracker."
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It’s the weekly temperature check. It tells us which coaches are on the hot seat and which players are leading the Heisman race. When a team like Indiana or Tulane starts climbing the AP ranks in September, it forces the national media to start booking flights to Bloomington or New Orleans.
Actionable Insights for Fans
If you want to use the poll like a pro, don't just look at the rank. Look at the individual ballots.
- Go to the AP website and see which voters are "outliers."
- If one voter has your team at #5 and everyone else has them at #15, find out why. Usually, that writer covers your team's conference and sees something the national guys are missing.
- Watch the "points" gap. If the gap between #1 and #2 is only 5 points, we’re one Saturday away from a new king.
- Use the poll to identify "trap games." If a #4 team is playing an unranked rival that's "receiving votes," that's a prime upset alert.
The poll isn't perfect. It's human. But that's exactly why we love it. In a sport that's increasingly being run by algorithms and spreadsheets, there’s something nice about 62 people just sitting down and saying, "Yeah, I think these guys are the best."
Keep an eye on the Sunday updates. Even if the committee has the final word on the playoffs, the AP poll still has the first word on the season. And in college football, being first to the conversation is half the battle.
To stay ahead of the curve, check the AP Top 25 every Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on the official Associated Press website or major sports news outlets. Compare those rankings with the "Strength of Record" metrics to see which teams are overrated by the media and which ones are actually built for a deep January run.