Since 1936, the Associated Press has ranked college football teams in weekly polls.

While the AP Poll currently lists the Top 25 teams in the nation, from 1936 to 1961 the wire service only ranked 20 teams.

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.