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AP Top 25 college football poll kicks off 81st year

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2015, file photo, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer leads his team onto the Michigan Stadium field before an NCAA college football game against Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Ohio State University has extended its current sponsorship contract with Nike by 15 years in a deal worth $252 million. The university and the Beaverton, Oregon-based athletic apparel company announced the deal on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. The current partnership had been scheduled to end in July 2018. It will now continue to 2033. (AP Photo/Tony Ding, File)

Urban Meyer

The AP Top 25, the longest-running college football poll of its kind, will begin its 81st year with the much-awaited preseason edition on Sunday, Aug. 21.

Last year's top-ranked team in the AP Top 25 preseason poll was Ohio State University, whose head coach, Urban Meyer, is seen here leading his team onto the field before playing the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nov. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)
Last year’s top-ranked team in the AP Top 25 preseason poll was Ohio State University, whose head coach, Urban Meyer, is seen here leading his team onto the field before playing the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nov. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

It will mark the 66th year for the preseason rankings, selected by an expert panel of sports writers and broadcasters from AP-affiliated media around the country. The poll will be released on AP lines to customers, as well as posted on AP’s college football site, collegefootball.ap.org, at 10 a.m. ET Sunday. AP will also provide analysis and additional details on the preseason poll via those platforms.
 
All AP customers can leverage the popularity of the AP poll to grow digital traffic and new revenue through AP’s locally branded College Football Digital News Experience. Newspapers that subscribe to AP Sports will also get paginated pages designed by GateHouse Media’s Center for News & Design that highlight the poll results for use in print, each with space available for local advertising or content.
 
The Associated Press began its college football poll on Oct. 19, 1936, and it is now the longest-running poll of those that award national titles at the end of the season. The preseason poll was started in 1950. All 1,103 weekly AP polls were tabulated this summer to determine the 100 top teams of all time, listed at collegefootball.ap.org/ap-poll-all-time.

A panel of 61 sports writers and broadcasters from around the country votes weekly to decide the AP Top 25. All voters have an extensive background in covering college football. The poll is determined by a simple points system based on how each voter ranks college football’s best teams. A team receives 25 points for each first place vote, 24 for second place and so on through to the 25th team, which receives one point. The rankings are set by listing the teams’ point totals from highest to lowest. The mathematical formula is the same as the one used for the AP Top 25 rankings for college men’s and women’s basketball.
 
Follow the poll and related sports coverage on Facebook and Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Top25.

Contact

For media inquiries:
Paul Colford
Vice President and Director of Media Relations
The Associated Press
212-621-1895
pcolford@ap.org

For sponsorship or revenue opportunities:
Barry Bedlan
Deputy Director of Sports Products
The Associated Press
972-677-2270
bbedlan@ap.org

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