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NCAA College Football Rankings Explained: From Polls to Playoffs
- Ohio State finished atop both national polls after winning the College Football Playoffs.
- The CFP eliminates the possibility of split national champions.
- The first time there were both national polls with panels of writers and coaches was in 1950.
NCAA college football rankings and polls began in the late 1860s, around the time the first college football game was played.
In 1869, Princeton finished 1-1 to earn the No. 1 spot in the Billingsley Report. The Boand Trophy, Rissman Trophy, Rockne Trophy, Foreman & Clark Trophy, and Litkenhous Trophy were given out at various points.
This has led to the recognition of multiple national champions annually. Let’s examine how the rankings system has adjusted to the changing college football world.
Let’s examine the history of college football rankings and polls. Implementing the 12-team CFP expansion minimized the impact of the national polls.
Looking At The College Football Rankings
The Writers Have Their Say
After years of different organizations coming and going, the Associated Press began polling writers who covered college football in 1936. That started a new era regarding the impact of the NCAA college football rankings.
Minnesota finished first in the 1936 AP poll. However, Duke, LSU, and Pittsburgh ranked first in other categories.
The first consensus No. 1 team came in 1943 when a 9-1 Notre Dame team was the top team in all 14 NCAA football rankings. The next time that happened was in 1948 when a 9-0 Michigan team rose to the top of the college football world.
Coaches Poll Joins The Party
The Coaches poll began in 1950, with Oklahoma finishing at No. 1 in that poll and in the AP ranking. That started the process of streamlining the recognized polls when picking the best team in the nation. The No. 1 team in the country has been identified in a vote by a panel of coaches beginning in 1974.
That didn’t solve the issue or minimize the controversy, even if the NCAA college football rankings generated plenty of attention for the sport.
Problems With Polls
Polls are still popularity contests. The hope is that every writer and coach who votes on a national poll takes the responsibility of ranking teams seriously. However, voting in polls is pretty far down in their list of priorities.
Will the writers on the Eastern Seaboard really check out all the West Coast games? Can coaches put away any hard feelings for rival teams that might run up the score when it comes time to submit their weekly ballot?
With the way the newspaper jobs have been disappearing, finding quality voters has become more difficult with each passing year.
A Move Away From the Polls
The college football leaders have made attempts to have the champion at the highest level be determined on the field.
It started with the Bowl Coalition, but not every power conference was part of that process. Next up was the Bowl Alliance, which proved a little better but not good enough.
The Bowl Championship Series began in 1998, resulting in the BCS National Championship Game. That resulted in the No. 1 and 2 teams meeting each season from 1998-2013.
The issue was whether those were indeed the top two teams. There were times when the No. 3 team had a legitimate argument for participating in the BCS title game.
The road to the college football playoffs began with the 2014 season, which debuted the College Football Playoff bracket, with the top four teams vying for the national title. Starting in the 2024 season, the field expanded to 12 teams.
Unlike the BCS process, the College Football Playoff uses a committee to rank the teams instead of relying on others to compile polls. The CFP rankings determine the CFP field.
A Look At the Final 2024 Polls
There used to be drama regarding the reason for the final national polls. That is no longer the case, as the winner of the College Football Playoffs is guaranteed to be the No. 1 team in both The Associated Press and American Football Coaches polls.
In the final rankings, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Georgia, and Arizona State hold the top seven spots in both polls. The first difference of opinion concerns the No. 8 and 9 spots: Boise State is ranked eighth in the writers’ poll, while the coaches rank Tennessee eighth.
The same 25 teams are in the top 25 in both polls, even if the order differs slightly from 20 to 25. That is not a surprise, as that is the point of the College Football Playoff rankings.
