AP Poll Plans to Run Rankings Through 2020 Season
The Associate Press announced its intentions to continue to operate in the 2020 season on Thursday.
The poll has crowned a national champion and produced a top 25 for the past 85 seasons. This year's preseason poll will feature rankings of all college football teams, regardless of whether they plan to play in the fall or not.
“The preseason poll has always been a speculative ranking of teams based on last year’s results and knowledge about the new makeup of teams,” said Michael Giarrusso, AP’s global sports editor. “This year, we think it is crucial to give all the teams and all their fans a snapshot look at what the Top 25 would have been to open the season.”
After the preseason poll, only teams in active fall competition will be considered.
“The AP will collect and distribute the votes of our media panel as we always have,” Giarrusso said. “Once games kick off, it does not make sense to rank teams that are not participating. There is no solution that will satisfy every fan or every team. But ranking teams that play is the one that makes the most sense.”
Should teams from the leagues postponing football figure out how to play a spring season, the Associated Press plans to rank them as well.
“The AP and our voters have no idea what a spring football season will look like. But we are open to adapting and finding a way for our Top 25 voters to be involved in ranking teams if real games are played in the spring of 2021,” Giarrusso said.
The preseason Associated Press poll is set to come out on Aug. 24.
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