AP Top 25 college football poll to be released Aug. 23

The AP Top 25, the longest-running college football poll of its kind, will release its much-awaited preseason edition on Sunday, Aug. 23.

It will mark the 65th year for the preseason rankings, selected by an expert panel of sports writers and broadcasters of AP-affiliated media from around the country. At 2 p.m. ET on Aug. 23, the poll will be released on AP lines to customers, as well as posted on AP's college football site, collegefootball.ap.org, and the AP Mobile app. AP will provide analysis and details on the preseason poll throughout those platforms.

Newspapers subscribing to AP Sports also will 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. 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. 

"College football fans, analysts and programs refer to the AP Top 25 as a measurement of a team's success. That's been true for generations," said Barry Bedlan, AP's sports products manager. "No other poll brings this historical perspective and we are excited to have the tradition continue into the 2015 season." 

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. A panel of 61 sports writers and broadcasters from around the country votes on the poll weekly. All of the voters have an extensive background in covering college football. 

The AP Top 25 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 Pro 32 rankings and the AP Top 25 rankings for men's and women's basketball. 

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