AP Football Final Rankings

Every season from 1936 through 2025. Explore the finishes, follow a program, and inspect the sources.

90Seasons

1936First AP Season

1,918Ranked Finishes

2025Latest Complete Season

Historical Final Rankings

Final positions have been compared across sources, with known differences documented. Historical records may still contain errors. Rankings coverage does not establish individual voter-ballot coverage.

Sources and Coverage

The NCAA’s AP final-poll tables are compared with College Poll Archive. The lists agree for 83 seasons after school-name normalization. Seven seasons have documented source decisions, supported by additional AP reports or school records. Agreement between archives is not necessarily independent confirmation.

AP ranked a Top 20 from 1936–1960, a Top 10 from 1961–1967, a Top 20 from 1968–1988, and a Top 25 from 1989 onward. Ties can add teams; 1940 has only 19 listed teams in both retained sources. Many early final polls preceded bowl games, so “Final” means AP’s official final release, not a new ranking after all games.

Program names and available current logos identify teams. They do not establish historical conference membership or era-specific artwork. Points and first-place votes are omitted from this rankings-only edition.

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1986 Season · Final AP Poll

1986 Final Rankings

20 ranked teams · Rankings Only · Voter Ballots Not Yet Available

Open Season →

AP No. 1 · 1986

Penn State

Final published AP ranking

1986 Final AP Football Rankings
Rank	Team	Previous Final
1		No. 3↑ 2
2		No. 9↑ 7
3		No. 1↓ 2
4		NROutside Previous Ranked List
5		No. 11↑ 6
6		NROutside Previous Ranked List
7		No. 14↑ 7
8		No. 2↓ 6
9		No. 13↑ 4
10		No. 20↑ 10
11		NROutside Previous Ranked List
12		No. 17↑ 5
13		No. 6↓ 7
14		No. 7↓ 7
15		No. 12↓ 3
16		No. 10↓ 6
17		NROutside Previous Ranked List
18		NROutside Previous Ranked List
19		NROutside Previous Ranked List
20		NROutside Previous Ranked List

Sources for 1986

Weekly Coverage

College Poll Archive lists 15 releases for 1986, including 14 non-final polls. A non-final table was retrieved for this season during the coverage review.

Weekly rankings are a future addition here. The source index and a retrieved sample establish availability; the full weekly season has not yet been reconciled for publication.

View Sample Archived Poll ↗