I found it interesting to learn how it all got started and I figured many here already knew but if any didn't, thought you'd enjoy this. In Stewart Mandel’s book, Bowls, Polls, & Tattered Souls, Sports Illustrated writer and college football historian Dan Jenkins’ book in 1973, tells us the first person to rank teams was Frank Dickinson. Dickinson was an economics professor at the University of Illinois and used a mathematical formula he had derived. Ironically, he had begun, and had been, doing it for his own private enjoyment and went public with it in 1926. Shortly thereafter, several other polls started being done as well; however, Dickinson’s was perceived as the most legitimate poll of the era. Later, Associated Press sports editor Alan J. Gould was responsible for bringing college football rankings to the country on a weekly basis. It was midway through the 1935 season that Gould began sending his college football rankings to the AP’s subscribers. His reason? In his own words, “It was a case of thinking up ideas to develop interest and controversy between football Saturdays. Papers wanted material to fill space between games. This was just another exercise in hoopla.” Gould is also quoted as saying, “All I had in mind was something to keep the pot boiling.” It is safe to say, that much, he did achieve. The following season, Gould turned it over, making the rankings into a poll of AP-member sports editors. The poll was open to any AP-affiliated member interested enough to call in a ballot. Initially, there were over two hundred; however, that number was later pared down to about fifty, only to move back up to as many as seventy-four in the 90’s, and today is sixty-five. Sixty-one from “Districted” state-by-state much like Congress, and four National voters. These voters are selected and dispersed regionally with a formula of: States with one to three Division I schools being allotted on vote, four to six Division I schools yield two, and so on. In his book, Mandel also tells of possible reasons for perceived imperfections/biases in the polling process, but also states that AP voters are “extremely dedicated to their job, highly knowledgeable about the sport they cover, and sensitive to the importance their vote carries with so many people.” Thirty-nine of the sixty-one voters are beat writers assigned to a specific school. Oddly enough, one, Mike Radano, was a Philadelphia Phillies’ beat writer. Though he did cover college football at one time he has managed to retain his vote after moving on to cover MLB. I'm sure he watches a lot of CFB. :hihi:
Your leaving out the most important part Alan J. Gould was a University of Minnesota fan and didn't like that most math systems didn't rank Minnesota number 1. He was the local sport wirter for Minnesota in Minneapolis for years. When he started the poll with his sport wirter friends in 1936 (The 1934 poll was mostly close friends) with only 36 voters and most of them from the North with the West coast having the second most voters. The early AP polls should never count in National Championship talk, its not until early 40's is there near enough voters to balance the poll by aera of the county.
