List of NCAA college football rankings

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The AP Poll and Coaches Poll are the two major polls used annually within the highest level of college football to determine the national championship.{{cite web| url = http://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=2172597| title = It's Writers vs. Coaches in Football's Ballot Bowl}} Division I FBS football is the only National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport for which the NCAA does not sanction a yearly championship event. As such, it is sometimes unofficially referred to as a "mythical national championship".{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Or8tAAAAIBAJ&pg=5470%2C2495096 | title=Syracuse and Cornell Still Top Gridders | date=November 12, 1923 | newspaper=The Reading Eagle | location=Reading, PA | page=12 | access-date=May 5, 2015}}{{cite book|editor1-last=Viehman|editor1-first=Harold H.|title=The 1939 Owl|date=1939|publisher=University of Pittsburgh|location=Pittsburgh, PA|page=276|url=http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittyearbooks&cc=pittyearbooks&idno=1939e49702&node=1939e49702%3A20&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=281|access-date=May 5, 2015}}{{cite web | url=http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/8025013 | title=Subtracting AP poll leaves BCS again scrambling for legitimacy| first=Dennis|last= Dodd | publisher=CBSsports.com | date=December 22, 2004 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308042732/http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/8025013 | archive-date=March 8, 2013 | access-date=May 5, 2015 | url-status=dead}}{{cite web | url=http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-16515-uc-football-in-the-hunt-for-a-big-east-crown-and-bcs-bid.html | title=UC Football in the Hunt for a Big East Crown and BCS Bid | first=Bill | last=Peterson | publisher=Citybeat.com | date=November 5, 2008 | access-date=May 5, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609103423/http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-16515-uc-football-in-the-hunt-for-a-big-east-crown-and-bcs-bid.html | archive-date=June 9, 2015 | url-status=dead }}

These polling systems began with the introduction of the AP poll in 1936, followed by the Coaches' Poll in 1950.

Currently, two widely recognized national champion selectors are the Associated Press, which conducts a poll of sportswriters, and the Coaches' Poll, a survey of active members of the American Football Coaches Association.

Until the 1968 NCAA University Division football season, the final AP Poll of the season was released following the end of the regular season, with the exception of the 1965 season.