A few of the weirdest ranked teams in the Final AP Poll of the Season

We’re all familiar with the Associated Press (AP) Poll and it’s place in the history of college football. The AP college football poll's origins go back to the 1930s. The news media began running their own polls of sports writers to determine, by popular opinion, the best college football teams in the country. Let’s debate the who is the best, one of the time honored traditions of the AP Poll and college football. The earliest poll conducted by the AP was in November of 1934.

In 1935, AP sports editor Alan J. Gould declared a three-way tie for national champion in football between Minnesota, Princeton, and Southern Methodist. Minnesota fans protested and a number of Gould's colleagues led by Charles "Cy" Sherman suggested he create a poll of sports editors instead of only using his own list. The next year the weekly AP college football poll was born, and has run continuously from 1936. So thank you Minnesota fans for protesting the poll!

In this short substack blog, I will present some of you the most interesting of rankings of teams that made pause when I saw them ranked in the Final AP Poll of that particular season. Please don’t get insulted if I list your team here. This is basically the Commish thinking to himself “Whoa, I had no clue this team had this high of a ranking in the AP Poll at any point or this year in their history!” I learned some things doing this and hey, maybe you will learn something too!

I searched the final AP Polls through 1967 when the AP Poll was only a Top 20. However, between the 1961 season and until the 1967 season, the AP Poll ranked only 10 teams. If you don’t see a year listed here, nothing really out of the ordinary caught my eye.

• 1936

  • 6th - Santa Clara

  • 13th - Dartmouth

  • 14th - Duquesne

  • 15th - Fordham

  • 20th - Marquette

• 1937

  • 3rd - Fordham

  • 6th - Villanova

  • 7th - Dartmouth

  • 10th - Santa Clara

  • 15th - Holy Cross

• 1938

  • 6th - Carnegie Tech

  • 9th - Holy Cross

  • 10th - Cornell

  • 15th - Fordham

  • 18th - Villanova

• 1939

  • 4th - Cornell

  • 14th - Santa Clara

  • 17th - Fordham 

• 1940

  • 11th - Santa Clara 

  • 13th - Georgetown

  • 14th - Penn

  • 17th - Hardin-Simmons

  • 19th - Lafayette

• 1941

  • 6th - Fordham

  • 8th - Duquesne

• 1942 

  • 4th - Tulsa

  • 14th - William & Mary

  • 15th - Santa Clara

• 1943 - At the height of the World War II Teams.

  • 2nd - Iowa Pre-Flight 

  • 6th - Great Lakes Navy 

  • 8th - Del Monte Pre-Flight

  • 10th - March Field 

  • 17th - Bainbridge

  • 18th - Colorado College

  • 19th - Pacific 

• 1944 - At the height of the World War II Teams.

  • 3rd - Randolph Field

  • 5th - Bainbridge NTS 

  • 10th - March Field

  • 14th - Norman NAS 

  • 16th - El Toro Marines 

  • 18th - Fort Pierce

• 1945 

  • 7th - St. Mary's

  • 8th - Penn

  • 20th - Columbia

• 1946

  • 12th - Yale

  • 18th - Delaware

• 1947 

  • 14th - William & Mary

  • 20th - Columbia 

• 1948 

  • 17th - William & Mary

  • 19th - Cornell

• 1949 

  • 10th - Pacific

  • 12th - Cornell 

  • 13th - Villanova

  • 15th - Santa Clara 

  • 18th - Princeton

• 1950

  • 6th - Princeton

  • 10th - Wyoming

  • 16th - Ohio

  • 18th - Washington & Lee

• 1951

  • 6th - Princeton

  • 14th - San Francisco

  • 16th - Boston University

  • 19th - Holy Cross

• 1953

  • 6th - Rice

• 1956

  • 17th - George Washington

• 1957

  • 20th - VMI

• 1960

  • 17th - New Mexico State

• 1961

  • 10th - Utah State

• 1964

  • 8th - Oregon State

• 1967

  • 4th - Indiana