How the AP Top 25 college football poll works
The AP Top 25 is college football’s most famous ranking — but how is it actually decided? Here is how it works.
Each week during the season, a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters submits a ballot ranking their top 25 teams.
Ballots are scored on a sliding scale: 25 points for a first-place vote, 24 for second, all the way down to 1 point for 25th. Points are added up to set the order.
A new poll comes out every Sunday once Saturday’s games are final. The preseason poll lands in August. First-place votes are shown in brackets.
The AP poll is a media poll. It is separate from the College Football Playoff committee rankings, which begin later in the year and actually decide the playoff field.
In Week 6 of the 2026 season, Texas held No.1 with 61 first-place votes. Missouri made the biggest jump, rising 11 spots to No.14 after routing Florida 45-17.
Teams can also fall out entirely — Kentucky dropped out this week despite winning in overtime.
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Khabar 24h Editorial Desk — our explainers are prepared by the Khabar 24h editorial team using AI-assisted research tools, and every piece is reviewed by a human editor before publishing. We do not claim original reporting: our work is turning complex topics into simple, accurate summaries. Spotted an error? Write to contact@khabar24h.com — our corrections policy aims for same-day review.
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