What we can learn from college football’s very first AP Poll, where Minnesota was No. 1

Oct. 19 is a special day in college football history, for this reason:

I know it’s fashionable to dislike the AP Poll, and Lord knows it has plenty of flaws. It lacks a consistent ranking methodology employed by every voter, it has regional biases, beat writers don’t get to watch a lot of the football games, it’s horribly #BIAS against your favorite team. It doesn’t even award a national title anymore.

All of that is true! Heck, most of that was true back in 1936 too. But it’s also the best, consistent ranking tool across all major swaths of college football history. It spans pre-World War II, pre-bowl alliance, pre-BCS, the whole thing, and gives us our best historical snapshot at exactly what the country thought of a particular time during that point in the season.

1. Minnesota
2. Duke
3. Army
4. Northwestern
5. Purdue
6. USC
7. Notre Dame
8. Washington
9. Pitt
10. Yale
11. Duquesne
12. St.Mary’s
13. LSU
14. Texas A&M
15. Nebraska
16. Fordham
17. Holy Cross
18. Tulane
19. SMU
20. Marquette

College football has less class mobility than most fans would probably like. Programs like LSU, Texas A&M, USC, Notre Dame and Washington wouldn’t be out of place in an AP Poll today, and other elite programs, like Ohio State and Alabama, would find themselves in the poll over the course of the season. Heck, Alabama would finish 4th that season, with an 8-0-1 record. This sport really doesn’t change that much.

Minnesota has been mostly an afterthought in college football for the last few decades, but in the late 1930s, the Gophers were an absolute powerhouse, as was Army. (Minnesota would go on to finish the season at No. 1, too.)

Northwestern, one of the historically worst college football programs, spent three weeks as the top ranked team in the country. And several programs that don’t even compete at the top level of football anymore were still excellent in 1936, like Fordham and Sant Mary’s.

Several private schools dropped football altogether after World War II and the start of two-platoon football, as operating costs skyrocketed.

Also, let us not forget that Notre Dame, ranked seventh in this poll, would then immediately lose to Pitt. Yeah, Pitt was even doing this back then.

It wouldn’t be the first poll without the first wildly overrated teams, right? After a 3-0 start to earn a No. 6 ranking, USC would win just one more game on the season to finish a disappointing 4-2-3. Purdue, Army and Tulane also started in the top 10 and finished unranked. And Santa Clara went undefeated, got only a single first-place vote, and finished sixth, proving that the BIG AP POLL was already disrespecting mid-majors. Disgraceful.

College football was born out of the northeast (ask a Rutgers fan if you forget), and while it quickly spread all over the country, the “establishment” was very much concentrated in that part of the country. Ivy League schools ran the rules committee, dominated the All-American lists, and were considered to play a superior brand of football, even as excellent teams quickly popped up at Michigan, Chicago, Georgia Tech, and elsewhere.

But here by the 1930s, we have a Midwestern team as the top ranked program in the country, followed by a southern institution. And while an Ivy Leaguer did win the Heisman that year (Larry Kelley of Yale), and Yale and Dartmouth did enjoy high AP rankings, no Northeastern school would finish in the top five, and schools from the Deep South, West, Great Plains, and Midwest were all represented.

But I’m glad we had it, and honestly, I kinda wish we had preseason polls back then too (those didn’t come until 1950), so we could get an even better historical look at who was fantastically overrated.

Having the Playoff is awesome, but we didn’t have one of those back in the late 1930s. We had this poll. And we still have it. I, for one, am glad we still do.