The Southern Fans' College Football Poll has a short history. The Southern Fans began running their own poll to determine who was, by popular opinion, the best football team in the country at the end of the season. While other polls presently list 25 teams in their respective polls, the Southern Fans' Poll includes only the top 16 teams in the country. This is to focus attention to primarily the top teams in the country, make inclusion in the rankings more rewarding, and is a hark to collegiate fans' push for a playoff.
The poll began during the 2007 college football season, with the national champion named in the final poll following the BCS National Championship game. As the Southern Fans' College Football Poll is an independent poll, the pollsters are not required to vote the winner BCS National Championship as their number one team.
The rankings are compiled by polling a dedicated group of college football supporters across the Southeastern United States. Each voter provides his own ranking of the top 16 teams, and the individual rankings are then combined using the positional voting system to produce the national ranking (by giving a team 16 points for a first place vote, 15 for a second place vote, and so forth). Ballots of the voting members in the Southern Fans' Poll are made public.
For more information, including historical polls, click here.
