The Associated Press All-America team, the longest-running annual honor roll of the nation's top college football players, will be announced Dec. 11. The AP also will name all-conference teams for all five major football conferences starting Dec. 4, and all-America teams for the lower divisions starting Dec. 12.
The first AP All-America team was selected in 1925, a decade before the first Heisman Trophy. AP College Football Writer Ralph Russo and a panel of 16 college football reporters who are among the voters in the weekly AP Top 25 poll will select the All-America players for each position to first, second and third teams.
For the first time, the same panel selected the preseason and midseason AP All-America teams. The players are from Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
“There are a lot of excellent players in college football, but the AP All-America team has stood over time as the marquee roster of the sport’s best each season,” said Barry Bedlan, AP’s sports products manager. “It’s our honor to continue one of the longest-running traditions in college football.”
Along with the honorary teams, AP will name its Player of the Year on Dec. 7 and Coach of the Year on Dec. 18. A list of the top vote-getters for each award will be disclosed the day before the announcement of each winner.
The all-conference teams will be decided by regional panels of journalists who cover the respective conference and teams. The teams will be announced as follows:
Dec. 4: Southeastern Conference
Dec. 5: Atlantic Coast Conference
Dec. 6: Big Ten
Dec. 7: Pacific-12
Dec. 8: Big 12
The remaining All-America teams will be announced as follows:
Dec. 12: Football Championship Subdivision
Dec. 13: Division II
Dec. 14: Division III
Dec. 15: National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
All announcements will be made at noon ET on AP lines to customers, as well as posted on AP’s college football site, collegefootball.ap.org, and the AP News app. AP will provide analysis and details across those platforms.
AP customers can leverage the release of these college football honors to grow digital traffic and new revenue through AP’s locally branded College Football Digital News Experience. Newspapers that subscribe to AP Sports also will get paginated pages designed by GateHouse Media’s Center for News and Design, which highlight the college football bowl lineup for use in print, with space available for local advertising or content.
The final regular-season AP Top 25 poll will be released Sunday, Dec. 3. A national panel of 61 sports writers and broadcasters of AP-affiliated media who cover college football decide the 80-year-old poll. The final AP Top 25 will be released as soon as all their ballots are submitted after the end of the College Football Playoff championship game on the night of Jan. 8.
Follow the poll and related sports coverage on Facebook and Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
Contact
For media inquiries:
Lauren Easton
Director of Media Relations
The Associated Press
212-621-7005
leaston@ap.org
For sponsorship or revenue opportunities:
Barry Bedlan
Deputy Director of Sports Products
The Associated Press
972-677-2270
bbedlan@ap.org