The United Press International began selecting a major-college football national champion based on a coaches poll in 1950, 15 years after the Associated Press began doing so with a writers poll. This has continued to the present day, under the aegis of USA Today beginning in 1991 (with CNN, and then ESPN, serving as partners before USA Today reclaimed sole ownership of the poll in 2005). Since 1998, the coaches poll is contractually obligated to name the winner of the BCS National Championship Game as its final poll champion. As a result, the possibility still exists for a split national championship as the AP is not bound to name the winner of the BCS National Championship Game as its champion.
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| 1980
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Georgia
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| 1979
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Alabama (4)
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| 1978
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Southern California (5)†
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| 1977
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Notre Dame (2)
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| 1976
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Pittsburgh
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| 1975
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Oklahoma (3)
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| 1974
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Southern California (4)†
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| 1973
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Alabama (3)
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| 1972
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Southern California (3)
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| 1971
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Nebraska
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| 1970
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Texas (3)†
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| 1969
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Texas (2)
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| 1968
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Ohio State (2)
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| 1967
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Southern California (2)
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| 1966
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Notre Dame
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| 1965
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Michigan State†
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| 1964
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Alabama (2)
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| 1963
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Texas
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| 1962
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Southern California
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| 1961
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Alabama
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† - AP Poll did not concur, selecting a different champion.
‡ - USC was been forced to vacate its entire 2004 season by the NCAA; as a result, the 2004 Coaches Poll championship is vacant.
