AP Launches New Interactive Website for Top 25 Poll

The Associated Press has launched APTop25.com, its interactive college football Web hub. Anchored by the AP Top 25 Poll, the new site provides the latest Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) scores, photos, and statistics from the AP’s college football reporters and editors. The Site also includes additional content from AP member publications and college football blogs.

The site offers a suite of interactive tools so users can engage with the weekly poll and the coverage, allowing them create their own version of the Top 25, which they can then share via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. APTop25.com visitors can also customize their experience, tailoring the content and the look of the site to reflect their team loyalties. Pages dedicated to specific conferences and teams feature links to stories and statistics provided by AP, local news organizations, and blogs. In addition, fans can sign up for team-specific e-mail newsletters, which provide the top and most-read stories of the week, as well as in-game SMS alerts delivered.

“For more than 70 years, the AP Top 25 poll has been an essential part of college football for fans, schools and journalists alike,” says Nick Ascheim, General Manager, Digital, for the AP.  “Working with our network of news partners, we have created a comprehensive online hub that enables those who love college football to engage with this content in new ways.”

APTop25.com also integrates photos, musings, predictions and insight from AP members, as well as college football bloggers, selected and organized by AP’s editors.

APTop25.com encourages debate around the rankings, with user comments throughout the site and extensive integration with social media. Exclusive content illuminates the process and thinking that go into the poll results. As other polls are published over the course of the season, the site allows for side-by-side comparisons to spur further discussion and debate.

APTop25.com is the latest offering from AP Gateway, a strategic business unit launched early this year to deliver AP’s multimedia coverage and its members’ content to readers in new ways on the Web, smart phones, tablets, and e-readers.

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