oh em geeee , look at that face ! <| sep |> The start of the AP poll was not an historically significant event until you look back . The football world didn ' t shake to it ' s core because the AP poll started , it really was just another ranking amidst a bunch of others . As such , the formation of a division structure wasn ' t retroactive . It just coincided with the NCAA taking a more active part in record . The NCAA considers 1937 as the modern era of football . All records before 1937 were thrown out unless they had solid documentation that they really happened . As for the divisions , who was in the university division is sketchy from 19371945 . Some teams that would naturally be considered major didn ' t meet their criteria for the first few years and then most didn ' t meet it during the war years . Almost all current FBS teams were not considered FBS from 4145 . They NCAA structure is really only reliable post 1945 .