Evidence of Television Exposure Effects in AP Top 25 College Football Rankings

A potential source of bias in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 football rankings is television exposure. Using the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 college football seasons, the authors observe, all else equal, that AP voters change the ranking of teams differently on the basis of television exposure: The more often a team is televised, relative to the total number of own- and opponent-televised games, the greater the change in the number of AP votes that team receives, even after accounting for own and opponent's on-field performance.