Prior to 1966 and the beginning of the playoff system State Championships were awarded by various newspapers and wire services. This process was highly scrutinized over the years and remains the subject of arguments even today.

Polls were produced by several newspapers and wire services over the years. The following are the ones we know about:

Birmingham Post-Herald 1956-1964
Birmingham News
Alabama Sports Writers Association 1960-
United Press International 1958-
Alabama Journal
Associated Press

The Birmingham News Regional Ratings 1951-1966

The Birmingham News awarded trophies for AAA champions and AA and A co-champions from 1951 to 1966. The 1966 AAA ratings were used to select playoff teams for that year.

The rating system was developed by the AHSAA to select teams for a 1951 playoff, but was voted down at the AEA convention. The Birmingham News decided to run the ratings and award trophies. It was not an official AHSAA sponsored championship.

The state was divided into 4 regions for AA and A classifications.

Region 1 was 1st and 2nd districts.

Region 2 was 3rd and 4th districts.

Region 3 was 5th and 6th districts.

Region 4 was 7th and 8th districts.

At last--a champion. By Jerry Bryan and Alf Van Hoose  1951

"The point system proposed to the AHSAA last march for deciding championships seems to be the best one studied. The system was written by a committee of state coaches and athletic officials for study for possible inauguration of a playoff to determine champions. The Legislative Council voted down the proposal at the AEA gathering and The News immediately announced it would adopt it except for the playoff proposal. Consequently, the Birmingham News will use this system this season to determine the Alabama high school championship team. It will award that team a handsome sunray and walnut trophy, over 40 inches high."

"Under that plan the state is divided into three classes, AAA, AA, and A. The triple A schools of which there are less than 40 are those which have an enrollment of more than 400 in the upper three grades. In order to give the Double A and A schools awards for which to compete, the Birmingham News will give handsome sunray and walnut plaques, properly engraved for the class AA and A champions in each of four regions."

Scoring system:

win 10 points
tie 5 points
loss 0 points
each game won by defeated opponent , 1 point
each game won by tied opponent, one-half point
each game tied by defeated opponent, one-half point
each game tied by tied opponent, one-fourth point.

Seven games count. All losses and ties must be counted. Wins against lower classification can not be used.

Twenty point bonus for an undefeated season.

"Records will be kept in The News sports office---"

The News appointed a board of coaches to handle controversial questions.

The reason for not having a single champion in AA and A was later given as the size of the classifications-113 teams in each one compared to 33 in AAA. The coaches reasoned that there was no way to adjust the ratings for the strength of each region. Teams in the Mobile area never played teams in the Tennessee Valley Conference for example.